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From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 46, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
THESE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BOOM DAYS FOR LABOR.
At least we are so assured by the habitually reassuring Madam Perkins. Her report of September 30 declared that since June 1940 “all manufacturing industries increased employment by more than 2,320,000 wage earners.”
Throw up your hats, boys, and cheer for the capitalist system which gives some of you a short respite of employment at making the bloody tools of war.
BUT NOT TOO MANY OF YOU!
A few weeks ago, in Newark, N.J. where there are many manufacturing industries, a “job clearance exchange” – ordinarily known as an employment agency – was opened by the State Compensation Commission’s employment service division. On the opening day about 600 applicants were expected and preparations were made for that many. INSTEAD, 4,000 DESCENDED UPON THE AGENCY, HOPING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO EARN THEIR DAILY BREAD. They crammed the surrounding streets. Extra police squads were called out to keep order.
Of the 4,000 eager, job-hungry workers, 50 were hired. An additional 300 were told to report at factories for “further consultation.” The remaining 3,650 were sent to enjoy the autumn scenery and swallow saliva. In other words, 1¼ per cent got jobs, 7½ per cent were told “maybe” and 91¼ per cent were confronted with the familiar “NO HELP WANTED.”
“No help wanted” – and these are supposed to be boom times for labor. Have a closer look at labor’s much-tooted war prosperity.
Of the army of unemployed drafted and drilled by the depression of 1929 – the greatest marching army the world has ever known, not barring Hitler’s – there are still between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 (government figures) without honorable discharge into jobs. THE WAR BOOM HAS NOT AFFECTED THEM.
Today, in the midst of feverish war preparation, this standing army of unemployed vets is being swelled by a great mass of rookies – THE WORKERS WHO ARE NOT PERMITTED TO EARN A LIVING BY MAKING PEACETIME GOODS. Peacetime goods, you know, have been arbitrarily declared “non-essential” by the warlords of the nation.
For example. Governor Murray D. Wagoner proclaims the stark fact that the state of Michigan is facing “its worst unemployment problem in history,” one that will “make 1932 seem almost rosy.”
Whereupon that prince of profit-makers. General Motors, confirms the governor’s prediction by discharging a round 90,000 auto workers. Motor Magnate Ford seconds the motion and fires 20,000 men. And not to be misunderstood, they clarify the matter for the press by stating that this is just “THE BEGINNING” and that tens of thousands more dismissal slips will be handed out before “adjustment to wartime production” has been made.
In Buffalo where only 3,600 workers were thrown out of auto factories, they have been disposed of as follows: One-third got jobs in other factories through the combined efforts of union representatives and employment agencies. What kind of jobs and for how much money are not stated by the OPM officials. Another third of the fired men are going to vocational schools to learn other trades. There are no paydays in vocational schools. The remaining third of the fired men left Buffalo “to work in other cities where jobs are plentiful,” according to the report. Possibly some found their way to Newark, where the “plentiful jobs” are apportioned 50 jobs to 4,000 applicants.
Leaders of the UAW place coming unemployment in the auto industry at a minimum of 215,000 and state unequivocally that MANY OF THESE WILL “NEVER GET THEIR JOBS BACK.” Three cheers for the war boom! The officials of OPM – not quite as reassuring as the soothing Secretary of Labor – estimate that the impact of production for war upon production for peace will, in the coming months, throw into the streets as many as 2,000,000 workers.
Going back to the OPM’s figure of 2,000,000 priority unemployed, one must remember that usually government unemployment figures suffer from understatement. In this case the understatement is flagrant. First, it does not include the many plants partially crippled by priority rulings, that do not discharge men but distribute the limited work among all the employees. These workers are not reported as unemployed, though only on part time employment. Second, many small plants do not even bother to report when they tell their workers to go pace the pavements.
Small plants in the country adversely affected by war production number around 150,000, according to Kiplinger Business Service. Of these as many will be closed down as cannot “convert to war production.” For the present 20,000 of these plants are doomed – THEIR WORKERS WITH THEM. As many more will go as cannot be “rescued” for war production – THEIR WORKERS WITH THEM.
This stoppage of production of peacetime goods – from autos to zippers – will have its repercussions in related fields. Wholesale and retail businesses will have to shut down. Salespeople, clerks, office workers, will be shut out by the tens of thousands.
The OPM holds out the hope for these war-made unemployed that when the new war-production plants are completed and when the factories shut down for retooling reopen – SOME TIME NEXT YEAR – there will be jobs. This is simply a fake. Obviously all of the 2,000,000 and more workers fired from all kinds of peacetime jobs, will not have the special requirements for war-production jobs. Only a small percentage of these workers can, or are permitted to, take training courses to fit them for skilled war work.
Furthermore, there will be a new crop of young skilled workers next year, especially trained for war jobs. Finally, next year is a long way off. UNEMPLOYED WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES CANNOT GO INTO A STATE OF SUSPENDED ANIMATION FOR A YEAR. Nature just won’t stand for it. Yes, next year is a long way off. BUT RIGHT NOW THE GOVERNMENT IS HELL-BENT ON SPENDING AS MUCH AS TWO HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS FOR WAR.
RIGHT NOW – NOT SOME OTHER TIME – THE WORKERS WHO ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EARN A LIVING AT PEACETIME PRODUCTION MUST HAVE WAGES TO LIVE ON, ANYWAY!
Let the government spend some of those two hundred billion dollars on the industrial victims of its war program.
Let the bosses part with some of their pilfered profits so that their fired workers can live.
THE WAR-MADE UNEMPLOYED MUST HAVE A LIVING WAGE – PROVIDED JOINTLY BY THE BOSSES AND THE GOVERNMENT.
And they most have it right now!
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Last updated: 26 August 2014