STRIKE THREAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22353, 29 August 1934, Page 9

STRIKE THREAT

AMERICAN TEXTILE WORKERS LAST-MINUTE NEGOTIATIONS (United Press Association ) (By Electric Telegrapb—Copyright.) f WASHINGTON, August 27. (Received August 28, at 8 p.m.) Paced - with the largest industrial strike, either actual or threatened, under the New-Deal, officials of the National Labour-Relations Board-started a series of last-miimte negotiations to-day in an effort to prevent the scheduled walk-out of . between 750,000 and 1,000,000 textile workers on Saturday. Only cotton workers have definitely been ordered to strike, ; but. silk, woollen: iand rayon workers are expected to follow almost immediately. The unions are demanding complete revision of the N.K.A. code, granting fewer hours of work and higher wages, while the; operators insist that with raw cotton prices higher and sales in a slump-the demands cannot be Diet. The centres bf the industry are concentrated along the Atlantic seaboard from .'Massachusetts to Alabama. One of the unusual features of the controversy is the attitude of the union leaders, who believe that the strike can be won through an extension. «f Government uiiemploymeht relief to, strikers to compensate them for the loss of wages; They admit that With less than 1,000,000 dollars in.the Treasury the strike cannot last long .unless the Government aids the strikers and their families, aggregating some . 3,000,000 persons. Relief administrators say that they are bound to extend aid to all destitute persons and: will do so unless the Department of Labour declares the strike “ unreasonable.”

The possibility of violence is foreseen, as the unions • have alleged that mill owners in Alabama and elsewhere are accumulating machine guns and other weapons; :