RECOVERY ACT

Southland Times, Issue 22139, 6 October 1933, Page 8

RECOVERY ACT

EFFECT IN AMERICA. LETTER FROM NEW YORK. The reactions of American business people to President Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act and the effect of the Act upon trading concerns in that country are dealt with in a letter received by Mr E. R. Godward, of Invercargill from a friend in New York. The writer of the letter, which is dated August 31, is a member of a blouse manufacturing firm. The letter states, inter alia:—“l don’t know where to begin to tell you of all the excitement in the business world this National Recovery Act is causing. It is revolutionizing business entirely. We have had a very exciting time this week, and I will tell you a little about it, as I know you will be able to enter into the situation with which we are confronted.

“The country is being unionized, or, in other words, we are having a Labour Government. One of the principles of our firm, who is on the board of governors of the blouse industry selected to form a code acceptable to Washington, went to Washington last Thursday with the rest of the board for a hearing. The first question asked was: ‘Have you conferred with Labour?’ Labour is represented by the head of the Ladies’ Garment Union, which means that we have to formulate a scale of wages acceptable to this man who naturally is very radical in his demands. They have just settled the dress code, and in many cases they will have to pay twice as much per week for a 35-hour week as they have done for a 44-hour week and they tried to get us included in this code, but we fought to have a separate code, since we are not able to pay such prices. We were granted this, but even at that, it will cost us twice as much to make blouses, and our production will be curtailed considerably.

“The real trouble started this week. We had a girl who, we suspected, belonged to the union and the principal ’phoned me from Washington to discharge her, which I did, and on Monday morning we found Bedlam let loose. There was a mob in front of our factory headed by this girl and as she pointed out each of our employees they, professional union pickets and gorillas, tried to prevent our girls from coming into the building. I came in very early that morning. I went downstairs and went after our girls and brought them into the building. We succeeded in getting them all to work, but in the shuffle one of their gorillas struck me in the face and broke my glasses. Fortunately, I only got a slight scratch. There were a lew policemen there, but the girl got away. One of the principals at the other entrance just got there in time to find the pickets pushing about five of our girls in a taxi, ready to take them down to their headquarters, and he had a policeman stop them and pull out the girls. “We though we had achieved quite a victory because we had got them all to work, and we had ample police protection for Tuesday. But the next day they attacked the other factory, which, by the way, was beginning to work very well, and they succeeded in getting them away and down to the union, with the result that to-day, Wednesday, they got those girls to picket the old place and, of course, it was Hell again to try to get them to work. The ultimate result is that we will be compelled to be unionized. “Fortunately, we suspected that this would happen, so we stopped cutting a week ago in order that we do not have too much in the process of work. We had about 3000 unfinished blouses last week but we have caught up considerably. We have about 40,000 dollars worth of orders in the house which, if we filled at the prices that the orders called for, would mean a loss of money. We will write to the customers, however, that we are compelled to raise prices and we are hoping that most of them will agree to this. The retailers are accepting the situation in a very good spirit, and if it all comes out right it will probably be good for us all. But, oh!—how I dread the union. I’m afraid we will have the conditions which you tell me exist in Australia. “I think you will be interested to know that a lot of dress manufacturers are going to London to manufacture there as I hear there is quite a market for American dresses. They go there, and bring designers, pattern makers and production men along.”