Strike Bonds

When securities are offered for sale there is usually a recitation of facts almost as formal as the Litany. The nature of the business, its earnings, the equity of the securities, the purpose to which the proceeds of the offering will be put (whether acquisition of new properties, enlargement of factories, new equipment) are all set forth.

Strange would that customary formula have sounded if recited for a bond issue announced last week. The purpose of the issue of $250,000 of five-year 5% gold bonds was to improve business of the issuing company by conducting a bigger and better strike of 45,000 employes. The name of the issuing company is the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

The union's plans for enlargement and improvement are to be carried out by several strikes in the near future. A subsidiary in Toronto is authorized to call a strike of 1,800 cloak-makers. Another subsidiary consisting of 7,000 embroiderers in Manhattan is also directed to undertake a strike. Strikes are now under consideration in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Baltimore, Toledo, Kansas City. But the specific purpose of the bond issue is to finance a strike of 45,000 dressmakers to be called in New York on Dec. 1.

The necessity for the issue is explained by the fact that some three years ago control of the New York subsidiary was seized by a group with Communistic leanings. They declined to accept arbitration and forced a strike which lasted for nearly six months, cost the union treasury some $3,500,000 in cash reserve, the workers some $30,000,000 in wages. The strike was a virtual failure. So the old officials stepped back in and reorganized.

Acting President David Dubinsky declared last week that the bonds would be sold to affiliated unions and to "many wealthy men," that moreover the bonds were not mere promissory notes, but were secured by the union's assets (chiefly real estate), valued at some $10,000,000, besides its large income from union dues.

The strike will materially improve the position of the union, Mr. Dubinsky explained because "out of 45,000 workers employed, 80% are girls. They are forced to work under standard conditions, which means that they are employed 50 hours a week and that their earnings do not exceed, in many instances, $25 or $30 a week.