Monday May 1, 1916
New York City - Locked Out Garment Workers to March up Fifth Avenue

Garment Workers of New York City
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From Today's New York Times:

IDLE CLOAKMAKERS IN MAY DAY PARADE
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To Make Fifth Avenue March Today a Demonstration of
Strength and Unity.
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$5OO,000 IN STRIKE FUND
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Manufacturers Tell the Public They Must Be Masters
in Their Own Shops and Attack Union.
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Labor's annual May Day parade up Fifth Avenue today will be headed by a large number of the 60,000 cloak and skirt makers. 30,000 of whom have been locked out, and 30,000 of whom will be called out on strike today or tomorrow. After the parade is over these cloak and suit makers will hold a mass meeting in Madison Square, where speakers will urge them to stand together in one of the most extensive strikes this city has had for years.

"We regard the parade and meeting tomorrow," said George Wishnack, general manger of the Cloak and Skirt Makers' union and grand marshal of the parade, "as our first demonstration against the manufacturers. In it we will show the manufacturers our strength and unity, and if any of them are in their lofts on Fifth Avenue as we march past, they will be able to see the body of men and women they have stirred up against them by their unfairness. We expect tomorrow to be a historical day for the cloakmakers.

"I have no fears of disorder. We expect to march peacefully, and will neither say or do anything violent. We ourselves have asked the police to be present, but I am sure that the parade would pass off without disturbance if no policemen was in sight."

Louis Langer, Secretary of the Joint Board of the Cloakmakers' Union, reaffirmed this statement. He expects a bitter strike of cloakmakers that shall last for months but he does not expect disorder or violence.

In addition to the cloakmakers in the parade there will be the members the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union of which the cloakmakers' Union is a subsidiary. The needle workers in the city who belong to one branch or another of the international union, according to Mr. Langer, number 120,000. In addition there will be members of the United Hebrew Trades, the Socialist Party, and many unions.

No set program for the formation of the parade has been fixed. The members of the various unions will gather at their various headquarters about noon and proceed to Washington Square, where the march is expected to begin.

Chief Inspector Schmittberger will be in charge of the police. Uniformed men will be stationed at short intervals along the line of march, with extra numbers at Washington and Madison Squares. Reserves will be held in nearby stations, and plain clothes men will move in and out among the people to feel the temper of the crowd at all times, and, if possible, apprehend any incipient trouble.

Besides the cloakmakers, the police will have a special eye on striking bakers, carpenters, painters, seltzer workers, cement workers, and metal workers. The heads of the unions to which these workers belong said yesterday that they had cautioned all of their members against disorder, and feared none....

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[Photograph added.]

New York City on May Day, 1916:

50,000 OUT IN THIS CITY.
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Hugh Frayne Says Higher Pay and
Shorter Hours Is the Rule.

And analysis of labor conditions in this city and the metropolitan district shows that May Day will see between 50,000 and 60,000 working men and women on strike or locked out, with other industrial disturbances threatened which may throw thousands more out of employment. Strikes involving scores of thousands are in effect or threatened in other parts of the east, notably in Pittsburgh where 14,000 Westinghouse employes are on strike. Settlement also is pending of the countrywide demands of 400,000 railroad employes.

Taken altogether, no May Day in recent years will have witnessed so many concrete evidences of industrial unrest in spite of the fact that many thousands of workers have been granted higher wages and shorter hours. The right of labor to an increased share in the country's prosperity resulting from the war, joined with the higher cost of living, are declared by labor leaders generally to form the foundation of labor demands.

Besides the cloak, suit, and skirt makers who are locked out and the 30,000 expected to strike, about 10,300 painters and decorators, who demand increased pay, are out. Other trades in which employes are idle include 2,500 jewelry workers, and 1,500 custom tailors. There also are scores of other strikes in the metropolitan district and New Jersey, involving smaller numbers, but aggregating thousands of employes. The demands are for higher wages and shorter hours.

Hugh Frayne, general organizer here for the American Federation of Labor, said yesterday that, all told, more men and women were enjoying higher pay and shorter hours than ever before in this city.

"Talk of reaction setting in," Mr. Frayne added, "does not alarm me. Labor is not getting too much. What some have termed excessive demands on the part of wage earners are not excessive. Labor is adjusting itself to conditions as they exist, and wage scales now asked are only what labor is entitled to had the employers kept up wages with the gradual advance in the cost of living within the past few years. Employers cite demands of labor, but they must remember that there also are demands upon labor that labor must meet to live."

In the last two weeks, according to Colonel M. J. Reagan, a member of the State Board of Mediation of the Department of Labor, threatened strikes in various industries in the metropolitan district have been settled, averting idleness for more than 30,000 persons. In a majority of the cases settlement has been through mediation in which the employes have benefited by advanced wages and shorter hours.

Summing up the labor situation for the year. Colonel Reagan said that aside from railroad employes there had been a general advance throughout New York State that would average from 10 to 14 per cent. Many railroad workers in unclassified departments of certain roads also have been benefited.

[Photograph added.]

SOURCE
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-May 1, 1916
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C01EFD9163BE633A25752C0A...

IMAGES
NYC May Day, Garment Workers, May 1, 1916
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98506969/
NY Cloakmakers Strike, Strikers on Stairs, May 1, 1916
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021566/
Striking Garment Workers, NYC May 1, 1916?, LOC
(Exact date of this photo unknown; LOC gives dates 1915-1920.
Used here to represent NY Garment Workers of May Day 1916.)
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021567/

See also:

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to "Lawless" Women Strikers in New York City -by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-spea...

Hellraisers Journal: Kept Press Mocks the Efforts of Mother Jones to Prevent Strikebreaking -by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-kept-press-mocks-...

United Hebrew Trades
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Hebrew_Trades