WE NEVER FORGET
April 16, 1915
Morris Rubin
Abraham Novick
In April of 1915, the International Fur Workers' Union achieved a great organizing victory when it succeeded in calling out one of the largest fur dressing and dyeing plants in the entire industry. That plant was A. Hollander & Sons in Newark, New Jersey. More than seven hundred workers, many of them women, walked off the job on April 6, 1915, shutting down the entire plant.
The workers were striking against low wages and long hours. Wages averaged $6 to $10 a week for the men, and even less for the women.
From the start, the company brought in scabs and employed gangsters to attack and beat strikers who were doing their duty on the picket line. The police did their part by arresting those strikers who defended themselves from the assaults of the company thugs.
Morris Rubin and Abraham Novick were two of the most militant strikers on the picket line. "We must have a union; conditions in the shop are unbearable," they told their fellow workers on Thursday. The next day, Friday April 16th they were shot down in cold blood by the company's hired gunmen.
At the funeral, the strikers vowed to honor their fallen brothers by staying out on picket line until the strike was won, no matter how long it took. And they kept their word. The company finally agreed to sign a contract which lasted until December 1, 1917. They won wage increases of from $3 to $2 per week. Hours were cut to fifty with Saturday being a half-day. The union was recognized, and new workers were given two weeks to join up. A shop chairman was elected to represent them on the shop floor.
The strikers celebrate their victory with huge parade through the streets of Newark. Marching behind brass bands and waving flags, the strikers held aloft a huge banner inscribed:
THROUGH STRUGGLE TO VICTORY.
WE RETURN TO WORK AS UNION MEN AND WOMEN.
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SOURCES
The Fur and Leather Workers Union
-by Philip S Foner
Newark, NJ, 1950
http://babel.hathitrust.org/...
History of the Labor Movement
in the United States Vol. 6
-by Philip S Foner
International Publishers, 1982
IMAGE
Striking Fur Workers of 1912
(Used here to represent the Hollander Strikers)
http://babel.hathitrust.org/...
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Note: I searched long and hard to find more on Brothers Rubin and Novick, but could find nothing. No newspaper accounts, no government labor reports, nothing. Perhaps someone will read this and be able to provide us with more information on these two Labor Martyrs.
May we never forget their sacrifice.
Mayn Rue-Plats (Where I Rest)-Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird
Don’t look for me where myrtles are green.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where lives wither at the machines,
There is my resting place.
Don’t look for me where birds sing.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
I am a slave where chains ring,
There is my resting place.
Don’t look for me where fountains spray.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where tears flow and teeth gnash,
There is my resting place.
And if you love me with true love,
So come to me, my good beloved,
And cheer my gloomy heart
And make sweet my resting place.
ניט זוך מיך ווו די מירטן גרינען.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
ווו לעבנס וועלקן ביי מאשינין,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו די פייגל זינגען.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
א שקלאף בין איך, ווו קייטן קלינגען,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו פענטאנען שפריצן.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
ווו טרערן רינען, ציינער קריצר,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
און ליבסטו מעך מיט ווארער ליבע,
טא קום צו מיר מיין גואער שאץ.
און הייטער אויף מיין הארץ דאס טריבע.
און מעך מיר זיס מיין רוע-פלעץ.
-Morris Rosenfeld
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