Sabotage gets the goods for Department Store Workers’ Industrial Union No. 504, I.W.W. at Pittsburgh’s Frank & Seder department store.

‘Sabotage the Goods!’ from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 6. February 1, 1913.

With This Slogan, and a Boycott, I.W.W. Brings to Terms a Pittsburg Department Store.

Pittsburg, Pa., Jan. 25. The I.W.W has just added another victory to its list in Pittsburg. This time the victim was the Frank & Seder department store, where the workers secured their demands last summer without a strike. One of the conditions in the agreement at that time was the enforcement of the rotation layoff system advocated by the I.W.W. for the dull season which comes at certain times of year in most lines of business This provision was overlooked by the employers, and when some of the workers had been laid off for seven weeks and others not at all, a new foreman was employed in the alteration department who tried to cut wages and introduce one of those near scientific systems of slave driving, the workers decided upon the “uncivilised plane” as a mess of righting wrongs and the alteration department was quickly deserted.

Tuesday evening strike was declared: Wednesday the plan of action was decided upon. A committee was sent to see if the firm would discuss the difficulty. The report was brought back that “if the workers came back it must be an individuals” (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). Meanwhile a handbill was being prepared by the printer, which read as follows:

SABOTAGE THE GOODS ENOUGH SAID

Strike–Strike Together Strike to Win

All workers in the department store of Frank & Seder must now stand together, to win better wages, shorter hours of work, more rights, for all, for men and women. Frank & Seder department store agreed last summer to improve the conditions of all workers in the alteration department, to deal with and settle all grievances with committees of their employes. Time and again the firm has repudiated that agreement and finally now the firm has engaged a foreman for the sole purpose of cutting down the wages and imposing bad conditions upon the employes.

The employes laid their grievances before the employers. They were turned down, and suspended work to discuss the situation. The firm now has declared a war against the workers by refusing to reinstate the workers who had grievances.

Now that the firm has declared a lock-out, the workers decided to call on all other workers in the store, as well as on all outsiders to help us win this strike.

Workers in the salesrooms, on the delivery wagons, packers, engineers, firemen and all others in the department store—stand together, win together.

Tie up that store. Let the buyers know that a strike is on. Stay away from the place; don’t scab by remaining at work; don’t scab by buying goods sold in a store where workers are fighting for better life conditions.

An injury to one is an injury to all. Frank & Seder’s department store workers on strike. Take notice.

Department Store Workers’ Industrial Union No. 504, I.W.W.

Wednesday morning the picket line was marching before the doors of the besieged store passing those handbills out to the workers in other departments, as well as to prospective customers. Inside we could see about 30 police waiting for us to pull off a “riot” or “revolution,” but there was nothing for them to do, for we kept marching in a pouring rain. After an hour we returned to headquarters to wring the water from our clothes and dry out a little.

After we had been on the picket line for an hour at noon, the boss sent for the committee. Negotiations were begun which resulted in a satisfactory settlement of the present difficulty. All employes will be organised and shop committees of the different departments will be received in the future and an effort made to adjust grievances without resort to the strike. At present the Frank & Seder Co. runs the only store here that complies with the requirements of the I.W.W. as to wages, hours, sanitary and working conditions; the other stores will be required to meet these same demands as soon as we get things lined up for them.

P.S. The people of Pittsburg are certainly THERE when it comes to using the boycott, which in this case worked almost automatically. A statement from Local 504, I.W.W., to the press was given to lift the boycott after the settlement was reached.

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1913/v04n06-w162-feb-01-1913-solidarity.pdf