Page:Jay Fox - Amalgamation (1923).pdf/15

Rh union electricians and all the other different unions worked on them and not a thing happened. Some of the men didn't even know that the molders were out. That happened two years ago. The strike was lost. It was lost at its inception. How could it be won under the circumstances? That is the sort of unionism we have in America and the reactionary leadership is opposed to a change.

Strikes are being. lost every day for want of allied union support. Single unions strike. The other unions stay on the job and the end is disaster for the strike. Indeed, so few are the strikes that are won nowadays that one is inclined to think that if the general run of unionists knew the figures they would decide to stay on the job and lose rather than suffer the loss of a strike and bear the humiliation of being licked. But they should know the weakness of their craft unions, that they may be stirred to take measures looking to their improvement. The leaders don't suffer by lost strikes. Their pay goes on just the same, win or lose. They take no chances.

The winning of individual strikes is a thing of the past. Even where a number of unions band together and strike they fail unless the entire corporation is closed up. The recent railroad shopmen's strike has proven this. Seven crafts were involved in this strike including the entire mechanical departments of the roads. The mechanical department of every railroad in the country was tied up tight. The walkout was complete. But the trains kept on running as usual until the equipment began to break down from lack of repair. The train crews and trackmen, clerks, telegraphers, etc., stayed at work. The companies built bunk houses and gathered scabs. Some companies made settlements with the strikers but in no case did the men get the wages they struck Co maintain. The other companies refused to deal with the strikers at all. The strike has been a sad failure, and that failure is not due to the lack of solidarity on the part of the men involved. They stood loyally together, and shoulder to shoulder they faced the gaintgiant [sic] railroad corporations and the U. S. Government that attempted to break the strike by its drastic injunction.

The shopmen's strike failed for want of union support. The nine unions that stood by the companies killed it. Had these unions possessed the real; the true spirit of unionism—one for all and all for one—they would have walked out with their brothers and the greatest strike in history would have. been won, hands down, in twenty-four hours. Be it said for the men, however, that the sentiment was strong for a walkout. They were in full sympathy with their brothers on