15

Florida
Enrique and Amanda
Folklore

-13-

trying to stop the citrus workers' strike. But it didn't do no good. The citrus union wrote a letter to the longshoremen's union, and the longshoremen stopped handling the fruit--which was being packed by scab laborers--and they also got the seamen's union to stop shipping it. And in New York, somebody was picketing the fruit stands in the market. That was real co-operation.
"Of course they was very lucky to not have no dishonest judge in Lakeland; the judge would not give the companies an injunction to stop the picketing of the packing plants. Citrus is a perishable food, and unless it is handled quickly it rots and the owners lose money. With cigars it is very difficult. All the factories have thousands of cigars stored up, and in case there is a strike, they have plenty cigars to last a long time. That is why the companies win the strikes, because the cigars will keep a long time. The companies have enough money ot hold out for years ,while the workers do not even have food for their families. If the workers just had enough to eat maybe they could win the strikes more better.
"The wage-hour law is funny. The Government make that law so things would be more better for workers; so they would get more moeny and not have to work so long. but it is not working like that. More than two thousand men have lost their jobs from the cigar factories here because of that law. The factory owners can afford to pay more wages. But they say they can't, and that's all there is to it. They want to keep all the profit for themselves.

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