The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-09-06

meeting Of the trades-uniOn in session.
When the junior member of the Arm ar
rived at the Office the union president
waited upon him and demanded to
know what wages tue new foreman was
10 get. He Unanswered, "Union wages,
In the middle of the afternoon, none
of the LEADER employees being then in
the Office, a union committee, made up
mostly of men not employed in the
LEADER office, waited upon the pro-
p%rietors. They had heard that the
LEADER was employing non-union
men at non-union rates. Tire proprie-
tors said the new man was ready and
willing to join the union and was work
ing at union rates, and explained then
why he had been mistaken as to the
wages he was to get-having been en-
gagged for n place but being after
ward put in another.
At this moment a bystander-a gen.
tleman who formerly owned the
LEADER-toll the committee in plain
terms what he thought of their action,
and the committee men went away
very angry after their collision with
him. From a conversation subsequent
ly held with the members of another
committee, it is believed that some of
the union men at their meeting were
under the impression that what he said
vas the answer given the committee
by the n of the LEADER. At
any rate the action the union then took
was in a measure prompted by pique at
his words. The union resolved that
the employees Of the LEADER should
go on a strike, The LEADER firm, on
learning of the strike, were at a loss to
know what 1t was about, and asked that
a union committee should wait on
them. On their arrival, one os the
committee said that the action of TIE
union was taken chiefly as a conse-
quence of the remarks made by the by
stander before alluded to-. When re-
monstrated with upon the unreasona-
bleness of such IA course, the other
committee man said that the union
would make the owners of the LEADER
a proposal as an ultimatum.
"If you agree to employ only union
men mt union rates for six months,
We'll let your men come back to work. u
The answer was that, had any gen
tleman, a member of the union, come
to us a day before the strike and asked
our intentions, we would have volun.
tarily made the promise, but, now that
the trades-union was bullying us, We
declined to submit. Their entire &C.
tion was unreasonable, an insult to US
and ~disgraceful to themselves.
In a few days a new force was al
work, and the LEADER is independent
of the printers union. 1t is due the
men now at work in the Office to say
that they are, on the whole better a:
workmen than the old force. They
have been thus far steady, manly, in
their behavior, and promise to bt
respectable citizens Of Cheyenne. They
believe that striking tra~des-unions art
ar injury to the wellbeing of working
men, and have the courage to work BY
their convictions. Their wages ar,
equal to the highest paid in Cheyenne
Our only stipulation with them is thai
they are not to Join the union.
A few-a very few-working peopl,
have Withdrawn their support from tin
LEADER since the strike. We trus
the foregoing story of the strike ma,
turn their Indignation toward tn
quarter it properly belongs-against thr
few men in the printers union who's
spleen was excited against us, by GU
refusal to give them preferred places
and who used their union rs a whip t,
peat us into submission to them. W
believe that the majority of the uniol
now regrets its action and regards i
as hasty and uncalled for. The genera
public, we hope, will find some interes
in reading this chapter of the peculia,
operations Of trades-unionism.