Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-04-04
rHE cARpENrERs, srR1KE.
Some Views On Both Sides of the Cues
ton by Contractors and worhmen.

Some Views On Both Sides of the Cues.
ton by Contractors and worlmen.
"What is new in the carpenters
striker" asked a REGISTER reporter of a
carpenter yesterday.
Nothing at all. All the strikers are
still ont and we intend to remain out I'M
til our demands are granted. You see
about every journeyman carpenter in the
city is q member of the Building Trades
Council, and that fact gives us a big ad-
vantage. 1t holds the men together bet
ter"
"What do you base your demands
upon?"
"Why, we want to work only nine
hours a day, and we think that the wages
we have received for ten hours are not too
much for nine hours"
what about the claim Of the contrac-
tors that they cannot afford to pay the
wages as ONE Of them have contracts Of
hand, made at the old rate # wages?"
That doesn't hold good, because we
notified them three months ago that the
nine hour rule would go into effect April
1st, and they had plenty Of time 10 con-
slider the matter. The whole matter is
that if the granting Of our demands adds
to the cost Of building it does not come off
of the contractor but the builder. There
fore | cannot see why they should refuse
our demands. l feel sure that we will
win, because we consider our demands
lust and we have the advantage so far"
"How does the demands of the men
strike you Pr asked the reporter of a con-
tractor.
"Well, to use a pun, it strikes us very
hard just at present, and l tell you il
makes q vast difference in the cost of a
building. Say, for instance, a mar has
ten carpenters at work; he grants the nine
hour demand and loses ten hours per day
OF sixty hours per week, one msn's entire
labor for a week. Then look how it
amounts up in q case where there are
twenty five or fifty men employed. 1t is a
pretty big thing, l tell You, bnt if the men
should win the strike it will have to come
off of the man who is building; We can
not afford it,"
Klieves, Kraft & Co 8 establishment is
still closed down aud it is understood the
proprietOrS are determined to Withstand
the demands Of the men il they remain
closed down several months. The same
state of things exists at Beitz. Flading x
Co.'s, and they are running only a lew ap-
prentices. A member of the firm said that
tho men were unjust in their demands;
that they received good wages and by their
strike only placed the larger contractors at
the mercy OF the smaller ones, because
the latter could possibly afford to grant
the demsnd, aS some of them did a great
part OF their own work.
. Not a wheel is rpnninga at Wilson & Dan
legy's, while things are booming along at
Holiday q Sons mill. Several Of the
smaller contractors have granted the de
mands of the men, and they expect more
to follow.
The strike was formally ordered at a
meeting held in Trades Assembly Hall
Monday afternoon, n committee Of four
men having called upon the contractors iu
the morning and learned their decisions.
The plasterers are out with u.s." said a
carpenter yesterday, "and if the contrac-
tors put n%On-union men in our places, al
the other building trades will refuse TO
have anything to do with q building on
which such men are employed, so you see
there is nothing left for the contractors to
do but give us what we ask"
G. W. Bags, who employs fourteen or
fifteen plasterers, who were employed on
the st. James Hotel and the new Washing
ton district school building, previous to
the strike, called a conference with his
men and offered to arbitrate the matter,
but thew declined to accent the ofrrr.