The San Francisco call., 1896-03-18
They Refuse to Comply With the
Demands Made by the
Union.
THE wORKING.CARD SYSTEM.
The Building Trades Council Will
Without Doubt Take a Hand
in the Fight.

The Master Painters Association has de-
clined to accede to the terms of the union
journeymen painters. This action will
probably precipitate one of the largest
trade union strikes ever witnessed in this
City.
As previously stated in The CALL the
journeymen demanded So as minimum for
days wages for eight hours work and a
recognition of the building trades work
ing card system. By the working card all
union workmen are prohibited from work
ing with non-union men. In other words
none but union men shall be employed.
The master painters have held several
meetings of late and sent committee to
confer with the Executive Board of the
Painters and Decorators Union. That
meeting was held on Monday and last
evening the master painters committee
made its report. Among the features in
this report was that there may be one ap-
prentice to every journeyman, one fore
man to eight men and one laborer to six
men.
The master painters after long debate
decided not to adopt the committees re-
port, but to take the bull by the horns, so
to speak, and decline to comply with the
principal demand of the union men, rec
ognition of the working-card system.
Their ultimatum was as follows:
SAN FRANCISCO March II, 1896
At q special meeting OF the Master Painters
Association of the Pacific Coast held March II
at the Builders Exchange, after due and
careful consideration, it was unanimously
Resolved, That the demands of the Journey
men Painters Union in regard to the card
system will not be recognized.
f. H. BLACK, President
n. F. WAGNER, Secretary.
There were at the meeting master paint
ers Black, Kuss, Wagner, Onadt, Sulli-
van Phillips, Herringer, McGovern, Nc
Cord. Fraser, st. Denis, McCauly, c.
Staten, w. Eaton and about ten others.
President E. H. Black after the meeting
was over said:
upon themselves. From 1878 to 1880 they
were working ten hours for SO. They struck
for nine hours and then for $3 so. Later on
they struck for eight hours. All of their de-
mands were granted. year ago wages dropped
through no fault of ours. While the standard
wages were So the men Themselves fixed their
wages at 81 30 a day by offering to work for
that amount. Even at this amount they are
Better situated than they were when they were
getting $S and $3 so for nine and ten hours
work. Living and ciothiHg Is much cheaper
now than then and more than makes up the
actual difference.
They threaten us with the Building Trades
Council. of which the Painters Union is a
member, and talk about tying up all the build
ing trades in the City. With very few excep-
tions, such as the Parrott building and one or
two similar jobs, the Building Trades Council
card system cannot aft ect u.s. All the carpen-
ters, lathers and others are through with a
building before the painters can 60 to work
SO they cannot tie up everything before there
is something TO tie up. A lot of our other work
is painting where none of the other trades
have been at work, such as old houses, etc.
There is no doubt about our winning, for the
public is with US.
Much has been said about the boss painters
giving in, but those statements are badly ex-
aggerated.