The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-05-23
The Thompson Lumber Company's
Mill Crew Out.
ABOUT A DIFFERENCE in WAGES
Two Hundred Men Thrown Out of Employ
nent Because the Company Refuses
to Meet Total Difference in
Wages of go Cents Day

unusual thing in the battle between
employer and employe, during the
week. Four Garage riders of the
Thompson Lumber Company's mill
who have beer receiving ST s. day
demanded that the company pay
them 81 day. This the company
refused to do, and the four men laid
their case before the Mill Mems
Union, with the result that the mill
was obliged to close Saturday night.
1t appears that all the other mills
have been paying So, and the
Thompson employees felt that they
should receive as much for the same
work as was paid in the other mills.
The difference to the company would
amount to sixty cents day, yet
the company preferred to close down
its works rather than comply with
the demands of it's laborers.
When a matter of sixty cents a
day will close down a great manu-
featuring institution it is very APP
paraent that there is too much Stub
borness somewhere. Perhaps the
real cause is that the company. did
not wish to yield to the demaud, be-
cause it was backed up by the labor
union, and on the other hand the
union felt that its position was
right, and would not swerve from it.
That the workingmen in the
Thompson mill have right to ex-
i pect and demand as much for their
| labor as is paid by other institu-
/ tions ought not to be questioned,
and it is strange that few en-
ployers OF labor should stubbornly
refuse to recognize the LABOR unions
There ought to be no antipathy be-
tw cen the unions, composed of the
laborers, and the mill owners. Tt
is ridiculous thing in this
enlightened age to attempt to deny
| the right of men to organize for self
protection. Through their unions is
| the only way in which they can en-
force their rights. Labor has as
much reason to combine for it's own
protection as lufn BERN en- and mill
owners have to organize to advance
the price of their manufactured
product-and there is no denying
that this is done
| If there was not so much conten-
ton between the unions and the
employers it is likely there would be
less labor trouble. Labor unions no
doubt make mistakes we are con-
tinually being reminded that they
do, but mistakes such as the action
of the Thompson Company in arbi-
trarily refusing to pay legitimate
wages to labor is not mentioned as
one of the mistakes of the employer.
| When an employer appears upon the
scene who is too arbitrary to recog-
nize that his laborers have equal
.rights with himself he is bound to
have trouble if he runs up against
a strong labor organization. The
labor problem is difficult one, but
when the employers and the en-
ployees are willing to meet one an
other in friendly spirit-recogniz-
ing that each have their rights to
i protect, there will be less trouble
than while they are at logger
heads. And then too when en-
| ployers like the Thompson people
recognize that the demand of their
employers that they receive the same
pay as the workmen doing the same
work in other mills, is right, and
that the unions have right to back
such reasonable demand, there will
be no more shutting down on ac-
count OF a difference of sixty cents d
day.
Strikes should be avoided they
are too much of loss to labor and
its employers, but no well thinking
and impartial man can question the
right of mill owner or a labor
union to maintain a correct princi-
pie, and no one can fail to regret
that the stubborness of a mill owner
to recognize the just demands of his
employees should be the means of
closing down temporarily a great
institution like the Thompson mill.