The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-02-12

| y building trades strike has
| l. come to an end it is in
structive to review what IL
has accomplished and to consider
| whether, after ALL 1t has paid.
The strike. or lockout. for it was
n case OF both employees and employers
! going on strike at about the same
! time, was instituted more than Il
year ago and came as the eliminating
feature of a long series of petty dis
agreement and annoyanccs which
| had almost prostrated the building in
| dustry in Chicago. The men struck
| for higher wages. The carpenters,
| who constituted the mainstay of the
Building Trades council, were getting
42k cents an hour for an cght-hour
| day. and they demanded SO cents. The
| other workmen made demands in pro-
portion. on the other hand, the con-
tractors declared that the exactions
OF the Building Trades council and of
the walking delegate system of declar-
ing strikes on particular jobs arbi-
| trariy had become so insufferable
relations with their former employees
until these evils had been remedied.
This was the situation which pro-
longed itself in deadlock for more than
a year, practically suspending the en-
tire building operations of Chicago,
keeping $4,000 men idle. involving nu-
merous scenes of disorder and turbu-
lence and inflicting a loss upon bust
ness which runs high into the millions
of dollars. Various efforts to arbi-
trate failed, the contractors remain
ing steadfast i'm their determination
not to renew former relations with
the building trades unions until they
could have assurances that their busi-
ness would no longer be capriCously
tied up by sympathy strikes or by the
snap judgment of walking delegates,
| enforced without notification or ap-
| peal.
At the outset of the struggle the
Building Trades council had MEM
bership of $1,000, including bricklay-
| ers and stone masons, hod carriers,
| plastcrers, plumbers, bridge and struc-
| tural iron workers, steam filters, elcc-
| tricans, gas filters, mosaic workers,
slate and tile roofcrs, carpenters,
painters, stone cutters, lathers, sheet
| metal workers, boilermakers, tunnel
| miners, paper hangers and representa-
| tives of ten To fifteen smaller trades.
one by one these unions fell by the
| Dlinr N In
the carpenters. the membership Of the
council had fallen to 10,20l. With the
| withdrawal of the $500 carpenters,
who have always been its backbone,
| the council collapses. This with
| drawal is Il condition of the settle
ment reached on Thursday of last
week between representatives OF the
| carpenters and contractors.
The other conditions of that settle
| ment are that wages shall be as before
| the strike, except the concession to
| the men-of a Saturday half-hoiday at
their own expense; that there shall
| be no limitations as to the amount OF
work man shall perform during his
working day: that there shall be no
restriction Of the use of machinery or
tools; that there shall be no restric-
tion of the use of any manufactured
material, except prison-made; that no
person shall have the right TO inter-
| fcre with the workmen during work.
| ing hours; that the use of apprentices
shall not be prohibited; that the fore
man shall be the agent of the em-
| ployer; that all workmen are at lib
erty TO work for whomsoever they
see fit: that all employers are at lib
erty to employ and discharge whom
socver they see fit.
Provision is made in the settlement
| that all disputes which may hereafter
arise during the two-year period COW
cred by the agreement are to be set
| tied by arbitration, and there shall be
no stoppage of work pending set
| tlement. \ Joint arbitration commit
| tee of contractors and labor men is
| provided for, with a disintcrested um-
! pirc to adjust the trouble il the arbi-
| tration board fails. The employment
OF non-union men by the contractors
/ - ''SN li'''ibAtNNt pbA II 10 SNlDuldltil
| that no non-union carpenter is to be
employed on the same job with a
union carpenter. Non-union men in
other trades, however, may work side
! by side with him without ofrense.
! The same contractor who employees
union carpenters ON one job may en-
ploy non-union carpenters on another
at the same time, 1t is explicitly
stated, though, that the contractors
shall not pay any carpenter less than
the union wage scale, and that no
union carpenter shall work for less
than the union wage scale.
This, it will be seen, is complete
victory for the contractors; but at
the same time it is victory for So
ciety, inasmuch as it does away with
costly strikes and substitutes a fair
machinery Of arbitration. That is the
one gain growing out Of the long
struggle; but at what frlghtful cost
it is purchased!
| While congress is thrashing about "a
| discover "A means of al