Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-07
STRIKE IS STILL ON
Some of Local Masons Are Leave
 ing Waterbury.
ATTITUDE OF THE BOSSES,

Do Not Want to Recognize tho Hod
 Carriers Union--Looks as Though
 the Strike Might Continue and Res
 tard the Work of Building for a
 Long Time.
 The local strike is no nearer settles ment to-day than it was last week. The bod carriers have made some cons sessions, but not enough, it seems t0
 meet the approval of the contractors. The laborers have concluded to change their demands so that none but bod carriers and masons' tenders shall ask for twentytwo and a half cents an hour, concretes and shovelers 10 have twenty-one cents an hour and that is all they intend to do, they say. It looks now as though the strike might turn out to be a long one. 1nio masona think so, any way, and some of them have decided to try their luck else- where. It Is said that large number of briclslayers and masons left town this afternoon and many more intend to get out tomorrow.
 "It isn't question of wages" snid one of the contractors to a Democrat reporter. "What we object to Is the signing of an agreement recognizing bod carriers and common diggers as a union. What they do Is not trade or profession and we see no reason why we should recognize 1t as such- We are willing to pay twenty-one cents an hour and more than that to men who are worth it, but we don't care to sign an agreement acknowledge frc og fruH HnG xxI o
 know they are nothing of the kind. We are responsible for what we do. They are not"
 The men appear to be rm and if they hold out it would be hard to tell
 what will happen It is certain that If the difference cannot be adjusted It will be pretty hard to get people <to
 take the place of the strikers. The public feels for the merchants and others who are in no way to blame for this matter, but very little sym- pathy is expressed for some of the
 bosses. It is looked upon in labor circles as the old story of chickens
 coming home to roost. A few of the contractors kept bringing cheap labor
 Into Waterbury until the place got so
 crowded with men that they paid them anything they pleased. This worked Il the sons of Sunny Italy began to real- ize that the time had come for them to cease to be an eyesore in the labor market and after several years they got together and vowed not to work cheaper than others. That's the sit-
 uation in a nutshell. Whatever the outcome of the present strike may be it is safe to say that we have seen the passing of the eighty cents
 day Italian laborer in Water- bury, and while it may work q hardship to some for the time being 1t cannot be denied that in the end q will be beneficial. Contractors who have been coming to Waterbury from other places on and off for many years always claimed that the ordin- ary Italian laborer in Waterbury was in about as bad a box as human mor- tai could drop into. He was at the beck of some joker his own nation ality who bargained for his labor and then paid him about third of what he received for It. This is to be done away with and henceforth the Italians are going to band themselves together for mutual benefit and demand market price for their labor. The bosses don't appear to he much alarmed nt the situation. Some of them claim the little vacation was q Godsend to them and that they don't care If the thing lasted few weeks longer. While this may be true in few cases it is no guesswork to state that the strike Is serious blow to most of the builders about town and no matter how the question Is decided they will be out considerably on account of the difference. Everything Is quiet about town. So far there appears to be no effort made on the part of the contractors to fill the places of the strikers, but the ordinary observer cannot fail to notice that there are quite good many mon working about some of the buildings If the contractors could succeed In gct- ting the bricklayers and masons to g0
 to work that would settle 1t, but im this they don't seem to be making much headway The bricklayers and mnsons don't want to be idle, but all the same they hate the idea of doing anything that would interfere with the success of the effort on the part of tue laborers to get m increase in wages.