Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-07
Working To-Day on the BohI
 Refrigerator.
TRACY BROS HAVE CONTRACT.

Carpenters and Trade Unionists Are
 Surprised at This Action-Contract
 ors Agreed to Wait Until Saturday
 Before Doing Anything Waiting
 News from the Session at New Ha-
 ven.
 Trades unionists about town are greatly incensed over the attitude of the Tracy Bros Go in bringing non-un- ion carpenters to work here pending the negotiations between the carpenters and joiners and the Master Builders association regarding the reference card. At a council of war held the otber ev- ening, the committee representing the bosses, Senator Tracy being one of the number, agreed not to make move until after next Friday night when the two committees should hold another session and talk the matter over again. The men wanted an answer then and there, but they finally consented at the request of the committee of the Master Builders association, to let the matter stand until Friday in order that the
 bosses might be able to act with knowledge of what the state asSocia-
 ton thought of the proposition to abolish the card. It was understood
 when this truce was reached that a
 board should not be sawed nail
 driven or jack plane moved an inch
 until the two committees had come to. gether again and agreed to agree or to disagree, as the case might be, and so
 far as anybody knew everybody was keeping their word until yesterday af-
 ternoon when it was learned that the
 Tracy Bros Go had put eight or nine
 men to work on the Bohl refrigerator
 building near the Highland division freight yard As soon as the strangers
 appeared the painters and plumbers quit work in double quick time. One
 of the new men said this morning that
 he and his fellow workmen came here from Maine and that they didn't be- long to any union. Later in the day a request came here from Boston to look around Waterbury and see if non-
 union carpenters were employed on
 beef trust building here and if so re- port back as soon as possible. This is looked upon as indicating fight be-
 tween the trades councils all over the
 country and the beef trust.
 l One of the carpenters said this af. ternoon that he refused to believe the
 men were there until he went to the | building and talked with them. He sup
 posed the bosses meant what they said
 when they entered into an agreement to
 let everything stand for the present
 and added that no matter what the other side do the men had no idea of 1 breaking faith with them and their committee would be in position to | meet them Friday night and look them squarely in the face.
 Since the carpenters strike started
 thirty of them have left town and un- less it is settled soon several more of
 them will be up and away. They can get more pay than the bosses give in
 Waterbury, but as many of them have
 homes here they, do not like to make l change
 It was reported this afternoon thaf the number of non-unioi Carpenters brought into town last night and this
 morning and put to work on different Jobs amounted to seventy-five or 4 fun-
 dred, but the local men knew nothing
 about any except the ones operating on the Bohl refrigerator. Whether he
 knew or not it would be hard to tell but a man who keeps an eve upori l what is going on in labor matters is | authority for the statement that an ef- fort is being made to get a lot of out
 side carpenters and joiners and chat if at least hundred men didn't come last night or early this morning somebody was disappointed, for they were expect- ed and provision made to maintain I them.
 The council of the Interstate associa- 1 tion is holding a meeting in New Ha- ven to-day and much interest is cen- tered in the result of it's deliberations with reference to the card system.
 The delegates from this city are Messrs Gaffney, Macauley and Peek Several other contractors went down to New Haven to do some lobbying in opposi- l tion to the use of the card. so that if l it does not get knocked out 1t will nof be the fault of the Waterbury men, for l 1t appears that very few of them have ! any use for 1t. One of the builders l told a reporter to-day that it looked like disposition on somebody's part
 to create trouble. It was of no bene-
 fit, he said, to employers, because it l conveyed no information that could not be obtained in other ways and at less | trouble to the bosses. He hoped the
 state association would see the wis
 dom of withdrawing the tf1rebrand" from the local labor market.