The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-03-05

Expire-,T-urns. Trick on Labor With
Tariff Talk. !. .::s :c::-~ 80
New York, March 3.-The United
States Steel Corporation is planning
the greatest coup ever attempted on it's
skilled Workmen in the tin plate mills.
Within few months there will be the
most drastic reduction in tin plate wa
ges ever seen in any branch of the
iron and steel trade.
The trust cannot employ the cheer
full and open tactics it has used with
all it's other employees; the reduction
contemplated is too big, and, besides,
the scale Is signed up to June 80 next.
The trust will not meet the issue
squarely with the men and say: 1--WE
want to reduce your wages. We need
the money. You must take the re-
duced wages or fight The men would
fight and the public would hear about
it. This is a Presidential year. Dip
lomacy must be resorted to-
At this season there is usually little
business for the tin plate mills, the
busy season beginning in about three
months. Three months hence, when
the men meet to fix their wage scale
for the year, their season SHOULD be at
it's best. Yet now the Trust is running
the mills at such rate that there are
barely enough warehouses to hold the
output. When the men meet to fix
the wage scale, the mills will be closed
and the Trust will be filing orders
from stock. The cut in wages will
therefore be cheerfully accepted for the
sake Of getting work.
The sheet industry is entirely sep
arate from the tin plate industry. The
steel sheets which when coated with
tin are calltd tin plate and never
called sheets in the trade. Ordinary
steel sheets, sold as such, are made in
entirely different plants, and it was in
this sheet industry that this awkward
thing for the trust happened last
month. AS a result Of the strike of
1901 the best sheet plants of the trust
are non-union, and wages are subject
to the caprice or needs of the trust
managers. The independent sheet
mills are union.
The trust is a friend to the Amalga-
mated Association, so far as sheets are
concerned. The competitors were get
ting troublesome in sheets last month
The trust, cheerfully announced that
sheet wages in it's nom union mills
would be: cut 20 to 80 per cent. The
announcement was made quietly in NO.
vember. The Independent sheet manu-
facturers were nom pulsed, They were
/ tied up with their work1nen until June
80. They could not compete with the
cheap labor Of the trust. They had
heart to-11eart talk with their men. The
men did something that was never
i dome before. s,in the long annals OF, the
Annals arnated< ASSOCIATE they. called
VI COW and reduced the rsWa
Escale, the middle 0f az scale year.
The trust was dumfounded.' Now the
/ independent sheet mills are .s getting
their share of orders and running their
mills.
Here was the key to- the problem Of
how to get tin plate wages reduced
without having fight with the men
and getting the tariff question talked
about. The mills must be shut down
and kept shut down until the men are
! starved into coming to the trust and
!. begging them to reduce wages SO they
can get employment again. 1t would
do no good to keep the mills closed
this winter The men know from
! years of experience that there is little
tin plate business in the winter. They
would simply wait and hope for better
things in the summer. The fills: must
! be closed in the summer, when the men
| look for plenty Of work. So the plans
were all laid to run the trust mills full
| tilt in the dull perior, raising the men s
| hopes, then shut them down just at
| the time of year when it is the prac-
! tice to start additional mills. Turn the
| tables on all precedents: and the men
| will be eager for reduction. This is
just the policy which the United States
Steel Corporation is carrying out.
| The Trust is running 211 tin mills,
in thirteen plants. These mills are
making 1000 boxes of tin plate. a week
each, or 211,0oO boxes, at the rate of
II 100000 boxes year. The Trust
never made 100000 boxes in any one
calendar year. In the dullest season
when conditions are particularly slack
even considering the season the Trust
is making tin plate so per cent beyond
It's best record.
! There is no demand FOR tin plate;
there are few independents and there
is plenty of money in tin plate at the
Trust price-5o cents "a box or So
enough to pay for q plant outright
within twelve or eighteen months. The
independents could cut the Trust price
capture all the business going and
still make money. Half Of them are
idle, because there is no business to be
gotten at any price.
ALI that stands in the way Of the
trust is warehouse capacity. 1t has
filled it's two tin plate warehouses al
New Castle, connected with the She
mango and Greer plants to overflowing
Since early in January it has been
sending the overflow to the warehouses
of the American Wire Company al
New Castle. The Shenango and Greer
warehouses contain 100000 boxes Of
tin plate. At Wheeling. the La Belle
tin plate warehouse is loaded to the
guards and contains 100000 boxes. The
overflow is being sent across the river