The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-07-13
A GENERAL STRIKE
Meat Packers of Seven Cities
Go Out For More Pay.
WILL AFFECT The WHOLE COUNTRY
Trouble Started In Chicago and wns
Followed out of sympathy by
Men and Women In Packing
Plants mt other Points.

az
CHICAGO, July 13.-The strike in
the great packing plants of the coun-
try is on and u meat famine and i'm
mediate advance in prices are looked
| Tor.
! over 10000 workers are affected BIS
the strike order, and $4,000 in Chicago.
1880 in Kansas City, 5000 in Omaha.
| $500 in East St Louis, 5000 in st.
| Joseph. Mo, 2,30O in Fort Worth. $500
in New York, l.150 in st. Paul and
HOO in Sioux City have gone out or
will shortly quit work
A New York dispatch says that all
the $500 members of the National
Meat Cutters and Butchers union en-
ployed in the New York branches of
the big western packing houses will
quit work this morning. This action
was determined on at "A meeting Of
delegates of twenty-five locals of the
organization held last night. There
are 1000 members of the union in that
vicinity.
The men who will strike are the
butchers and helpers in the establish
monts Of Swift X CO., the United
Dressed Beef company, Armour Il Co..
the Observation-Disclosures company
and the boxers with Nelson Morris
4 Co. and the Cudahy Packing com
pany.
As an effect Of the strike of the EN-
ployees of the principal packing houses
in the west the wholesale price of beef
advanced half a cent a pound yester-
day
If the strike continues there will be
further increases y meat famine at
New York may be the consequence if
there is any protracted struggle.
The strike is the result of a stubborn
disagreement, chiefly over wages for
unskilled labor, and will be the most
extensive in the history of the meat
packing industry of the United States
Ii prolonged the strike Is expected to
cause widespread Inconvenience, pos
sibly equaling the anthracite coal
famine of two years ago
The unanimity of the strike is com
plete. More than $1,000 employees are
directly involved. In Chicago alone
$4,000 men are on strike.
Arthur Meeker Of Armour & Co said
I'VE consider the demand of the
union for an advance in wages Of un-
skilled labor entirely unwarranted by
industrial conditions. We could not
concede it and proposed to submit the
question TO arbitration, which the
union declined and called a strike at
all our plants. Every department is
kept running, however. We have had
applications from hundreds Of unem-
ployed men for positions at less wages
than we have been paying and every |
day expect TO increase our output"
President Michael Donnelly, the |
strike leader, said:
Il wish to make it clear that we are |
not fighting for an increase of wages
but against decrease.
"Our original demand was for |
minimum Of 20 cents an hour for labor |
ers. This demand was amended after |
our second conference with the pack |
ers in June.
We then agreed to a scale of ISL
cents an hour except In Omaha aud |
Sioux City. where the scale is - cents
The packers. on the other hand re
fused to pay more than 17ta cents an
hour and declined to sign any agree
ment at all except with small pro-
portion of the workmen"
The last of the strikers here will not
be out until uclr midnight one hun
dred girls employed in Nelson. Morris
& Co.'S label department struck in
sympathy.
Many thousands of men who did not
strike are compelled TO be idle in the
various cities.
While the strikers We're passing out
Of the gates of the packing plants wo-
men, children and other Sympathlzers
congregated and shouted encourage
ment
Although no definite arrangements
have been made by any of the packers
for the hiring of noaunion men, five
car loads of cots are distributed among
the various plants.
The stock yards commission houses
ut once began wiring to all shipping
points, advising cattle men to hold
their stock until further notice
The packers say there is fresh meat
enough in Chicago to last about ten