Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-07-21
CHICAGO STRIKE AT AN END
Teamsters Joint Council Officially Declares
the Struggle Of.
MEN WILL SEEK REINSTATEMENT
IL is Thought That About Half Of
Them VIII Receive Their Former
Places AgRin-Thirty
Lives Lost.

CHICAGO. July A.-The teamsters' strike,
which has so greatly disturbed business
conditions in this city for the last los days,
was at 1880 o'clock tonight officially de-
clared of by the members Of the Transfers
Joint Council. The men have been ordered
to seek their old positions and 1t is esti-
mated that less than one-half of them will
be re-employed. The strikers have made a
complete surrender and will apply for work
as individuals and without an agreement of
any kind with their employers.
The action of the Teamsters' Joint Coun-
ell was taken at the end of a day whose
events clearly foreshadowed the collapse
Of the strike. Three Of the unions had al
ready voted to return to work as far as
possible and II was certain that the unions
which had not yet voted on the question
Of ending the strike would take similar ac-
ton. The council, believing that further
effort was useless, decided 20 call of the
strike at once.
First Break I'm Ranks.
The first break in the ranks of the strik-
ers came this afternoon when the lumber
teamsters voted to return to work regard
less of what action might be taken by any
other union. Tonight the department store
drivers and the railway express drivers
old positions in the morning 1t is expected
that about sixty per cent of the de-
partment store drivers will be re-
instated, and the express drivers declared
tonight that they believed that about 100
of their number would be taken back by
the express companies. The express COM
panies have declared all through the strike,
however, that not one OF the men who
struck would ever be re-instated.
Small Unions Vote Today.
Tomorrow the truck drivers and one or
two smaller unions will vote on the ques-
tion of calling off the strike, but there is
no doubt that they will decide to seek their
old places again. The officials of the team
sters' union declare that they expect such
action to be taken.
The only concession that the men have
gained by going back to work is in the
case of the lumber drivers. the right to
wear the union button. In the case of all
other unions the men by seeking their old
places tacitly agree to the terms of the
employers which were that only such men
would be taken back as were needed after
the nonunion men had been provided for,
and that the question of wearing the union
button should be left to the decision of
the individual employers
History of the Strike.
The strike has been one Of the most an.
VnOying, bitterly fought and expensive af-
fairs of its kind that Chicago has ever
known 1t originated last winter over the
demand of the Garment Workers associa-
tion that the firm of Montgomery Ward
& Co. refrain from sending out any work
to nonunion men, although there was in the
contract between Ward & Co. and the
union no clause prohibiting such action
The garment workers employed by Ward
Co. went on strike, and their places
were filled by nonunion men. Four months
after the strike of the garment workers
the Transfers union called upon Ward &
Co. to arbitrate the strike. The refusal OF
Ward & Co. was followed by a strike OF
all the teamsters in their employ and the
strike rapidly spread to such other business
houses as attempted to make deliveries
| to Ward & Co. About thirty lives have
been lost during the strike and there have
been 100 cases of assault, in many of which
the victims were seriously injured.