Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-09-13
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Painters of Louisville, Ky, have OBJ
tanned the eight-hour day and an advance
of 10 per cent.
Seventeen new local unions have been
formed by the Amalgamated Sheet Metal
Workers Alliance in the last quarter.
Electrical workers of Grand Rapids,
Mich, with the exception of three shops,
have been granted the eight-hour day.
The labor organizations of America
gained 1,204 new unions last year. en-
bracing a membership of 100000 individ-
uals.
During the first six months Of 1906
ffty-three divisions of street railway EN-
ployes effected written agreements with
employing companies.
The agitation for an advance in the
wages of sheeting weavers employed at
Oldham, England, has resulted in an in
crease of per cent being conceded.
Even at the increased rate of wages, it
is not easy TO get spinners and weavers
enough to allow the New England cotton
mills to fill all the orders they might get.
The union bakers of Chicago succeeded
in establishing a new wage scale in every
shop but one in that city. They received
a fiat increase of 81 per week over the
old scale.
The anti-sweating committee, appointed
by the Sydney On. S. W. labor council
promises to make astounding revelations
regarding the sweating tactics of some
Sydney employers.
The earliest mention of a strike fund
occurred in the strike of the Partisan
stocking weavers, in 1924, when crown
a day was subscribed for every striker,
and all blacklegs were boycotted.
The Patternmakers' Association of San
Francisco has returned to outside asso-
Citations that contributed to their aid af-
ter the earthquake 40 per cent of the
fund sent in. 1t was not needed. :
The Retail Clerks International AssO-
citation will begin the payment of sick
benefits to members who have been in
continuous good standing upon the books
for a period of twelve months or more.
In Bombay (India) cotton mills an
average worker, laboring thirteen hours
day. earns about 80 cents day. that is in
mills equipped with the best modern ma
chinery and built in the most approved
style.
The average wages OF American work
men is double that of the English and
nearly treble that of the German work
men, according to statistics published by
the Department of Labor, covering the
year 1903.
The Commercial Telegraphers' Union
of America has decided to establish
mutual benefit department. A mortuary
fund will be maintained similar to those
Of the railroad brotherhood, from which
death claims will be paid.
The New York Electric Club is the so
cial end of the New York Electrical
Workers Union. Its avowed object is to
cultivate and elevate the social condition
of the organization. The club has at
present membership of 45O.
There is a great scarcity of unskilled
laborers at the iron and steel making CEN
tiers of Pennsylvania, So a day being the
wages paid Thousands of men can find
work with good pay all through the West,
where mining and railroad building are in
progress.
After a struggle lasting nine months
and five days the strike Of the mainte-
nance of way employees of the Denver and
Rio Grande railway in Colorado and New
Mexico has ended, the officials of the road
having conceded the full rate of pay for
foremen that had been demanded by the
committee representing the. strikers.
The. other day the gold heaters quit
work at every Boston shop in response to
the national decision to establish an in
crease in wages from Z to cents per
book for piece work and from SIS to sd
week for week workers, also to bring
the foremen into the union, and to eliml-
nate what is called the outside shop"
In a resume of the work of the past
two years, made in view of the approach
ing biennial convention, which opens at
Niagara Falls Sept. II, W. d. Huber,
general president of the Brotherhood Of
Carpenters, says that while there were
many strikes and some lockouts, almost
all were settled successfully and salts
factorily to the men involved. During the
past three months 81 new charters were
granted, and 37S in all were added during
the past two years.
Progress, a labor organ, says in its
last issue that trade unionism is doing
more to AmercaniZe the immigrant than
anything else, not excepting the churches,
and backs up the assertion by attributing
the statement to the commissioner of la
Dor. Discussing the matter, Progress says
that it is due to trade unionism that the
immigrant so soon learns the nature of
the American government. because as soon
as he becomes a member of a union he
sees that the term government in the
United States is not synonymous with
oppression. as it is in many Of the coun-
tries of the old world. The trade union
draws him out of the clannish spirit which
heretofore not even his religion has been
able to overcome. The article closes by
saying that the labor union man soon
comes to realize that the best available
means to save the body and better condi-
tons is through the means of the union.
The United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers
of America have placed a per capita tax
of 10 cents per year for support of the
tuberculosis sanitarium conducted by the
organization of Denver for the benefit of
it's members. The same organization has
declared for international socialism.
The Mcclure memorial fund for the
benefit of the family of the late 2. ].
MCGUIRE which is being raised by volun-
tary subscriptions among the members of
the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners has reached S3,755.91. The fund
for the relief of California sufferers by
this organization aggregates S15,S43.15.
Pile drivers and dock builders of Cleve-
land, Ohio have affiliated with the United
Trades and Labor Council. They are
asking for the nine-hour day at present
wages, and indications point to success.
A decision of great interest and impor-
lance to laboring men was recently Sc
cured by the Boston Bartenders' Union.
It sustained the organization in its con-
tention that a suspended member has no
right to longer continue to wear the but
ton of the union. The man against whom
the test case was brought was fined $40
and informed that he had no right to wear
the token unless he was a member in
good standing.