Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-12-06
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conductors anu AOiOTmen Union
gained 1000 members the last twelve
months.
As early as 1S47 a law was passed in
New Hampshire making ten hours legal
days work.
OF the 1900 men employed as switch
men the Brotherhood of Railway Train
men controls $4,000.
Stationary engineers in New York City
are making a concerted effort to bring
about an eight-hour work-day.
Montreal (Canada) unionists are pre-
pairing to erect the finest labor temple IN
North America. 1t viii cost 100000.
The shorter workday fight of the shoe
workers in Chicago. H., will be made
this winter, preliminary TO the spring
agreements.
The Toledo (Ohio) City Council will
soon introduce an ordinance to compel
employers to pay their men in cash in
stead of checks.
A determined effort is being made 10
infuse fresh life into the National Union
of Clerks of England, and propaganda
work is in active progress.
The employing sheet metal workers OF
San Francisco, Cal. have voluntarily
increased the pay of their employees from
So to $3.50 a day of eight hours.
The United Textile Workers of Amer
lea are on record as favoring the contlnu-
anee of the agitation for shorter hours
for workers in the textile trades.
In twenty years plasterers' wages in
Vor ivopooChd from 81
$3.50 day, with reduction in weekly
hours from ffty-three to forty-four.
Twenty years ago plumbers in New
York City received $3.50 a day and
worked ffty-three hours a week. Now
they get S475 and work forty-four hours
a week.
Cigar Makers International Union has
decided to start suit against the Michi-
| gar prison authorities for employing con-
victs at the Marquette prison in the man
ufacture of cigars.
There are more than $4,000 men en-
| gagged in the carriage and wagon-bulld-
| ing industries of whom 5000 are mem
bers of the Carriage and Wagon Builders
! Union of North America.
France has been strangely backward
| Ill the formation of labor unions, and,
with population five times as large as
that of New York. has less than one-halt
as many trade uniOnists.
AS result of being organized into a
union, the millmen Of Chicago in four
years have cut the hours of labor in two
and have obtained net increase in wages
amounting to % per cent.
Boston (Mass.) Plumbers Union,
which asked for a 50-cents a-day increase,
accepted a compromise of a raise OF 40
cents day after May l next year This
will make the minimum union scale $44O
a day.
1t has long been admitted that Mas
sachusetts takes the lead in the enact
ment of laws for the protection of labor
from long hours, unsanitary conditions,
and for the protection of the working
man generally.
1t is reported that the Postmaster
General of Great Britain is inqulrlng
into the conditions of labor employed IN
making postmens clothing. He seems de-
termined to put an end to sweating con-
ditions in his department.
An all-around increase of 80 cents
day has been obtained by the Wood Cary
ers' Union in New York City, and is to
remain in force until the middle of 1908.
The members work eight hours day and
a halliday on Saturday.
At Las Vegas, n. NJ, the COW and
sheep herders have organized a union,
the scale of pay beins $40 month and
found in the sage brush or elsewhere.
| The sheep herders are arranged in eight
hour shifts with Sundays off.
The thirty-four brotherhood unions ana
amalcamated branches, which make up
the Carpenters District Council of Bos-
ton, Mass. and vicinity, will request the
Saturday alf-hoiday all the year round
and also 40 cents an hour after May /
next.
The bureau of labor statistics has com
piled some curious figures regarding the
organized labor movement. From them
it appears that there are now upward
Of 100000 wage workers who are active
members of unions. More than 100000
live in the United States.
Central Labor Union, at Washington,
d. c.. has proposed to the various unions
making up that organization that a gen
eral defense fund be raised to meet any
demand that may arise in the future
The matter has been referred to the
unions for consideration.
If the wishes of the railway surgeons
of America, as expressed at their annual
meeting. are needed by the railway COM
panies. engineers and fremen experienced
in the service will no longer be discharged
for defective eyesight, but will be allow
ed to wear glasses and hold their posi-
| tons.
For some time a movement has been in
| urogress for an increase in the wages of
| engineers on the northeast coast of Eng
land. The Amalgamated Society of En-
gineers. the Steam Engine Makers and
the United Machine Workers Society are
| Jointly making a claim of IS a week ad-
vance on time and 3 per cent on piece
work rates.
Textile operatives employed on modern
machinery to-day will turn off more pro-
| duction on an average eight-hour day
basis than they did twenty-five years ago
on a ten-hour day. Nevertheless the
| hours of labor have been reduced very
| little for the textile worker in compari-
son with the increase in speed of the
machines they operate.
NnMEc 0E TOWNS ON STAMPS