The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1906-08-03

Inc Uulteu BfOCnernOOQ OF Carpen-
tiers and Joiners has total member
ship of 161,217
Lithographers' International union
expended $500 in death benefits last
month. This organization is now work.
ing SO hours per week, but is formulat-
ing demand for an eight-hour
day.
A report from Antwerp states that
never before has the demand been so
great from the United States, at any
one time, for cement as at the present
time. One vessel recently took 6,10O
tons of cement from Antwerp to San
Francisco. .5s
Germany can now boast of having
the strongest labor union in the
world. Until recently it was sup
posed that the United Mine Workers
of America occupied this proud posi-
ton. By recent statistics the German
Metal Workers union is on top.
At conference in Cleveland be-
tween representatives of the miners
organization and the owners of the
largest coal mines in Ohio, located in
district No. 4, in the southwestern part
of the state, the strike in that section
was declared off. The 1904 scale, it is
understood, was agreed to.
An advance of five per cent. in
wages in cotton mills in Boston and
other cities, towns and villages of
southern Massachusetts, and Rhode Is
land, went into effect July 9. About
$4,000 operatives are benefited. Since
hn of
ment in mill wages early in the year,
10000 textile operatives in the New
England states have had their pay adj
vanced 5 to IA per cent.
The British vice-counsel at st. Malo
writes with regard to the Newfound-
land fishing trade, in which most of
the st. Malo population are engaged
during four or five months in the year,
that provisions, fshhooks, etc., sup
piled for the ships in that trade do
not pay duty, provided the goods are
warehoused at st. Malo, and put on
board the vessels which are to use
them during the season. He says that
a considerable business in biscuits is
done, but he never saw any biscuit OF
British manufacture, although cases of
American bread" are to be seen.
The journeymen plumbers in Brook
Ign to the number of about 1000 went
on strike over the demand for an in
crease in pay from $4.75 to S. day.
They say that the boss plumbers
agreed two years ago to make the in
crease from July 2, 1906, but that they
now want to have the date for the in
crease put off until October 1. At the
headquarters of the strikers it was
said that so employers had already
given in to their demands. Each en-
ploye returning to work is taxed one
dollar a Gay to aid the union in prose-
cutting the fight.
Forty-eight strikers in the wall pa
per factories of Janeway & Co. and
Janeway & Carpenter at New Bruins
wick, N. j., have thrown out of work
500 employees and practically closed
the two plants. July 1 every year
the union and the employers sign a
contract for the year. This time the
printers demanded that each man
work So hours weekly and be paid
for 60 hours. This means half hol-
iday every Saturday in the year,
while heretofore it has been granted
only in the summer. Another demand
is that when union man is Off for
the day his machine shall be run by
the next man, who shall receive pay
for two men for running both ma
chimes. The employers refuse to
agree to these terms. All the wall
paper manufacturers in the United
inv IN
fight with the unions.
Patternmakers' association is to
move it's international Headquarters
from New York to Cincinnati.
The average wage of working women
in England is only about $1.75 a week,
asserts a recent magazine writer of
that country. In some lines of en-
ployment, such as the Lancaster textile
trade, wages may run to five dollars a
week; but the general average is re-
duced by the great number of the lit
tie skilled in other lines, who may
work one month in an envelope or
paper bag factory, the next in a cary
ing factory, or at preserving fruit.
After board and lodging are paid there
frequently remains only about 25 cents
a week with which to meet every claim
for dress and other requirements.
Even this pittance is not secure, be-
cause of the custom that many employ
ers have of docking the workers at
every opportunity. This is most often
done under the plea of damaged ma
chinery." A girl who earned two dol
lars week had 62 cents deducted for
the breaking of a shuttle-perhaps by
no means her fault. In one instance
on record, $25 was collected, at 25 cents
head, in room of 100 girls, for the
breaking of a 62-cent three-legged
stool.
There are 1,175 commissioned organ
izers of the American Federation of
Labor.
The Bridge and Structural Iron
Workers have reported to labor head
quarters that the membership is gen
orally at work, although the strike