The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-20
TELEPHONE men
FAVOR STRIKE
Probable That Linemen viii
Report for WaIkout Duty
tuesday Morning.
HIGH OFFICIALS ARE SILENT
NO WORD FROM INTERNATIONAL
GRAND OFFICERS.

Unless a grand officer of the Inter
national Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers arrives in Salt Lake before
midnight tonight So or 80 union cleo
trical workers in the employ of the
Rocky Mountain Bell and the indie
pendent Telephone companies will walk
out on a strike tomorrow morning.
Should this action be taken, which now
appears highly probable. it is not un-
likely that the strike will extend, with
in the next few days, to every local
union in the district and involve more
than 800 men in the employ Of the tel
ephone concerns. The district includes
Utah, Wyoming. Idaho and Montana.
A meeting of the local Electrical
Workers. division No. 81 has been
called for tonight, and if one of the
grand officers of the union is not pres
ent arrangements will be made to
strike. A referendum vote has been
taken in all Of the unions in the dis
trict on the strike question. and al
though this vote has not been made
public, the general impression is that
IL ID DtcbNtlI utAcllllltiOuD AbA o eAAAhNf
The vote will be made public at to-
nights meeting of the local union
Every union in the district has been
notified by wire of the intention Of To-
cal No 81 to act Independently, in the
absence of the international officers.
The approval of these unions is ex-
pected. and it is anticipated that all the
union men in all the towns where there
are no contracts in existence between
the men and the companies to the con-
trary will strike for the enforcement OF
the wage scale asked for. following the
initial strike IN Salt Lake.
Long Under Consideration.
The strike situation has been pending
in Salt Lake for months, but there has
always been hope that an agreement.
might be reached. Several conferences
were held between union representa-
tives and telephone company officials,
but no understanding was effected.
The employees demanded an increase
from 1925 to 1915 for the men and from
$3.50 to 81 for the foremen. The COM
pany refused to comply with this de-
mand
Grand President F. j. McNulty was
in Salt Lake two weeks ago, and at
that time the referendum vote was or
dered. He went on to San Francisco
to consult with Grand Vice President
NJ. J. Sullivan relative to the situa
ton there. He promised to be back by
the time the referendum vote was
counted. Later however, he wrote
Louis Lynn. district president of the
I. B. z. w, asking the electrical work
ers to withhold decisive action until
he and Vice President Sullivan might
have an opportunity of visiting every
local union in the district. This would
involve a delay of action for two OF
three months.
Notify Grand officials.
! This letter was received on Wednes-
day and presented to the local union
at it's regular meeting the following
night The union disapproved Of any
further delay and sent the following
| telegram to the international vice pres
ident in charge Of the district:
m. J. Sullivan, $50 Scott Building,
! San Francisco. Cal:
Local union 81 hereby informs you
that unless there is a grand officer in
Salt Lake on May 20, local 81 viii act
| independently in telephone contro-
versy.
| LOUIS LYNN.
Business Agent Local 81"
Strike to Be Ordered,