Arizona republican., 1910-07-28

scale The company is already pay ing the scale, and in some instances | more, doing so voluntarily. but the directors here say they are not In a position to sign that or any other agreement of that sort. binding the operations of the company in Phoe- nix and elsewhere only by the action of the full board.
 The incident came as great sur prise to the local management, as there has been no difficulty between the company and it's employees, over wages or anything else. 1t appears however. that a trade delegate has come here since the strike of wrok- CTS for the Consolidated Telephone. Telegraph and Electric company, and apparently through his influence men have been prevailed upon to try ana force this recognition on the new company, as well as the old one There were other minor matters mentioned in the agreement, none or which would be hard to settle eN- cept this matter of d scale, and that , as explained, cannot be acted upon by d minority of the board, even though it might be disposed to do so
 After filing the agreement yeSter- day morning the men worked until noon and then. learning that no ac- tion, had been taken. they refused to go to work in the afternoon. The men affected comprise the linemen and cable splicers. the ground men, not being electricians, not figuring
 
 the men have their own option Of returning to work or not, pending a meeting of the board. They will not materially disturb the plans of the company, for the reason that there are many applications on file from other workers in case they are need ed, but at present some of those em- ployed are not particularly needed. their work being further advanced than that of other departments of installation. They were employed, however. and at good wages. and there has been no desire to lay them off. even though they were ahead in their department. Some others concerned, employed some time ago. have been retained really when they were not needed. as they were known to have families depend
 ing upon them. and as it was known
 there would soon be ample work for all of them.
 The Overland management says
 that when operations began. pains were taken to discover the wage scale of the electricians elsewhere. It was learned that in all southern | California the scale was s3.50. The
 Overland began at that scale and ! later raised the wages to s375. The | agreement submitted demands H. Also. when cable men were needed | it vas found they were scarce and. | in order to have men when they needed them. the companay sent to | Minnesota for two men. paid their transportation out here, and has since | paid them S6 per day. The agree
 ment submitted provides that these men shall not suffer any curtailment of wages during the present job Of l installation. but that as soon as it is
 completed the men themselves will provide cable spiders for subsequent work at 8 per day
 l men individually are concerned. the | men have always admitted hereto fore that they have been treated as
 nicely by the company as they could ask for, having been paid more than | the going wages and having had no personal troubles. On the other hand.
 the company says the men have been 1 faithful. have done efficient work
 the company has been satisfied and | has been willing to pay wages a ! little above the scale all the time to competent and capable men, and there is no trouble now except that J the members of the board are not ! in position to sign the agreement l Other branches of the company s
 business are proceeding famously: It ] has met it's expectations in respect