New-York tribune., 1911-12-05
STRIKE TALK FAILS TO
STOP SNOW REMOVAL
Work of PiIing 1t Up Goes
Rapidly On, with Plenty of
Trucks Available.
SOME UNION DRIVERS QUIT
But Contractors Assure Com
missioner Edwards That the
Streets Will Be Quick
ly Cleared.

of the recent street cleaners strike i'm
the shape Of a sympathetic action by
union teamsters. who refused to drive
trucks hired out for snow removal.
Altogether there was a fall Of SO
inches. The snowstorm started about
o'clock Sunday evening and continued
steadily until about 10 o'clock yesterday
morning.
Commissioner Edwards, after an in
spection trip which covered parts Of
both Brooklyn and Manhattan, said last
night that he thought there would he no
trouble from the union drivers.
THE contractors are getting The job in
hand tonight" he said, though | un-
derstand there was some delay from
drivers leaving their carts when they
found they were to work on snow re-
moval. The first days work is chiefly
piling the snow, anyway, and by the
time they are ready for carting the
trucks will be ready"
A. F. Gunther superintendent Of the
snow removal bureau. gave similar testi-
mony late last night, when he said that
the contractors had ninety carts al work
in lower Manhattan alone
This prospective trouble with the
drivers looked big in the afternoon" he
said. but with the coming of night the
drivers began TO come around, and / be
lieve that b tomorrow the contractors
will have no more trouble"
Threat from Strikers Secretary.
John Prescott, secretary of the street
cleaners organization, which has been
on strike declared that the strikers
would tie the city up by means of the
union drivers they would be able to call
off the snow removal carts, but his
threats were not taken seriously by
either the contractors or the Street
Cleaning Department.
From the office of John l.. Walsh. head
Of the Bureau Of Weights and Measures
the statement was made by one of his
underings that the Commissioner was
quite busy on snow removal Every
cart, wagon or vehicle in which the con-
tractors remove snow has 10 he meas |
ured by the men of Walsh's bureau. and !
De Marco said last night that he had |
the LOO trucks ready and manned the |
minute the bureau certified them.
Thirty trucks in Brooklyn and forty |
in The Bronx were the figures on avail |
able vehicles certified to by the Bureau |
OF Weights and Measures yesterday. as !
given out at Commissioner Edwards's |
office
Order to Quit from Ashton.
The order to union teamsters was said !
to have come from w. II. Ashton, the |
general organizer who handled the ex-
press strike last year, and the recent |
street cleaners strike. De Marco con |
frmed this, and it was noted at all the !
stables of the street Cleaning Depart |
ment where trucks reported for duty |
that walking delegates of the teamsters' |
organization were busy rersuading the |
drivers to quit the job when it was |
found that they were TO be used on snow |
removal
In the office Of the street Cleaning De- |
nartment il was said that contractors |
would have a reasonable time. something |
like three days. to show progress on
the work. and that if the sympathetic |
action OF the union teamsters or any |
other cause delayed them and kept them
from making good on their contracts |
longer than that the city would have to |
take uD the work of snow removal itself. |
The street Cleaning Department Off
cials said also that they were fully |
caught up with the work piled up on
them bv the recent strike, and though !
they cannot take regular men off garb- |
age and ash work To put them on snow |
removal. they ere not likely to he de- |
laved on the latter because Of any lag !
eine in the regular work of the depart
ment.
Contractors All Under Bond.
The contractors who secured the work !
Of snow removal for this season were all |
REQUIRED to bond themselves to the city |
10 guarantee the performance Of their |
,,.o,k i'm reasonable time. and in the !