The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-08-18
SHINCLE WEAVERS START new
MARKETING PLAN FOR PRODUCT
Lester W. David Lumber Company Sign Agreement Handle
Only Union Label Shingles and to Market the
Same AN the East

Plans of the International Shingle
! Weavers' Union to create a specia
market for the red cedar shingles Of
the Pacific Northwest through the use
of it's official label assumed definite
form yesterday when the internationa
officers of the union and one of the
leading shingle companies of Seattle
entered into two-year contract un.
der which a nationwide campaign
will be begun to advertise and sell
Washington shingles manufactured
under union conditions.
The concern making the contract
with the internationa! union is the
Lester w. David Lumber Company
which agrees to become the selling
agent for all mills that will agree to
use the hsingle weavers' union label
on their product and to conduct a
systematic selling campaign, while the
officers of the international union on
their part agree to conduct aa adver
tising campaign among the union car
penters of the country, numbering
nearly quarter of a million, and
among other members of organized
labor and labor organizations.
The signing of the contract is re-
garded by the international union Of
ficials, whose headquarters are in Sc
attic, as epoch-making in that never
up to the present time has any exten-
sive effort been made to build up the
shingle weavers' organization by ap
pealing to the purchasing power OF
organized labor through the use of the
union label. If the campaign proves
as successful as they expect it to
they believe the problem of meeting
the competition of the mills of British
Columbia that employ cheap Oriental
labor will be permanently solved with.
out the aid of protective tariff.
No Means of Identification
J. G. Brown of Seattle, president of
the international union, has been
working out some plan to meet this
competition for years and at various
national conventions of labor organ.
izations has urged leaders in the
building trades unions to discriminate
between shingles produced by well.
ny-ia 1oh Io6
products from Canadian mills The
stumbling block always encountered
was that carpenters and others in
terested in the shingle weavers case
had no means of identifying the
shingle made by union men, mill
brands being little adevtised or used,
and shingles made by Oriental labor,
selling for the same price as similar
grades made by union workers.
Brown has already begun carrying
out the contract for the union by writ
ing international officers of the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners of America, notifying them of
the proposed advertising campaign.
He also took the matter up with Anton
Johansen of San Francisco, a general
organizer of the carpenters brother
hood, who is now in Seattle, and
Johansen has promised to lay the case
of the shingle weavers before the in.
ternational convention of the brother.
hood. which meets at Fort Worth
Texas, next month.
An important feature of the con
tract signed by Brown and W. H
Reid. international secretary, on be
half of the union, and Lester W
David, president, and j. E. David, sec
retary of the lumber company, is thai
the union label shingles will be
strictly graded and kept up to the
highest standard of workmanship anC
material. Following are the main pro
visions of the contract:
ut is mutually understood between
the parties hereto that both parties t
this agreement shall do all possibl,
to create a demand for union labe
shingles, to which end the party of tn,
first part agrees to send out circular
to and make calls upon retail dealer
in market centers, and the party o
the second part agrees to mail cir
culars to and make calls upon tn
various carpenters unions, building
trades councils and labor unions ger
orally in such places as a possible o
profitable market for said union labe
shingles may be found.