The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-08-03
OF GENERAL LABOR INTEREST
Important Matters That Have Bear.
ing on Workers Conditions All
Over the World.


service gave notice that the bonuses
in this service had ceased Union Off
Gals said the men had returned to
the ship and the question of bonuses
would be taken up with the war de-
partInent.
The Louisiana senate adopted a res
olution requesting the governor, state
council of defense and national coun-
Gil of defense to take steps to stop the
discharge by the Western Union of
telegraph operators affiliated with the
Commercial Telegraphers' Union of
America and compel the Western
Union to restore wire conditions to
normal.
Demanding an increase to rs cents
an hour and an eight-hour day, about
four hundred members of the Milwau-
kee Electrical Workers union went on
strike in eleven shops. The strikers
refused to accept the offer of 70 cents
made by contractors, saying they can
easily earn more in the government
service or elsewhere.
The war industries board has dis
approved the practice of manufactur-
ers using competitive peace-time meth
DDS in the procurement Of labor re-
sulting in the withdrawal Of labor from
war industries, and announced that it
would withhold priority assistance
from employers who persist in pursu-
ing such methods.
More than 5000 boys between six
teen and twenty years old are being
used as apprentices and helpers in
the shipyards of Seattle, the Marine
News says, and the foremen declare
that in many of the essential duties
the boys are fully as efficient as the
best Of their seniors-quicker in action
and more ambitious to excel.
Representatives Of the Marconi RAJ
dio Photographers association of New
York, at meeting with officials Of
the shipping board asked that a wage
scale of 800 month for junior opera
tors and $125 a month for senior oper-
ators and a war bonus be fixed for
wireless operators on American seago-
ing ships.
Raises in salary amounting to ST.
100000 year and dating from July l
have been granted employees of the
Chicago post office, according to no.
tice received by Postmaster Garlic.
The total of employees affected will
be 6,460. A fiat raise Of 5000 year
was granted 6,100 employees.
Workman, Clark & Co., Belfast, Ire
land, shipbuilders, have achieved a
worlds record in completing an 5000
ton standard ship in 10 days after she
was launched. The vessel was launch
ed at nine in the morning. By eight
the same evening all her engines and
boilers were in position.
The strike of textile workers at
Lowell, Mass, ended when Henry B.
Endicott executive manager of the
state committee on public safety, who
had been agreed on as mediator,
awarded the operatives the per cent
increase in wages they demanded. The
award takes effect as of June II.
Twenty influential trade unions at
Sydney, Australia, have decided that
they are unable any longer to tolerate
the Sydney Trades Labor council be-
cause of its antiwar proclivities, and
have proposed to establish a new labor
council which will devote itself to
genuine industrial activities.
Russian railway men are on strike
in several districts, according to Zu-
rich dispatch, quoting the Leipzig Neu-
este Nachrichten. The strike threat
ems to become general, the newspaper
reports.
John r. Alpine, vice president of the
American Federation of Labor and
president of the United Association Of
Plumbers and Steam Filters, has been
named as a member of the war labor
policies board. The board is COM
posed of five members.
The Yale & Towne company of
Stamford, Conn.,, has granted to its A.
200 employees voluntary increase OF
Is per cent in wages. This is the third
general increase since November, 1915,
aggregating 50 per cent over the wage
scale then effective.
The trades committee Of the Ameri-
can Flint Glass Workers union. which
held it's annual convention at Toledo,
Ohio, presented new wage scale to
the convention which seeks increases
in salary of from 30 to SO per cent.
That women shall not be employed
on night runs and for no more than
eight hours on street cars as conduc-
tors and motorwomen is the decision
of the Wisconsin industrial commits
sion.
Standardization Of wages of common
and unskilled labor, to halt the enor-
nous labor turnover that is slowing
I'D war work Throughout the country,
is under consideration by the depart
ment Of labor.
Men in the molding department OF
the National Malleable Castings conn.,
pany, at Toledo, Ohio, struck for in
creased wages.
Salary increases for all employees in
first and second class post offices are
forecast by Postmaster General Burle-
son. .a
New York women teachers demand
~ QOn0 bonus Tf rropto1 a. will o0Sf