Denver labor bulletin., 1918-06-08
RAIL SHOPMEN
ENTER PROTEST
WITH MADOO
GREAT MASS MEETING OF
WORKERS IN DENVER
LAST SATURDAY.
Proposed Increase Is Only One to
Three Cents an Hour Over
Present Schedule; Men
May Go to Govern
ment Shipyards.

Fifteen hundred railroad shop en-
ployes held a mass protest meeting
in the Denver City Auditorium last
Saturday afternoon. After discussing
the wage schedule proposed in the re-
cent order of Director General Nc
Adoo, it was voted to send letter
to Washington asking for, recon-
sideration of the wage scale by the
federal labor commission.
The shopmen declare they have not
been fairly treated by the government
when the wages received by shipyard
workers are taken into consideration
Ask Another Increase.
Machinists in the railroad shops in
Denver are receiving 81 cents an hour
On the Pacific coast machinists in the
shipyards are said to be receiving
$3.50 for an eight-hour day, or 72h
cents an hour, and on the east coast
they are receiving $500 a day, or 70
cents an hour. The railroad men ask
for rs cents an hour. They say the
high cost OF living justifies the in
crease.
There is absolutely no danger of a
strike, the men say. The railroad
men before, after and during the
ing, as they expressed it, was simply
for the purpose of setting before the
government in an amicable way the
facts in the case 1t is not the pur-
pose, they say, to embarrass the gov
eminent IN the conduct Of the war
but they have real grievance, they
declare, which they believe should be
set before the new wage commission.
the members of which took up their
duties this week
In the railroad shops in Denver and
other Western cities railroad mechan-
les, including machinists, boilermak-
ers, blacksmiths and allied trades, re-
ceIved Al cents an hour IN December,
1915. The wage commissions in
crease brings the wage to So cents.
or cent more than they are now
receiving.
May Seek Other Jobs
In Salt Lake City, where they are
receiving So cents an hour, the recon-
mended increase exactly equals the
proposed increase. while in certain
other Western cities the recommended
increase, as based on what railroad
mechanics were receiving in Deem
Der, 1916. is less than the amount they
are now receiving
The government faces a serious al
Tentative, which is entirely unsought
by the shopmen, they say, but which
Will come about naturally should an
| increase not be granted. This alter
native, II is pointed out, is that the
| men will simply leave the railroad
| employ to 20 to shipyards and other
places where the pay is higher.
Letter To Director McAdoo.
The following statement was adopt
| ed and forwarded to Washington:
Hon. w. G. McAdoo, Director Gen.
eral of Railroads, Washington,
ID. c.
Dear Sir: At meeting of 800
men representing blacksmiths, boiler
makers, electricians, sheet metal
workers and pipe filters, employed in
the service of the following roads,
Denver & Rio Grande, Colorado &
Southern, Denver & Salt Lake, Union
Pacific, c., B. & @, it was voted unan-
imously to convey to you the follow
ing message:
I'VE have waited patiently many
months for the report of the find
lngs of the railway wage commission; ;
in the meantime cost of living, in
GLIDING everything that comes within
the needs of the average home, has
increased until il is now impossible
to live as men should to render the
maximum of service so needed at this
time by our government, and now the
information reaching US causes us to
believe that in this award this section
Of the country has not been carefully
considered.
Increases Not Enough.
1T is true that n few of our crafts
have received slight increase in
| wages since 1915, but no increase was
in keeping with the prior increase in
the cost of labor, and since the last
increase in wages the cost of necessi-
ties has increased more than 40 per
cent in this section OF the country,
and is increasing daily.
1--WE also wish you to know that
the profiteers in this section of the
country advance prices with every in
crease in wages granted labor; that
the landlords are charging outrageous
increases, and we urge that special at
tention be given the retailers and land
lords of this country, and that in the
final adjustment of the wages for this
section of the country, that its pecu-
liarities be taken into consideration
I'VE want you to know that every