The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-08-17
OF INTEREST TO LABOR

Seven thousand machine workers at
Bridgeport, Conn.,, dropped their tools
and walked out of various manufae-
turing plants because their wage de-
mands were not acceded to. At mass
meeting after their walkout the ma.
chinists were appealed to by army Off
GERS and a member of their interna-
tional order to return to work. They
voted unanimously, however to remain
out until the manufacturers have sub
mitted to them written pledge that
any decision made by the war labor
board, now the judge of the contro-
versy, will be adhered to by the en-
ployers, and that any wage award will
be retroactive to May 1. The strikers
spent their idle time soliciting pur-
chases of War Savings stamps.
That about rs members of the In
ternational Typographical union
throughout the United States and Cam
ada have been killed in France or died
in military camps, is the statement of
President Marsden G. Scott of the or
ganization, in a letter sent to subordi-
nate unions. Mortuary benefits amount
ing to $22,350 have been paid their
relatives, and $354,000 was paid out
by the organization to 1900 old age
pensioners in 1917, according to the
letter.
Plans for an international labor con-
ference on the Mexican border within
the next three months, at which Pan
American federation of labor will be
organized, were made at a meeting of
American Federation of Labor officials
and Louis N. Morones, Salvador Al
varez and P. Morales, representing
the Mexican Federation Of Labor.
Representatives of labor organizations
of all Pan-American countries will be
invited.
Labor difficulties among chainmakers
which were nearing the strike stage
in many places were adjusted at a
conference at Washington by en-
ployers and workmen in West Virginia.
Ohio, eIndisna. Il Iineis asad is.snss y!
the department Of labor ankountESed.
The plants are engaged on war con-
tracts supply. An increased wage
scale was granted the men.
Strikes are prohibited for the period
of the war under an agreement reach
ed between the Marine Engineers
Beneficial association, the American
Steamship association and the ship
ping board. Union members failing
to submit grievances to the board
for settlement will become subject
to discipline by the beneficial associa-
ton.
Engineers at the waterworks, labor
ing men, attaches Of the city hospital
and other city employees Of Alliance,
o., were granted increases in pay rang
ing from 10 to IS per cent. Acting
Chief of Police Hawkins is increased
| from $3.50 to $165 a month, as he
must pay the fares of prisoners he
takes to the county workhouse at Cam
ton.
Union shipyard workers, said by
their leaders to number approximately
1000, laid down their tools at the
Couglan shipyards at Vancouver, B. G.
They professed unwillingness to oper-
ate machines driven by power supplied
by the Western Canada Power COM
pany, whose union electrical workers
are on strike.
Nine hundred experienced men have
signed the pledge for farm work for
one month this season in Ohio, largely
through the efforts of the farm help
specialists of the United States de.
partment Of agriculture. Other states
are also securing workers In this man.
ner.
Street car service in Columbus, O..
was at complete standstill because
Of strike of union car men, who
walked out because of the refusal OF
the Columbus Railway and Power and
Light company to reinState seven OF
the men who had been discharged.
Men employed at the Pennarroys
mines, the most important in Spain
have announced general strike will
be called soon. The governments
efforts to avert the strike have failed
Of the 5000 girls who applied fol
service as military telephone opera
tors with the American forces abroad
only $50 have been accepted.
The largest electrically propelled
vessel in the world and the first evel
built in that country, is now nearing
completion in England.
Girl scouts in various parts of thu
country have embarked on the task O.
training women and girl war work
ers in housekeeping.
Eighty thousand American womel
are now employed in industries sup
plying canned goods to the war anC
navy departments.
There are almost 1000 children I'm
der sixteen employed In Rhode Islant
factories.
Piecework rates in the British cot
ton industry are now 40 per cent owe
standard.
i Trade unions in Germany are dc
handing the creation of labor boards