New-York tribune., 1919-08-15
All Employees Threaten to
Join the Walkout Of Fit.
ters and Chauffeurs
Already Under Way
Labor Unrest Grips City
Many Industrial Plants Are
Tied Up by the Efforts of
Men TO Get More Pay

Thousands of Brooklyn homes may
be without Eight and industrial plants
using gas for power may be forced to
suspend if the strike of gas filters,
helpers, jobbcrs, chautfeurs and drivers
of the Brooklyn Union Gas Company,
proclaimed yesterday, is extended to
the gas makers of the company to-day.
The committee in charge of the
strike, which involves, the leaders say,
more than 1000 employees of the COM
pany met at strike headquarters, 1913
Sterling Place, last night and discussed
the advisabllity of calling out the gas
makers-the men actually engaged in
the production of gas decision is
likely to be reached by this evening.
All emergency crews. street and main
service men and gas meter readers will
also be called out to-day, according to
Frank killorin. head of the strikers
committee. This. Killorn said, will
paralyzc the service OF the Brooklyn
Union Gas Company and it's subsidi
aries in Brooklyn and Kings.
Demand 80 Per Cent Increase
The strike yesterday followed failure
OF the negotiations between repreSen-
tativcs of the men and the company at
its Flatbush branch on the wage de-
mands presented by the employees. The
latter are asking S6 day for gas fit
tors, 50 for jobbers, So for drivers and
ST for helpers. The figures would mark
an increase of 30 per cent over the
present wage scale The strikers also
demand that the so-called grading sys-
tom be abolished and that all employees
of the respective classes be put on
an equal level and receive equal pay.
The following statement was issued
yesterday by Robert Russell, a mem-
Der Of the strike committee:
I'VE are to-day asking the men en-
ployed in the clerical positions and
men employed in the gas works and on
the street mains to join with us in our
strike. From latest reports things in
this direction look favorable. If this
is brought about the entire gas system
VIII be tied up. Though we would re-
gret such a move, we realize it is the
only way to show that our demands
are vital to our existence"
Would Tie Up Suburbs
pickcts were stationed all day yes
terday at the Flatbush. Metropolitan,
Newtown, Nassau, Williamsburg, ia
maica and East New York branches.
Should the gas makers heed the call Of
the strikers and walk out, the plants
at Third Avenue and DeGraw Street,
Nostrand Avenue and Clarkson Street,
the plant in the rear of Luna Park,
ConfY Island, and that Of the Kings
County Gas Company. in New Utrecht
Street Bay Ridge, would be affected
The Brooklyn Union Gas Company
yesterday issued the following state
meut:
The company feels it is very liberal
in its treatment of its employees. The
men are paid for eight hours work
Overtime varies from one and one
half time TO double time. The men
receive a weeks vacation, are paid for
holidays and while sick and are at
tended by the company's physician free
Of charge should the man be able to
go to the dispensary.
"Ihe company also pays the first
fourteen days to all injured employees,
although the compensation act pro
vides for no pay where disability does
not extend over forty-ninc days. While
medical attendance is limited to sixty
days under the act, the company gives
unlimited medical services
"Thc men were told that if the de-
mands presented by them were granted
throughout the entire system, and with
our revenue confined to only 80 cents
we would soon be put in financial diff
cutly.'
Many Brooklyn Strikes
The strike Of the gas company en-
ploycs is bat one of an epidemic of
WaIkouts now under way in that bor-
ough. Brooklyn seems to be one of the
most "stiuck' cities in the country
Many plants are affected by the cpl
demic. The most important strike IS
that OF the Julius Kayser Company en-
ployes, al De kalb Avenue and Taatfe
Place, where 1000 workers have quit
their places. The strikers assert that
the company has not been giving sutfi-
Gent work TO It's employees at the Sid
ney factory and demand more rigid en-
iorcement of the seniority rule, giving
oider employees the preference in ap-
portIoning work. Union weavers at the
plant refuse to supply cloth to non.
union workers.
At the Dunlap hat factory the EN-.
ployes walked out, refusing to work fo,
the new owners, the Knox Hat Com.
pany, on the ground that the new man
agement sought the abolition of tn,
union system in the plant. They also
maintain that the management has dis
charged many male employees for fe
male workers because the latter are
cheaper, and protest against the en-
ployment of children for the same rea
son. The strikers at the Dunlap plan
number about SEQ.
Wire Workers Are Out
More than 400 wire workers are ou
st the Waterbury wire factory, Myrtle
Avenue and Taaife Place They de
mand more pay and the cutting Of the
present tcnhour day to eight hours
Tho plant is completely tied up. The
management said yesterday that it was
willing TO discuss the question of hours
with the employees, but that it cannot
weld en- the wage demand
Strikes are also under way at Wards
Ea". .ry, Pacific Street between Wander
hilr and Carlton avenues; the American
Machine and Foundry Company. 552l
Second Avenue; and Corn & Gold
mans, AT Forty-frst Street
Greenpoint Men Strike
More than fifty men are on strike al
the Phoenix Tube Company, North FRS,
Street and briggs Avenue, and a SINH.
lar number are out at the plant of the
Greeapoint Show Case Company, 2ss
.Creenpoint Avenue. Between seventy
and eighty men of the Greenpoint Me.
tallic Bed Company, Greenpoint anc
Franklin Avenues, are on strike fol
more pay, shorter hours and better
working conditions. At the Manhattan
Briar Pipe Company, 425 Greenpoint
Avenue, strikers said 500 men are out
bu: the company asserts not more than
100 have struck.
Tho Children's Shoe Workers Union
which is conducting the strike of EN-.
ploycS at the Thomson shoe plant