The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-02-01
GENERAL LABOR NEWS

Toronto airplane woodworkers have
secured So cents an hour.
British trade union membership in
creased over 100000 last year.
Canadian munition workers have
been granted the right to organize.
Total membership of the Brother
hood of Bookbnders is almost 10000.
Journeyman tailors and women
helpers at Ottawa, Can, ask increased
pay. -....-.
In France women are working 10
hours a day, with two hours recess at
noon.
l. w. w. printed matter will not be
permitted to enter Canada from the
United States.
More than 5000 French and English
girls are now acting as chauffeurs in
the Red Cross service.
Coalville (England) trades and labor
council passed a resolution urging the
abolition of warehouses.
The British Columbia Employers
organization has been established to
cooperate with organized labor.
The Dominion and the province of
Ontario are to cooperate in the matter
of settling Canadian soldiers on the
land. .....
At Seattle, Wash, unskilled labor
ers, who never before made more than
SIG or SIS week, were paid $65 to
S75 a week in the shipbuilding yards.
Sixty per cent of the work on a ship
is in constructing the hull and the re-
naming 40 per cent is installing me-
chanical parts, deck furnishings and
other equipment that goes to make the
finished vessel.
The North Dakota state council Of
defense is solving two problems-the
| food problem and the surplus labor
problem-by putting workmen on un-
used farms in order to stimulate crop
production in the northwest.
Every day that one coal miner stops
work on strike there results loss in
production of % 3-inch shells. The
recent strike in Wilkesbarre, Pa,
caused loss of coal sufficient to supply
$4,000 families for the winter.
The 1000 employees Of the Western
Cartridge company, Alton, H., were
notified by J. L. Donnelly, secretary,
that the plant would cease operation
temporarily until the future work of
the company could be determined.
A standard low-heeled boot is now
worn by women in the English ship
yards, introduced by the arrangements
because of the many spraned ankles
that resulted from the clumsy, high
heeled shoes that were first worn by
the workers.
| Official announcement has been
made by the United States war de-
partment of the fact that woman mes
sengers in the Rock Island (Ill.) ar
senal are using roller skates TO speed
up" on their errands around and be-
tween buildings.
Samuel Gompers has recommended
| thol ilthLSul SAdIulildllOL VI WOlhClo
be made one of the functions of the
government labor recruiting agencies
as a measure which will greatly aug
ment and help to maintain the health
of our Industrial army"
Six hundred employees Of the Web
ster Manufacturing Co. at Tiffin, o. par
ticipated in bonus ranging from 8
per cent of their yearly income for men
who have been at the plant year to
2 per cent for men who have been
there three months. Checks covering
the bonus totaling over $4,000 were
issued to the men.
Because of their efficiency there is
an increased demand for women work.
ers in British shipyards, and among
their achievements has been the build
ing of temporary railway and the
laying of concrete platforms to re-
ceive the keels of ships.
The strike of the Toronto municipal
police force to enforce recognition OF
their union was called off as the re
] suit of an agreement reached at q
conference of the police commissioners
and representatives of the men. The
policemen returned to duty and all the
| questions at issue will be arbitrated
lbefore royal commission.
. u +