The Connecticut labor press., 1919-12-13
LABOR LEADER
 GETS AND EARNS
 $l8,OOO A YEAR
New York City's Building Trades
 President Great Factor for Industrial Peace
HOLDS LIFE JOB
Policies in Many Respects Similar to Those of Connecticut Fed
 eration of Labor's Leaders.

eration of Labor's Leaders. How Robert F. BrindeIl, New YorRs 1 highest paid labor leader earns every dollar of the $18O00 year which he
 receives, is told most interestingly in an
 article recently appearing in a New
 York newspaper and local labor men
 point with pride to the fact that his | policies of promoting industrial peace, | which make him particularly valuable to
 all concerned, are similar to the policies pursued by the leaders of the Counec- l t1cut Federation of Labor.
 IL The. article in question is in part as 1 follows:
 1 ''In these days if you want construc- ltiYe work done you have to employ
 specialist, and you have to pay the spe- l cIahst's price.
 1 Tt is nobody's business what labor
 leader receives if the rank and file of l his organization IS satisfied. If the workers of union can win a 10 per cent. increase III wages through expert l guidance and counsel without strike, 1t
 means more to them III the long run ] than an advance of 25 or 30 per cent. l after long strike.
 1t IS to accomplish just such ends as this that the rank and file of labor is willing to pay. Such salaries to their
 leaders are mark of their apprecia- tion"
 Robert P. Brindell, New York City's highest paid labor leader, gets SIS, 1000
 a year and admits that he's worth It. The reason why he sets forth in the foregoing quotation.
 Moreover, Mr. Brindei1 has a life contract and intends to pilot the busi-. xaf he R14zf -aact Council, of which he Is the head through many eventful years to come giving a dollars worth of expert iead- ership for every dollar that goes to his
 bank account from the pockets of the l union toi1ers affiliated with the organ ization.
 He believes, however, that the worst storm that the building trades of New
 York City will ever have to weather IS
 over-that it was identified with the.
 great strike which tied up the industry 1 last summer and fa1l-and that peace 1 ful, prosperouS ways are ahead. These prospects, he believes, are due to the fterns of the settlement arranged-a settlement which insures the union men ] against another strike for two years at least. Just what this means may be gath cred when you recall that up to very. recent date it was not uncommon to l have 100 to 150 different strikes in the building trades of New York City in | progress at one time. Now we need 1 look for none. Just let the builders bring on the material and we'll run up
 houess so fast that rent prices will fall 1 fully 25 per cent. by next fall Just 1 little business settlement of the strike 1 that's all.
 Since 1918, the wages of the 5000 members of Local No. 1,456 of the Brotherhod of Carpenters and Joiners, of which MT. Brfndell is business rep resentative in addition to being presi- 1 dent of the Building Trades Counsel, I have advanced g per cent At this the l business agent says the advance has not been proportionate with the advance in l living costs He estimates from figures compiled under his direction that the cost of living has jumped 85 per cent. i in this time. sl4 s
 | Nor has the high-salaried labor lead CT confined his activities merely to ob-. 1 taining wage advances and satisfactory | strike settlements for the AZ unions
 represented in the council Some of his most prided services have been devoted to the effort to keep American un1onism clear of the taint of Bolshev1sm. 1t may not be generally known, but 1 the Bolsheyiki have been exerting des-l perate efforts to obtain control of what may be termed the key industries l such as the building trades, the harbor workers, the railroads, etc.-in this | country" he said in discussing this line | of his work as a specialist. Why, over l in Brooklyn awhile back they got the 1 Bolsheviki fever and went crazy over l the idea of SIC day. It took some pretty strong activities to put this movement down, but we did 1t. MT. Brindell has bought a five-story building down at No. 12 St Marks
 Place and is having 1t overhauled and renovated as a home for the Carpen- | ters' Union. Fellow workers say that he has paid many heavy expense bills of the union out of his own pocket, even | hiring and sending aides to other parts of the country when he saw an oppor-s
 tunity to do something that might re bound to the advantage of one of his ! unions.
 Just to show that he did not put
 anything over" on the union when he obtained the lifetime contract, MT.
 Brinde1l recited that fact that everyone of the 2,o38 members on hand at the
 meeting whe nthe matter came up voted for his contract. He added:
 When I was first elected to my pres-
 ent position dock carpenters in New
 York were receiving $3.20 day. The locals membership was about 300. That
 was in 1912. The next year had the
 pay of the men raised to $4 both in
 New York and in New Jersey; in the
 latter state the men had been paid only
 s for a 10-hour day.
 Dock carpenters are now receiving
 $6.50 day, and on January l, their
 pay goes up to %.50. The local has
 5000 members, 10 times as many as 1t
 had when 1 was elected to office. i
 Under, the former arrangement l.
 received money for my expenses i'll ad-
 dition to my salary. 1 now pay these
 myself In addition, 1 sometimes have
 as many as seven representatives on the
 road seeing to the work of the union.
 the jurisdiction of which extends from
 Philadelphia to the Massachusetts line.
 Men are given jobs of that kind If
 they have been injured and are unable
 for time to work at their trade. They
 receive no salary from the union, but
 when their work is finished I give them