The Connecticut labor press. (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921, 1919-08-30

ton ana Restore Ur0er.
Bridgeport, Aug. 2o.-Labor Day will
see a new era of trade unionlsm and
industrial welfare inaugurated for
Bridgeport.
This is due to the determination of
the Connecticut Federation of Labor to
bring order out of chaos in this city and
to substitute legitimate trade union
methods of adjustment for the spon-
taneous combustion brand of strikes
and industrial eruptions which have in
many instances, brought diseaster to
Bridgeport and gained but little for or
ganized labor beyond i'll repute.
In this determination the Connecticut
Federation of Labor has the hearty
support of all international bodies af-
fected and of the great maj jority of the
members of trade unions of the city, as
attested by the official approval of the
Bridgeport Central Labor Union. That
its efforts to keep the city clear from the
dominance of irresponsible agitators in
the future will have the hearty support
of all goes without saying.
The new order of things means much
for Bridgeport as a community and for
organized labor, for the welfare of the
workers will be the first consideration,
coupled with an earnest desire to ad-
vance the prosperity of the city and its
enterprises. If the business interests
of the cit justly sense the attitude and
policy of the men who will hereafter
direct organized labor in Bridgeport
they will extend to them the heartiest
cooperation.
When Secretary Ornburn of the Fed
GRAFTON went to Bridgeport recently to
aid in adjusting the strikes among the
corset makers he discovered the local
situation to be so impregnated with the
dominance of irresponsible labor lead
ership that real constructive effort SO
far as the whole field was concerned
was impossible.
The executive council of the Fedora
ton decided that before anything else
could be attempted that the situation
must be improved and Secretary Orn-
burn was detailed to make Bridgeport
his headquarters until the desired re-
suit was achieved.
A review of conditions as they are
today shows that much has been accom-
pliShed. In the corset strikes notable
success has been won and where the
workers in that industry were organ
lied to only 10 per cent. previous to
this campaign they are now organized
o5 per cent and in excellent condition.
At the plant of the Warner Corset
Company where $500 employees were
affected, recognition of the union has
been achieved with a 44-hour week, a
general increase of wages amounting to
20 per cent. and the elimination of
charges against the operatives for
thread. The representatives of the or
carnations involved do not hesitate to
give Mr.. Warren full credit for hearty
co-operation in arriving at this salts
factory result:
At the Batcheller Corset Company,
employing 1000, the same conditions
were secured.
The La Resista Corset Company, en-
ploying 30O signed the same agreement.
At the Acme Shear Companys fac
tory an increase in wages of lO per
cent. to take effect Immediately, with
an additional increase of II per cent.
to take effect September Isl was Sc
cured. Recognition of the unions was
also secured. The organizations affect
ed are the Metal PoIshers and the
Molders. About 700 employees are
benefited.
The workers at the CanfelG Rubber
Company have ben well organized and
a gain of twelve and half per cent. in
wages secured, with a 4o-hour week.
There are ESQ employed there.
The employees of the Challenge Cut
lery Company, who were wholly unor-
ganized, have been organized and a
gain of 10 per cent. in wages secured
with recognition of the shop commit
tee. These are machinists and metal
po1ishers.
By comparison it might be mentioned
that Samuel Lavit, the director of the
opposition camp, has gained nothing
whatever for the workers who went out
under his direction, in spite of extraW@-
CANT promises.
At the Bryant Electric Company the
men have all gone back under exactly
the same conditions under which they
o,1;t except that 88 employees are out
of a job, the company having refused
to reinstate them.
The employees of the Yost Type
writer Company have gone back WITH
ont gaining anything whatever, as have
those of several smaller shops which
were struck by the Lavit forces.
The situation at the shop of the Co
Iunnbia Graphophone Company is too
we'll known to require comment. ms
strike has been wholly under Lav1ts S
direction and at the time of writing the
resait that seems most likely of achieve
ment is the removal of the entire plant
from Bridgeport. The number OF en-
ployees is $500.
Secretary Ornburn and E. L. Dawson,
secretary-treasurer of the international
Machinists' Union, together with rep,
resentatives of other international
unions affected, have combined from the
start to rescue the situation from Lavit
and his henchmen.
Lavit, they state, manifested not the
slightest regard for the laws of the
international and made promises to the
workers which no organizer could hope
to fulfill. The Connecticut Federation
of Labor is determined that it will have
nothing whatever to do with situa-
ton in which the laws of the interna.-
fionat bodies are defied or ignored and
when t discovered the strikers to be in
direct opposition to their international
Il refused to take any part in the fight.
When pSecretary- Treasurer Dawson
arrived from Washington he found the