Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-07-25

| the radical element in labor who
| instead of using the strike for the
protest which it should be, use it,
or try to, as club to fur
Their their own individual selfish
eros AMI row-beat their employers
and the public in general. Such
men are not true union men. My
ell erience has been that publ .
opinion with the strike go hand in
hand and l believe that it is only
with the sympathy of the public
that strikes should be called, be-
cause after all, the public is the
master. In some cases this also
would fail, bat more of that fur
Their on.
Now we come to the Contractors
association. When the Contrac-
t. rs association heard the demands
of the painters they entered Pre-
test with the Building Trades ana
the Central Labor council. The
Central Labor council passed the
buck to the Building Trades
(Which was proper and the Build
ing Trades got down to business
to straighten things out and very
shortly showed that they were not
in sympathy with the painters,
when all of a sudden the Contrac-
tors association decided on a lock-
out. Very childish and very nearly
as radical and uncompromising q
position as that o fthe painters
and one which will not have the
sympathy of the public because I
know on good authority that it was
not wholly the painters strike
which prompted the Contractors
association to take the steps 1t
did. There has been open shop"
talk in Albuquerque for some time
and the contractors have taken adj
vantage of the situation the paint
ers created to put chip on their
shoulder and test the strength of
labor-this at time when the
world Is crying construction and
against a Building Trade which ts
trying to assist them. Here again
public opinion was not considered,
but simply individual selfish views.
Now for a remedy. 1t is SO
simple that any fair minded person
will laugh at the commotion this
little word war has started, 1t is
this: 1t is up to the Building
Trades to reorganize with the
painters local left out until such
time as they can prove they are
guided in their movements by pure
ly union instincts and can keep
faith and it is up to the organized |
Building Trades to address letter |
to the Contractors association stat |
ing that they deeply deplore the |
stand taken by them and can see |
no legitimate excuse for 1t unless
it is that that body allowed itself |
to be swayed by few radicals as
did the painters union.
There is absolutely no good |
reason why the rest of the Building
Trades should suffer.
Now as to the teamsters' strike.
This is harder matter to. settle
and can be made clearer by what /
could be parallel case. The mo-
torettes in Albuquerque are under
paid and every one knows it, but
if they were to, organize and go on
a strike for more pay, although
they certainly would have the SYM
pathy of the public, they would
lose out because their places would
be asily filled. This brings the mat
ter to the difference between skill
ed and unskilled labor. AS | said
before, a legitimate strike should
have the backing of the public hut
in the above case as in the team
sters' case the public you'd lose
interest in it inside of a week.
Sincerely hoping that the above
may help matters some, am,
C, A. Gildersleeve, |,
July 90. (Electrician.)