News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-09-14
WAGE SCALES CUT
IN CHICAGO
Workers in a. Construction
Trades Reduced From 10 to
1870 by Lands Decision.
BIG OPERATIONS TO START.
$50, o00o 900 Jobs Will at Cnce Be Com
pleted, Giving Employment to
$4,000 Men-Labor Saving
Machinery May Be Used.

Chicago. shing the cost OF
| building in Chicago and reducing wage
scales for the construction workers,
! Judge Lands handed down his de-
cision in the building arbitration,
which has been before him for nearly
three months.
The wage cuts varied from 10 to as
high as SO per cent of the old uniform
rate of pa, of $1.25. an hour for skilled
workers, and affect 10000 union work
ers affiliated with forty-four building
trades coupled with the elimination of
all restrictions on labor saving ma
| chinery and materials of any sort save
prison made. Judge Lands estimated
! the saving in actual cost would be
| about 20 per cent.
No wage is ann unced for the car.
penters, the painters, sheet metal
workers, elevator constructors gla-
Tiers or fixture hangers. All of these
were originally in the wage controver-
sy, but withdrew following a clash
| over Judge Landis refusal to be par
ty to certain clauses in their agree
ments. At one stage of the arbitra-
| ton Judge Lands advised certain of
the union officials to hire a lawyer to
keep them out of trouble, because he
saw violations of federal and state
laws in some of the agreements.
Reductions from the S1.25 rate for
the important unioI S we're as follows:
Plumbers, 90 cents; bricklayers, S1.10;
steamtitters, 95 cents; elect. icians,
$1.10; cement finishers, So cents or
nament iron workers, 95 cents; slate
and tile roofers, 81.
Common labor was slashed more
deeply, coming down from the old
scale o. 81 to 721a cents an hour. Ex-
cavating laborers receive 4712 cents an
hour and wall eXcavators a slightly
higher amount.
Although the carpenters were not
included in the arbitration. Judge Ian
dis said they were entitled to 81 an
hour. The plasterers and painters also
remained outside the arbitration.
Rejection of the wage decision was
forecast by Thomas Kearney, presi-
dent of the Chicago Building Trades
Council.
The unions affected promised to
abide by the result of the arbitration
before Judge Lands would agree to-
become umpire.
The plumbers and steaLlfitters, who,
had always been near thu top of every
wage scale, found themselves at 90
cents an hour, 10 cents lower than the
wage of the bricklayers, with whom
they had hitherto kept even pace.
This was explained by Judge Lands in
his decision as follows:
employers and employees of some
trades, acting in cooperation, have re-
fused to the public the benefit of the
economy that would result from the.
operation of the provision which
would not prevent the contractor from
working on his own job. Three trades
require work to be done by skilled men
that laborers or helpers might do.
Therefore, in fixing the wage in these
trades | have been obliged to consider
the waste thus occasioned"
AS a result of the decision it was
expected that between 10000 and 5O,-
600 men would go back at work with
hammer, trOwel and shovel.
The average cut in building payrolls
will be little more than % per cent,
according to prominent contractors.
The largest construction job in the
city, being built by the Koppers Com
pany of Pittsburgh for the gas compa-
ny, reported that the cut of wages n
the Lands award will result in S15,-
600 week reduction on the Job,
which will last for two months more.
The new wage scale, coupled with
the abolition of restrictions on the hir-
ing of men and the use of labor saving
devices and material, was asserted by
F. f. Davidson, president of the Ili-
nois Society of Architects, to consti-
tute one of the most momentous deci-
siOns ever handed down in the history
of the United States building indus
try.