The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-11-29
BARRE GRANITE MEN
PROPOSE WAGE CUT
Can't Maintain Trade at Present Costs
Would Make Cutters's Pay from
75c to 81 an Hour

BARRE, Nov. 29.-For the past four
years the granite business has been fiat
and getting fiatter. Both employers and
employees have been waiting hopefully
that the business would come back, but
it hasn't.
There is a small amount of monu-
mental stone being cut but the orders are
so small and few that the outlook is dis
couraging. 1t has finally come to the ac-
copied fact that the trouble is that the
cost of granite has gotten so high that
possible customers go without or buy
something else.
The granite manufacturers think that
the cost of granite should be lessened by
decreasing wages. The granite workers
want the cost reduced by lowering trans
pOrtatiOn charges and saving in other
ways. Meanwhile the business has been
fading away.
To try to make progress and bring a
showdown the manufacturers have made
a proposition to the granite workers.
Maintaining that the retail mOnu-
mental dealers of the country, the archi-
| tects, engineers and owners of buildings,
have served notice on the granite manu-
facturers that they either would not buy
| or would buy as little granite as possible
until such time as management and labor
| costs had been reduced from war levels
| the manufacturers set forth the follow
! ing proposals to be answered by the gran
| lle cutters not later imam december ID.
The rates of wages shall be as follows ::
Granite cutters. 10 cents per hour, min
imum, one dollar per hour maximum :;
| pOlishers, 90 cents per hour, minimum, 30
| cents per hour maximum t0Ol-sharpeners
on hand fires, 40 cents per man per day.
or 60 cents per hour minimum, 30 cents
per hour, maximum, one dollar per hour
day.
4 weeks work shall consist of A hours,
eight hours per day for the first five days
of the week and four hours on Saturday.
Where local conditions permit, ii is desir-
| able to divide the work day into two per-
iOdS of four hours each.
Overtime shall be worked at the diScre-
tion of the employer and shall be paid for
| at the rate of - per cent extra. except
as follows: Work on Sunday, Memorial
day, July 4, Labor day, Thanksgiving day
and Christmas to be paid at the rate of
double time.
Extra shifts shall be worked at the dis
erection of the employer at straight time
The employer shall have full control
over all machinery as to hours of work
and class of work to be done by said ma
chinery. This clause shall apply to all
machinery in use at the present time and
to any machinery which may be brought
into use at any time in the future.
An employer shall be entitled to one
IRpprentice granite cutter to every four
| journeymen or fraction thereof: one ap-
prentice to each surface machine oper-
| atOr one apprentice to each polishing ms
chine operator; one apprentice to each
! tool operating machine, operator or
tool sharpener; any apprentice shall be
available at any time during hours for
| service on any machine.
These proposals shall apply in plants
| of members whose union agreements are
now recognized or may be recognized in
the future.
No strike. lockout. vacation or sus-
| pension of work shall be permitted dur
| ing the life of this agreement and in the
: event of a controversy, if the contracting
| parties are unable to agree, a committee
of arbitration shall be appointed. one by
| the management, one by the workmen and
| the third by the secretary of labor of the
| United States and their decision shall be
final and binding.
These proposals on the part of the gran
lite manufacturers differ from those sub
mitted by the granite cutters at the con-
| ference in September in several vital
points. as follows: Reduction in the wage
scale from SO a day to an SIS maximum
and SO minimum for granite cutters, with
the same average reduction for other
w0rkmen; continuance of the 44-hOur
week instead of reducing to the 40-hOur
week as proposed by the cutters control
of overtime placed in hands of employ
erS and reduction in rates; privilege of
putting on extra shifts at discretion of
employer; employer to have full control
of machinery instead of employe; increase
in number of apprentices allowed