Great Falls tribune., 1921-02-20

McMulln, all OF you fellows, a. well as
Mr.. O'Connell and Mr. Gompers, viii
talk about the benefits of union or
ganization, and there is nothing that
you can say about that that most of us
will not subscribe to, that men have a
right to organize, that they have a
right to take every legitimate action
to promote their welfare. to get better
working conditions, provide sick and
death benefits, etc.
Il haven't any use for narrow em-
ployer, any more than / have for an
agitating radical; one represents type
that is as far wrong from an employ
ing standpoint as the other does from
the standpoint of an employe. / believe
you have right to organize as long as
you act squarely and fairly upon the
broad principles Of union organiza ton,
to carry on legitimate propaganda
for the benefit of your members, TO
bargain collectively, to have an associa-
4 ton through You can present your
grievances, and to do anything else
that is fair and square and legitimate,
but there is one thing that l don't think
you have got right to do,. and that is
to impose unnecessary, burdensome,
upon industry, to hamper, to interfere
with, and to break down the proper
administration of an industry, and l
haven't any hesitation in saying that
think you have been guilty Of doing
| things that are costly, inefficient and
oppressive in your actions toward US.
Now want to be very clear about this.
Labor Unions.
| II see the representative of the car
penters' union here. What | have to
/ hoc
cation to the carpenters organization
in any Of our three localities, except as
It is involved generally. and I will say
in this respect has little application to
| Great Falls or Anaconda. In those
! places we have gotten along pretty
well. But it is chiefly confined to op-
pressve and absolutely unreasonable
conditions that exist in Butte, and /
will tel you what some of them are.
Every student of trade -unionism.
whether he be an advocate for or op-
ponent against uniOnism, recognizes
that the principal objections that an
employer has to trades unicnism comes
from two evils: One is the tendency TO
preach slowing up on the Job and the
other one is the constant claim as
skilled work, because it commands
higher rate of pay, work that is not
skilled work.
THE industrial reports of Great
Britain show that the industrial de-
cadence of British industry. the out
stripping of England by Germany in
the steel industry and in manufactur-
ing has been due to this propaganda on
the part of the British trades unions,
and there has been no place where we
have suffered more from it than we
have right here in Butte.
Now. let me give you an illnstra
ton. Suppose We want to install. and
good many Of you union men viii be
surprised, l think, at some of these
things if you think them over-sup-
pose we want to put in little fan un-
derground. What do we have to do?
We have to get carpenter and help
and machinist and helper to do the
job that any two men in this room
can do.
Another Case.
Suppose we have an electric motor
that needs little fixing down at one
of the mines where there is no shop.
We have an electrical worker there,
a fellow who is on the job, who is an
electrician; he is q member of your
organization; We are paying him the
wages you ask. and you in turn have
given him a card certifying that he
has the skill required for an electrical
worker: something goes wrong with an
electric motor: be is an employe Of the
Anaconda company: We ask him to fix
it. No: that is trouble work This
fellow can sit down on his tail and re-
fuse to fix it while the foreman of the
mine, which may be mile and half
from the shop, has to telephone up to
Sho Shnn 0pd rof onotbap ysnn,hny af
your union, who has been sitting
around waiting for something to hap
pen. to come down and fix that loco |
motive. |
1T is this constant fighting over
the jurisdiction of work that makes |
oppressive conditions. / remember one |
time when there was u fire here un |
derground in one of the mines, and we |
were endeayoring to install fan to |
pull the gas away from men who had |
to work in it in, order to try and save |
the lives of their fellow workers and !
the property, that in the installation |
of that far-I don't know whether it |
was the screwing up Of a nut or what,
but some simple operation that a boy
could perform, row developed be- /
tween the electrical worker and the I
on the job, and they both
threatened to quit. Now, those are
things that I say are oppressive: those
are the things that / say illustrate
what is wrong. and they are the sort
of things. gentlemen, that are going
to determine the relations. am speak
ing now of the Anaconda company
with your organization.
Reasonable Rules Needed.
'1f we can establish reasonable
working conditions, reasonable rules
under which we can 90 ahead and do
business, and if we can cut out these
grievances which we feel are foolish
and oppressive, there is no reason why
we cannot proceed amicably, fairly.
decently and self respectively. and So
operate in our work. am saying this
to jon just as candidly as ! can. On
the other hand. if We cannot operate
under such modified conditions. ii we
cannot get an adjustment of some OF
the matters that we feel are grievances
on our part. then We have come to a
parting Of the ways, and | don't want
to see that happen If it can be avoided,
so that the relations between the Or
CARNATIONS and ourselves is very much
up to you; it is very much more IN
your hands this morning than it is in
ours.
II have cited just few instances,
there are great many Of them, and
I want to say this, because / am try
ing to tell you the whole story. I be-
linva fbot thnrn rbou}H ha prnpnr Hi- |