The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-30
Union Printers in Job Shops
May Not Report Monday.
Action Will Affect a Score OF
Topeka Firms.
FAIL TO AGREE AT CONFERENCE
Issue Involves Disagreement on
44-HOur Week.
Employers Refuse Offer of Ten
Per Cent Wage Cut.

! Orders from the international off
| GERS of the International Typograph-
zeal union, authorizing the members of
the local unions to leave the shops in
| which the fOrty-four hour week is not
put into effect on May 1, have been
! posted on the bulletin boards of local
unions, and every indication is to the
/ effect that the printers in the book
and job shops of Topeka will not re-
port for work on Monday morning.
| No Agreement Reached.
| A conference between representa-
/ tlveS of the local topographic union,
/ Topeka Typographical union No. 121,
i and committee from the Graphic
Arts club of Topeka, an organization
including practically every employing
! printing firm in the city, held Friday
night. ended with the two parties to
! the discussion no nearer an agreement
than they were before the conference
/ started.
The issue is a flat disagreement on
whether the printers should work
| forty-four hours a week. or forty
eight the present scale. it Is said.
The bulletin posted by the executive
committee of the Typogra phical union
Friday. while making no definite
walk out, announced the ruIingyof the
| international officers, and stated that
| there is but one course open to u.s.
| if the conference Friday night was not
successful.
| Ives Makes Statement.
The position of the employers was
stated today in an interview with Nell
son Ives, secretary of the Graphic Arts
club.
"The whole question Is one of hours
| Nelson Ives said. IF the forty-four- hour
week goes into effect. it means that one
/ closed. 1t means that twenty-six working
days of each year are lost
THAT means more to than to the en-
pIoyer whose men furnish their own tools
I For every 1ourneyman printer employed,
the. employer must furnish more than
$500 worth of equipment and machinery,
which will have to stand idle, making no
| return on the Investment IN it, during this
month of each year
of supervision. This work is done by
people who are not paid by the hour. but
| aries go on. during that month which is
1 losts to production.
/ pense of twelve months must be covered
i in eleven months.
Cost Increased Is Per Cent
That in turn, means that the cost of
! is per cent. We cannot increase the
prices of printing. a falling market.
| Prices just now must be reduced, rather
THAT is the stand point of the. employ
ing printers on the question of the forty
! fourth week.
Involves Open Shop Question.
The union bulletin posted declares
| that the fight which is coming is not
| altogether a fight for a forty-four hour
week, but is "a fight against the union
hating open shop vendetta calling
themselves the Employing Printers of
1 America who in their monthly bull
letins have brazenly declared for the
suppression of the unions and the es-
tablishment of the nine-h day"
The fight of the union men, the bull
letin states, is directed. second,
against the tyrannical assumption by
/ men outside the printing industry, of
the right to dictate to employing
printers and their employees the terms
of the contracts they shall make and
shall not make"
Refuse Wage Cut.
The union bulletin declares that the
employers of Topeka have refused to
accept the offer of the unions to re-
duce the wage scale 10 per cent in
view of the reduction of S15 per cent
ing printers admit having declined
that offer. in view of the arguments
submitted by Nelson Ives.
Nineteen printing shops are MEM
bers of the Graphics Arts club. 1t has
been impossible to discover how many
men in Topeka will be affected if the
strike is called in Topeka. Much de-
pends, it is pointed out on the action
of the allied trades unions, including
the binders and the press feeders. if
the members of the Typographical
union leave their jobs. The printing
industry is the second in importance
and in the number of people en-
ployed, in the city of Topeka.
No Effect on Daily Papers.
The strike. if it occurs, will not af-
feet daily newspapers or the state
printing plant, which fact has aroused
81
printers. In the bulletin issued after
the conference Friday night the fol-
lowing paragraph occurs:
! The meeting resulted in no agree
ment being reached. The union de-
manded the 44-hour week. which was
by the union committee for its action
in granting the forty eight hour week
to the newspapers and State. Printing
plant. 1t is simply a case Of making
an unreasonable demand on the book
and job offices
Will Meet Sunday.
The regular meeting of the Typo
graphical Union and of other unions
occurs Sunday, and the possibility that
some step toward an adjustment of the
difficulty, may be taken at that time,
but the employers and employees alike
are preparing for the closing of the
shops Monday.
> IN tne- union Dullelln a paragraph
is inserted instructing all members OF
the union. no matter what the result
I of the final conferences. to leave the
shops tonight in all respects as If they
intended to return to work Monday
morning, and not in any word or act
to damage the record for square deal
ing and uprightnesc which the unior
| has established.
The strike is an international affair
and the printers of the entire United
States are acting under the same or
) ders which apply to the plants in To
peka. Efforts by officers of the ma
} tional government to avert the threat