The Monmouth inquirer., 1921-09-15
WAGE SCALES CUT
IN CHICAGO
Workers in A. Construction
Trades Reduced From 10 to
1870 by Lands Decision.
BIG OPERATIONS TO START.
$50, ,ooo, 900 Jobs viii at cnce Be Com
pIeted, Giving Employment to
$4,000 Men-Labor Saving
Machinery May Be Used.


Chicago mashing the cost of
building in Chicago and reducing wage
scales for the construction workers,
Judge Landis handed down his de-
cision in the building arbitration,
which has been before him for nearly
three months.
high as 33 per cent Of the old uniform
rate of pa, of SIPS an hour for skilled
workers, and affect $4,000 union work
ers affiliated with forty-four building
trades, coupled with the elimination of
all restrictions on Nlabor saving ma
chinery and materials of any sort save
prison made. Judge Landis 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-
ziers or fixture hangers. All of these
were originally in the wage controver-
sy, but withdrew following clash
over Judge Landis' refusal to be par
ty to certain clauses in their agree
ments. At one stage of the arbitra-
tion Judge Landis 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 $1.25 rateGfor
the important uniol s were as follows:
Plumbers, 50 cents bricklayers, $1.10;
steamitters, 90 cents; electricians.
$110; cement finishers, 85 cents; or
nament iron workers, SO cents; slate
and tile roofers, 81.
Common labor was slashed more
deeply, coming down from the old
scale o. 81 to TN 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 steaEfitters, who
had always been near thy top of every
wage scale, found themselves at 95
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 Landis 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 25 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 in
the Lands award will result in a SI5,-
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
r. e. Davidson, president of the ILL
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.
NAinEn nyc DI An EnR o zr nErH