The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-01-28
STRIKE OF UNION
BANK CLERKS


way Clerk
Opening OF the Trades Union Saw
ings and Loan Company of Cincin-
natl will not be attended by the GER
emony that marked the opening of
the Big Brotherhood of Locomotive
! Engineers Bank of Cleveland; in
fact, the venture of local trade
/ unionists into the sacred haunts OF
the capitalists is not as pretentious
an undertaking as the former. But
there is on interesting story woven
around the local undertaking; a
story which is perhaps distinct in
the annals of the trade union move
ment; a story of how strike of
union bank clerks resulted in the
establishment of a workers coop
erative building and loan association
which is expected to soon evolve
into a cooperative bank.
William + Coleman worked for
the First National Bank of Cincin-
natl for seven and half years. He
was a bookkeeper of individual ac-
counts, handling about five hundred
and fifty accounts aggregating three
or three and a half million dollars,
for which he received the handsome
salary of 81 400 year up to June
last, when his salary was boosted to
81 800 a year-$125 month. Seven
and half years of grinding at this
wage, long hours-8:30 in the morn
ing "till he got through at night"
very often as late as 10 o'clock with
no pay for overtime-did not con-
duce to make of Coleman the hum
BILE servant that such conditions
usually make of bank clerks. He
began agitating. He didn't have
much trouble convincing E. p.
Kelley, who had seen fourteen years
service in this institution, and
Charles Long, who had been a faith
full servant for twenty-five years
and had risen to position paying
1925 a month, that they hadn't much
to lose by forming a union of bank
clerks. They talked things over with
others whom they trusted and final
ly seventeen agreed to join. A
charter was secured from the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, and Bank
Employees Union 1894 came into be-
ing. Meetings of the union were
held weekly during the month of
June and July, and of course it
wasn't long before it was tipped off
to the bank officials.
80 Clerks Down Pens
On July %, before his departure
for New York, the vice-president of
the First National called Richard
Cooke, financial OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
of the union, into his office, told him
that he was leaving for the East
and would be back the following
Monday, and that as he had heard
Cooke was an officer of the union
he did not want to find him at the
bank upon his return. E. P. Kelley,
treasurer of the union, was drafted
into service as grievance man and
| asked for conference with the 9TH
er bank officials, at which he laid
before them Cookies case and asked
them if they would not reinstate
him. They said they would pro-
vided he dropped out of the union.
Not Goeke-he quit. Then things
began to happen.
Coleman, president of the union,
was hailed by the bank policeman
when he entered the bank the fol-
lowing Monday and was told to beat
it. Bill Fleming, a member of the
union, came in five minutes late that
morning-he got it too. Then, to
the surprise of the bank officials
and the union officials, too-thirty-
nine men and women "downed" pens
typewriters and adding machines and
walked out. Offers of an increase
of $50 per month, with the proviso
thnu hn,
cidn't fetch them back either.
Better Jobs and a Bank
The strike hasn't been settled to
this day and probably never will be.
But who will say that the first
strike of union bank clerks in Gin
cinnati was lost? The net result up
to date is: Jobs at better salaries
for every person that strufk; a CO.
operative bank under way, and the
union still intact.
Coleman has been employed in the
office of the Grand Secretary-Treas-
urer of the Brotherhood of Railway
and Steamship Clerks, Freight Hand
lers, Express and Station Employees
since he got fired. He is Still
president of Bank Clerks Union
1884, and as such regularly attends
the Central Labor Council where he
succeeded in getting the Councils
endorsement of the cooperative
bank. 1t will be located in the
Labor Temple, owned by the Boot
and Shoe Workers Union, next door
to the Machinists Cooperative gro
Gerry store.
A Strike Is Never Lost
The bank committee, headed by
Coleman, has consulted DR.. Fred
eric C. Howe, the recognized leader
IN the movement for workers coop
erative banks, who is giving them
very valuable assistance Having
no assurance of any large deposits
and having to rely solely on the de-
posts of wage earners for the time
| being at least, some doubt was ex.
| pressed as to whether it was ad.
visable to Immediately start out te
DO a commercial banking business
The writer suggested that start
be made by organizing a building
and loan association. DR.. Howe an.
proved the plan. The association
will open it's doors very shortly anC
the number that have already agreed
to buy shares leads the committee
to believe that the institution will be
doing a regular banking business
before very long. When that time
comes Bank Employees Union 1884,
will be ready with a corps of expert
clerks, because the strikers still
hold their union cards.
The old saying that strike is
never lost certainly holds good in
the case of the strike of union bank
clerks in Cincinnati
ROSfOffica Rannxf