The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-03
BRISTOL JOINERS REFUSE WAGE CUT
 HOLD UP SCHOOL
City Arbitrarily Reduces Carpenters I2A Gents an Hour and Men
 Walk Of Jobs.

Bristol, March 3.-Work on the new high school which is being erect ed by the city, was considerably held up this week when the city lncontln- ently and arbitrarily cut the wages ot carpenters employed on the job from 87h cents an hour to 7S cents and the carpenters quit. Although strenuous efforts were made all week to secure competent carpenters who would ac- cept the new, wage of $6 day, they were unsuccessful and until the mat ter is adjusted otherwise, the work will be held up. The school Is far along practically only the inside finish remaining to be done but although there are nearly 100 other workers in the building, the carpenters alone were picked out for a wage cut.
 The notice of the reduction i'll wages was first given Friday and Saturday afternoon. When the car penters quit work they declared that they would not do any work for 75 cents an hour. The new high school being a city proposition, city officials said necessitated the cutting down ot expense because of the big burden ot debt which the city IS carrying, and the wage reduction was only made 10 assist in bringing things back to a pre-War basis.
 A committee from the carpenters union waited upon William F. Foley, general superintendent in charge ot the construction of the new school building. Superintendent Foley said that the cut, from 871a cents an hour to 75 cents an hour, was III effect, and that if the carpenters wanted to re- turn to work at that figures, they could, h,,+ ho nf fI0a receiving their old scale, of 875z cents.
 The committee consisted of Elmer Warehouse, business agent and sec retary of the union; William Patter- son and A. B. Grady. Following their conference, the committee issued public statement, which IS:
 Following a conference held with MT. William Foley, general superin- tendent at the high school building, this morning, we were given to un- derstand that the carpenter work at the new high school building will henceforth be done by SC day men, and that men would be secured to do the work at $6 a day. The general public does not understand that car penters do not work every day III the year, and that when this is taken into consideration, our wage scale of $7 day Is not by any means un- reasonable. Last year, the carpenters worked just 1oI days, 1A hours, and some of those days were very cold weather. We received our notice ill wages on Friday night, and Saturday morning we finished structure for three rooms, showing that even though we only got half notice of a reduction, we did not lay down he te work on the building has been com months more work left. That, the way we figure, would mean a small saving of approximately $2,oI6 in the difference in wages"
 In another statement, MT. Water house pointed out that even at the reduction made the saving to the city would be but about $2,ooo which dis tributed to the taxpayers would en- able them to reduce their rents about 7H cents month which was surely to be looked forward to eagerly. The scale of carpenters in Bristol was lower than elsewhere in the state be- fore the reduction and with the pres ent cost of living, the carpenter can see no reason for his accepting anoth- CT cut now.
 The men who quit took their tools from the building on Wednesday and will remain off until the matter is ad- :, justed to their satisfaction. Mean time the city will find it difficult to get capable carpenters to take their places so the school instead of being finished III about four months will probably go over into fall before com pleted, unless the city comes to terms.