Evening star., 1922-11-29
NAVY YARD WAGES
TOO LOW, is CLAIM
,Cont.nuad from First Page.)

tCont!nuod from First Page.b
ened to discharge any of his men who
gave information as to their wages
TO the navy yard men. Mr.. Price also
pointed out the bonuses paid workers
in private shops. He asserted that in
some shops certain piece of work,
for instance, is estimated on as a
twelve .hour job. If the man put on
it does il in eight hours, he gets the
, twelve hours pay.
S. s. Gicher. also representing the
molders in the local gun factory. told
of the methods used by foundrymen
in Philadelphia in fixing the wages
OF employees.
He said the employers meet once a
year with a committee of the men,
both of whom have collected data.
: They take data from large firms with
in a radius of 200 miles. If eXamlna-
tion of the data collected by :he en-
ployes and the foundrymea conficts,
then it is thrown out Only such data
as agrees is accepted in fixing the
wages. he said. But. he continued. the
wage they fix is the minimum wage.
and this wage is used oy the Navy
: Wage Boards in fixing the maximum
wages for the highest class of me-
chanics in the world. Though the
molders here do work which outside
firms cannot do. he said they are paid
! on the basis Of the lowest class of
/
where the local yard men had mold
ed ordnance material which cid not
require subsequent "machining."
. W. T. Probert, representing molders
at Brooklyn. said that all the mold
ers there asked was that the govern
ment comply with the las, which
says that the navy yard workers
should receive equal pay to that al
lowed by outside firms to their en-
ployes. He lntimated that the local
boards had not complied with the
, law in this respect While they mad
been recommended for an increase in
wages by the local board at Brook
: lyn. he said that even with the in
crease they would receive less money
than the lowest paid molder in pri-
dicted that molders in private plants
would receive another increase in
wages in the spring of 1929.
Seek Lnw Opinion.
w. J. Gallagher. Brooklyn, N. T.,
| representing painters. sought from
the board an opinion on the law. He
wanter to know whether the en-
ployes. in gathering their data, had to
confine themselves to shipyards, or
wages paid painters of buildings, ETC.
Both A. J. Berres and Chief Clerk
Curtis. members Of the board, said
! they would say that they could in
clude data on such work.
We'll, then" he said. 1.-The local
board would not even consider such
data"
He said that the local board was
very unjust to the men and that the
data it collected was not accurate in
any way. He said that painters in
the Brooklyn yard were required to
! do all kinds of work, citing instances
where they were required to do tiling
and paperhanging, crafts which get
a higher rate of pay than painters.
a. H. Bradshaw of Norfolk made a
plea for a rs per cent increase in
wages for helpers at the Norfolk
yard. He gave instances where these
men, who get $3.50 a week. were
heavily in debt. and pointed out that
the local board had recommended
them for a decrease.
A uniform wage scale for all navy
yards also was urged by N. T. Alifas,
president of District No. "a, Inter-
national Association Of Machinists,
who said he spoke for all the ma
chinist employees at navy yards,
calling for a rs per cent increase over
the base scale of 73 cents an hour,
which he declared was in effect for
his craft. Rear Admiral Strauss said
this would be contrary to law.