The New York herald., 1922-04-21
'SNOWBALLS KILLING
BOOM, SAY BUILDERS.
Outlaw Move to Force $12|
a Day Wage Spreading,
the Charge.
FARLEY HITS A SNAG
Employers Statement Is
Taken by Labor to Mean
Wage Cuts.
BRICKLAYERS ASSAILED
Have Given Work a Slam and
Plasterers Threaten Knock
out, Says Report.
BRICKLAYERS ASSAILED

Indications that the negotiations be-
tween the Building Trades Council and
the Building Trades Employers AS
sociation with view to a permanent
wage scale were not getting anywhere
were seen in statement issued last
night by the board of governors of the
Building Trades Employers Associa-
ton. They complain of a growing
number of outlaw" or 'snowball'
strikes. The movement is spreading,
the statement says, until the payment
of as much as S12 day or So above
the agreed wage. has not resulted in
an adequate supply of labor.
Tho bricklayers and plasterers are
not members of the Building Trades
Council. but the condition in their
trades is said to reflect what obtains
among the member unions. In labor
union circles last night the decision of
the Building Trades Employers to lay
their case before the public was re-
garded as a strategical move to enlist
support for a general downward re-
vision of wage scales in unskilled la
Dor. The Employers Association says:
'The bricklayers have given the great
housing construction boom hard slam
and the plasterers threaten to knock
it out.
"In the big building year of 1919 the me-
chanics discovered that the outlaw or
snowballing strike could be effectively
used to increase wages. Ten dollars
day is now the agreed rate for brick
layers and plasterers. and the journey
men have again resorted to outlaw or
snowballing strikes to raise their wages.
They have deserted the jobs OF a num-
Der of the members of the Building
Trades Employers Association, includ-
ing the new Bowery Savings Bank
Building at Forty-second street and
Park avenue,i for which the George A.
Fuller Company is the contractor. They
have deserted the jobs of Dwight +.
Robinson Co., Inc, at Fifty-eighth
street and Park avenue. and the J. q.
White Engineering Corporation at Elm
hurst. l.. l. These two firms are work.
ing under an agreement with the brick
layers union which has been under
written or guaranteed by the interna-
tional union. Three hundred bricklayers
have left the work of the members of
the Employers Association and that OF
the other contractors named
The snowballing began about
month ago on the work of the specula-
tive builders OF The Bronx and then
spread to Brooklyn. 1t met with sue
cess. 1t commenced with the tying UP
of job and the offer to return to work
at $l1 day. The builder gave in. The
strike then spread to other jobs and
within four weeks practically all of the
spectators had been whipsawed and
were paying the $l1 rate. The campaign
then shifted to Brooklyn and the ante
was raised another dollar and many
speculator succumbed
'The ambitious school building pro-
gram of the city is affected and the
condition on the scho work under con-
structlon is exceedingly bad. On new
Public School No. 50. Amsterdam ave-
nue. at IsSth and ls9th streets. where
fifty bricklayers should now be working.
four are employed. On new Public
School No. 5S. 176th street and Wash
ington avenue, The Bronx. seven brick
layers are working and thrty-five
should be employed. The new Brooklyn
schools under construction are about IS
per cent manned"