The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-05-20
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building contractors of Duluth tc
slash wages of building workers
20 per cent. They tried to do it,
They did not wholly succeed at the
time. Since then there have been
reductions in the cost of living
sufficient to prompt several build
ing trades unions to take reduc.
tions in wages. The result of the
arbitrary action of the alliance
and the contractors was to par.
alyze building operations for the
season. =.
1t was not reduced wages the
Citizens Alliance sought so much
as to force the non-union shop
upon the industry. 1t has not. sue
ceeded in permanently accomplish
ing it's purpose. Every building
trades union in Duluth will be 100
per- cent strong before the season
ends.
Reduced wages have had little
effect upon the building industry.
Efficiency in supervision and con-
struction counts for more than
anything else. Duluth contractors
evidently are below the standard
In efficiency. They are being
beaten to fragile by outside con-
tractors in bidding on many big
Jobs. These outside contractors
employ union men. They are
favorable to the union shop. They
get better organization on the
jobs from it.
That's why a Minneapolis con-
Germ underbid local contractors on
the big apartment house now be-
ing built by union men on Tenth
avenue East and London road.
That is also the reason the same
firm underbid local men on the
county Jail, job that they have
been temporarily cheated out of
through strange Vaccinations on
the part of local contractors. They
have lost another big job this
week, that of constructing 100
dwellings in Duluth for Mime
apolis capitalist. A Flour City
firm was far below any local bid
der, and that firm has the reputa-
ton of paying top-notch wages to
it's union workmen.
Duluth building contractors
should have learned long ago that
their alliance with the labor bait
ers has brc>3ht a hoodoo to them.
But that is not all. The anti
unionists induced the commercial
printers to violate their agree
ment with the Typographical
union to put the 44-hour week in
effect on May I, 1921. They have
driven thousands of dollars of
job printing to other cities. They
have made happy employers wear
a worried look for more than a
year, and they have not defeated
the union.
Then the anti-unionists, headed
ly L. G. Harris, president of the
Citizens Alliance, got to the boss
BARRIERS and destroyed as fine a
relationship as ever existed be-
tween employers and employees.
They attempted to force a reduc-
ton in wages without giving their
patrons a like reduction in prices.
The union has since signed up
with most of the shops at the old
wage scale. There are only a
handful of non-union shops, and
several of them are said to be
wavering. The Citizens Alliance
did not accomplish it's purpose.
Union labor still lives. 1t is only
beginning to fight.
Now comes our erstwhile COM
rade in Populism, Mr.. Harris, with
a proposal to force reduction III
wages on the daily papers. He very
adroitly declares that there can
be no reduction in advertising
rates until the wages Of printers
are reduced. He does not say
anything about the existing agree
ment between local publishers and
the = Typographical union which
provides for a readjustment Of the
wage scale as the cost of living
declines. He does not care any
thing about that. Stripped of all
pretense the plan of the Citizens
Alliance is to make the local daily
tapers non-union. That is all
there is to it. =
Think of such a trouble maker.
There has not been a newspaper
strike In Duluth for 81. years.
Jefferson once wrote to Madison
at no country should be longer
/ 4gI4. 81 sffa,p Yf 4 f5 b
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