Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1924-11-07
AMAZING STORY OF BUILDING
AGREEMENT 1900 YEARS AGO
By JOHN FREY EDITOR INTERNATIONAL MoLDER's JOURNAL
IN TWO PARTs-PART TWO.
tcontinued from Page Ono


ceived divers accusations against di-
vers person practicing our craft, to
the effect that they take in hand
pieces of building work, leave these
unfinished and obstruct the employ
ers, deeming it important to abolish
an injustice so determined to the en-
ployers, you have requested from us
this agreement and declaration under
oath in the following terms:
eve do agree and make oath by
the holy and life giving Trinity and
by the safe preservation and victory
of the Lord of the inhabited earth,
Flavius Leo, everlasting Augustus and
Emperor,
"'(1) That we will complete pieces
of work given out to US by any one
of the employers, provided the en-
ployer is prompt in paying US the
wages mutually agreed upon;
"t(2) Should the man undertaking
the work have any plea on which he
declines it for some reason of his
own either private or public, another
artisan from among us shall take his
place and shall entirely complete the
work under construction, on the dis
tinct understanding that the man de-
clining it, whether he be the artisan
who begun it or the man who shall
have taken his place, is one of our
selves and that no reason of our own
stand in the way of the work;
"'(3) Should the man undertaking
the work once hinder the employer
in any way while it is, as we said,
under construction, if he who either
began it from the beginning or shall
have taken the place Of any artisan
is one of ourselves, we shall for such
hindrance pay indemnities according
to the actual contract between the
employer and the artisan;
go Should the employer show
indulgence, if he be for seven days
hindered from working the work shall
be left to the artisan undertaking it;
400 Should the artisan fall i'll,
the employer shall wait twenty days,
and if after such indulgence for
twenty days the man should get well,
but show no disposition to work at
that time, another shall take his place
on the terms stipulated by us as to
the man who has declined;
| "'(6) If, when the man undertaking
the work declines it some one Of us
be found neither doing anything nor
| performing work in accordance with
] the provisions herein written, we bind
ourselves to pay -(sum) as a
/ fine to be used for the city's public
works, while the artisan shall be
compelled to pay eight pieces of gold,
and shall further be liable, even after
exaction of the fine, to prosecution I'M
I der the division edicts on the charge
of injustice; the present agreement
remaining firm, unbroken and undis-
turbed in perpetuity, and being ir-
revocably carried out in strict con-
formity with all things above de-
termined and promised by us;
"'(7) And for the full discharging
of the fine we pledge, under a lien
J both general and individual, all our
property present and future of every
I kind and sort
"And when as to all things above
written the question was put to us by
your excellency, we gave our assent
to this agreement and declaration I'M
der oath on the day and in the con-
sulship above written"
II 1t will be seen that this is a purely
union shop agreement, for while the
union binds itself to provide that its
members will finish a job once they
have begun it, it also provides that
the work will be done exclusively by
members of the union who are to
: furnish the men who do the work.
: From the substance of this agree
ment it would seem that there had
been numerous strikes in the building
trades, and that individual building
tradesmen had quit one job to go to
another so frequently as to seriously
interrupt building operations. The
agreement was evidently entered into
for the purpose of preventing inter
ruptions, the building contractors
agreement to pay the union scale
promptly, and to employ none but
members of the union, and members OF
the union in return agree to complete
all jobs once they were undertaken
Evidently some building trades
I problems and conditions 1900 years
ago were not much different from
what they are today. AS result OF
Mr.. Buckler's work as an archaeologisi
trade unionists have had the cur.
tain which hides the past lifted suffi
GENTLY to see condition 1900 years
ago when building trades were mo-
only thoroughly organized, but estab
lished their terms of employment and
the relationship of wage earners t.
o.,or1ox,a, fhrou0h froda aOraaroav,fc