The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-06-19
SCARED
/. By THREATENED
BUILDING WAR
Workers in Onslaught
on "Open Shop
BY CARL HAEssLER

Building contractors in Chicago are
badly shaken by the ultlmatum Of the
building trades council against the
"halfbreed" construction under which
union men have to work on the same
Job with non-unlonlsts, many Of them
imported TO Chicago by the open shop
Interests to smash wages and destroy
trade union organization. Hereafter
on new Jobs the union man will have
union associates or he quits.
The American Contractor, a weekly
devoted to the business interests Of
the contractor, sounds the wall Of the
employers in its June 10 construction
news edition. Contractors, it says,
cannot view the proposal to close
. Chicago for the building trades unions
with any great enthusiasm. The closed
shop seems to mean continuous juris-
dictional squabbling and the open
shop at the present time will probably
mean innumerable strikes accompan-
led by mass pieketing."
Bosses Use Another judge.
The clause in the agreement be-
tween the building trades council and
the Building Construction Employers
Association on which the men are re-
lying to Gust non-unionists reads:
Nothing in this agreement shall In
terfere with the right Of members Of
the party Of the second part (the
building trades unions) to refuse to
work for members of the party Of the
first part (the employer association
when employed by any person or firm
having building construction work
done In Cook county (Chicago dis
trict) by parties (non-union workers)
not affiliated with the party of the
second part (the unions)"
The union Interpretation is that
this clause, which was written by
Judge lands In 1921 as part of the
Lands award, permits union steam
filter to quit his Job under the agree
ment II the contractor also employs
non.union stonecutter, for example,
on another job within the county. The
employers hold that the clause merely
permits the steamftter to quit II he
has to work with non-union steam
filter.
The employers. who had done so
we'll in 1921 when Judge Lands tried
to rip up the building trades unions
by his award as arbitrator, immediate
ly ran to another federal Judge named
Page and wanted him to interpret
the Lands clause. But the unions,
who had been caught asleep by their
agreeing to accept the Lands award
in advance four years ago, now an
nounce that the Page verdict, when
rendered, will not be official and bind
ing. They have had enough Of i'm
partial federal judges appointed by
the employing class.
Many Trades In Fight.
The unions signing the ultimatum
Of the Chicago building trades coun-
Gil are the architectural iron work
ers, asbestos workers, boilermakers,
bricklayers, bridge and structural iron
workers, drain layers, tile layers, and
their helpers cement finishers, cleo
trical workers, composition roofers,
hod carriers, hoisting engineers. stone
cutters, marblecutters and settlers,
and their helpers, stone polishers, ma
chinery movers, terrazzo workers, and
their helpers, slate and tile roofers,
glaciers, sprinkler filters, steam 1T
tiers, gas filters, tuck pointers, plumb
ers, fathers, plasterers and the ele-
vator constructors. The carpenters,
painters and sheet metal workers do
not appear among the signers because
they are not parties to the Lands