The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-26
SANTA BARBARA
OPEN SHOPPERS
HAVE HARD Time
Building Trades Unions
Have Closed Shop
nx A worker correspondent

ia Barbara has been filed with nom
union labor and that whatever control
the unions once had is now a thing
OF the past.
The truth is that the unions are
more in the saddle now than they
ever were before. The scabby school
work has been completed with the
exception Of the Montecito school.
1t was on school work where the
unions in the building industry en-
countered resistance to the closed
shop. AS readers Of The DAILY.
WORKER know, the school board
choose to turn deaf ear to the
prayers of the representatives of the
unions. Nonunion workers here are
undoubtedly now fewer than ever.
On State st. where most Of the
business is located and where the
damage of the earthquake was the
heaviest the closed shop prevails. The
greatest number of unorganized is to
be found among common laborers.
1t is not uncommon when soliciting
Job to be told by the bosses that
they get all their men from the Labor
Temple. The union is docile ami
NAL, seemingly at all times doing the
masters bidding, so why not? Smed-
ley, secretary of the Santa Barbara
County Building Trades Council and
elected to the city council, tells the
men that on a tour of inspection he
has found men loafing. That was a
sure way of breaking down conditions.
The men should deliver "a fair days
work for fair days pay"
Source of Trouble.
All this open shop talk originated
apparently with one Osborne, form
er member of the Boiler Makers
Union of Los Angeles and who in the
pay Of the labor-hating element of
that city spent considerable time here
vainly so far trying to stir up fight
for the open shop. 1t is said he has
been driven out of town.
The Los Angeles Times, uncom-
promising foe of organized labor, al
ways anti-everything which even in
the remotest way tends to make the
country safer for the workers, carried
an open shop story about Santa Bar
bara on the front page November ID.
One of the four headings to the story
says:
Merchants and Builders will put
Construction on American-Plan Ba-
Sis" 1t shutters along telling of six
weeks of investigation" of organized
labor; "The first open break between
the unions and the open shop advoca-
tes," members of the Builders Elk
change of Santa Barbara have so far
been at the mercy of the council; :"
the unions are blamed for the inabili-
ty of the California Development As
ISOLATION to raise the S1,100,000 pro-
missed this city just after the earth
quake, 1t says the cost of construc-
ton is $50 higher here than in Los
Angeles because of the closed shop,
etc.
Exchange Denies Guilt.
November 18th, the local papers
published a statement signed by H.
L. Sweeney, chairman publicity COM
mittee, Santa Barbara Builders Ex-
change and also a member of the city
council, elected Dec. 1st., denying that
his organization sought to introduce
the open shop. He said:
whatever there is to be done can
easily be taken care of by home
contractors and home workmen." He
concluded in this manner:
Remember the fable of the fight
over the piece Of cheese. When the
fight was over there was no cheese
for either contestants"
Regarding the Central Building, a
man who worked there says all men
carried cards. The stealing Of paint
brushes was frame-up. None were
arrested.
Should We Worry?
Workers ought to be pleased that
construction costs are $50 higher
here than in Los Angeles because of
the closed shop. None are more en-
titled TO it or need 1t than they
But are not materials higher in
Santa Barbara than in Los Angeles?
The forcible lesson taught by the
disastrous earthquake making better
materials workmanship and con-
struction methods imperative. do
these decrease the cost of building?
II building is and has been $3.50
cheaper in Los Angeles, have we not
reasons for believing this is due to
fiimsy construction and greed on the
part OF spectators in that strong
hold of labor haters?
What would happen to the shells
in Los Angeles II It should be unfor-
tunate enough to be visited by an
earthquake of equal severity TO the