Montana labor news., 1934-05-03
ST. PAUL d
RULES AGAINST
PAY CHISELER


ST. PAUL, Minn.-(FP)-Protec-
ton against pay-chiseling employers
on municipal contracts is provided in
a decision by Judge Clayton Parks in
st. Paul decreeing that wage specifi-
cation in such contracts can not be
set aside even if workers consent to
waive their rights to those rates and
accept lower pay.
This decision was made in a suit by
Charles Lundahl, laborer, against the
Van Duyne-Moran Fixtures Co. 1t
had paid Lundahl only 35c an hour
for 1877 hours of skilled work, though
the specified rate was 55c. The
company was ordered to pay the diff
ference, plus court costs.
ers other than skilled" a minimum
scale for skilled electrical workers of
81 an hour, with time-an-a-half for
overtime; and a maximum 30-hour
week.
1t also asked for labor representa-
ton on the code authority and The in
clusion in the code of the following
clause on company unions:
at shall be unlawful for any tele-
phone utility to use the funds of that
utility in maintaining so-called COM
pany unions, or assisting institutions
in serving the purpose of company
unions, Oh in maintaining mutual bene-
fit associations for employees"
"The maximum hour schedule pro-
posed in this code is far too high,"
says the B~rotherhood's brief. at is
too high in reference to the average
number of hours now worked; second,
it fails to offer an opportunity for re-
employment of the thousands of men
displaced in this industry during the
depression; third, it does not face at
all the question of chronological UNI
employment within an industry that
is rapidly becoming mechanical;
fourth, it offers no protection to en-
ployes for possible abuses of such a
schedule"
Employment in the telephone and
telegraph industry has dropped about
80 per cent since 1880, the Brother
hood points out. On the Bell system
mot including the Western Electric
and the Bell laboratories), 115,548
employees were displaced between Dec.
81, 1929, and Dec. 81, 1888. "This
tremendous dislodgement of trained
workers from permanent employment
has not been due to the depression
alone" the brief declares, "but to the
chronological changes within the in
dustry." These changes concern the
introduction of dial phones, which be-
gan early in 1920, but "did not reach
its peak until about 1929 and $780,"
The /. B. E. W. brief tells of the
stretchout system in the telephone in
dustry. Certain sections Of the Bell
SYSTEM" it says, "have not failed to
employ science in order to wiring from
employees the greatest amount Of serv-
ice at minimum cost to the company"
1t describes the methods whereby
WOlhcio are lOlttu W pun III ulpdld
overtime and "work at feverish pace
under this stretchout system" To
meet the case, a clause is proposed
that "the per-hour minimum shall APP
ply irrespective of whether an EN-
ploye is actually compensated on a
time work, piece rate, bonus or other
basis"
Telling of the huge telephone prof
its, the Brotherhood says that 'the
unfair and inequitable distribution of
the wealth produced by this Bell sys-
tenn as between investors and labor
and the consumers, is again called to
attention by the huge salaries paid
to officers of the company" A $780,
$50 salary and $5,920 in fees was re-
ported for the president by a special
Investigator for the House in April,
1884.
Conaa ,anp1a r,.o,v t,pIa,. racpopci