Montana labor news., 1937-03-04

Montana Labor News appeared an
article relating to the attitude of the
Regional Office of the Works Prog
ress Administration respecting wages
paid and the number of hours
worked on WPA projects in Mon
tana, and cling the opinion that
the scale in Montana was high
er than s my other place in the
country. : ne only inference that
could pr ,ly be taken from such
a comm 5. cation by the Regional
Office that a wedge was being
driven J the rate and hour struc-
ture al now stands in this state
The R nal Office unquestionably
feels I the wage and hour scales
in Nc IA should be modified. Of
cours te reason given for this at
titude is that in some communities,
so it is alleged at any rate, that men
and women after finishing their
work on WPA take additional em-
ployment in private industry for a
scale of wages less than that paid by
the Government. The only ones who
could find any objection to this prac-
tice would be the business men.
Surely the unions find no objection
to it nor the working people. It is
a we'll known fact that wages tend
to gravitate to higher brackets, in
other words, if the Government is
paying Coo or Csc an hour for COM
mon labor and if that is the highest
wage paid for common labor, then
all other forms Of private industry
tend to gravitate toward that level.
The local WPA office at Billings
Of which Mr.. L. G. DeNayer is di-
rector, and Mr.. Joe Bosone, Super
visor of the Division of Employment,
have sent letters to the Montana
Labor News expressing a little dis
appointment with the article that
appeared in this paper February Is.
DeNayer is president of the Y
Trades and Labor Council
and Mr.. Bosone has been a high
official in the Coal Miners Union for
many years. Both of these men if
it were left to their personal decision
would never suffer or permit a re
duction of wages nor a frightening
of hours. The same could be said
for Steinmetz of Great Falls who
was and still is chairman of the Cas-
cade County Trades and Labor As
or Mr.. Combo of Butte who
has been identified with the labor
organizations here for the last rs
years. The Montana Labor News
and the labor organizations have
faith in these men. We
are glad that they are in these posi-
to protect the rights of labor.
In the following letter, it will be
noticed that Mr.. Bosone states "Mr.
Burris of Helena is asking every
district director of WPA in Montana
o get their labor representatives to
contact various labor unions and in
In order to ascertain
whether these organizations want
he present wages and hours of labor
be continued, labor should I'M
lualifiedly express its approval Of
he present rate and hour structure
md so notify every local district
'ffice of WPA in the state of Mon
ana.
Both the letter from Mr.. Bosone
md the letter from Mr.. Burris to
Ir. DeNayer of Billings are here
With reprinted in order to give the
people and especially the workers on
VPA in the Billings district a chance
0 know exactly the attitude of both
he local WPA office and the Re
5ional Office.
One thing should be borne in mind
S that the unions are asked to ex-
'ress an opinion as to whether they
avor the present schedule of wages
nd hours or not. The unions should
i've this opinion Immediately. Mon
ana is especially fortunate in hav-
ng men such as Burris, Bosone,
'teinmetz, DeNayer, Combo who
NOW union affairs, in important po-
itions with WPA.
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