Evening star., 1939-07-30

naturally enough, then, the Z. i. ..
drive will be calculated to capitalize on
these circumstances, and it is significant
to note that it was announced at once
that no initiation fees are to be charged
new members, that dues for all classifi-
cations of employment will be only s15O
per month, that a system of transfer
cards is to be devised to eliminate any
need of work permit fees and that all
workers of whatever skill, nationality,
color or creed, in and around construc-
ton work of whatever type will be eligi-
BILE for membership. Further, it was an
be created to prevent the necessity of
construction workers learning their
trades on non-union jobs.
decided chink in the defense of the
federation building trades unions is
their long record of jurisdictional dis
putes, frequently resulting in strikes
and work stoppages, contract troubles
and delays which have been exasperat-
ing to builders and the public.
Although the C. I. o. announcement
special provisions will be made for the
elimination of unauthorized strikes, ju-
risdictional disputes and lockouts and
for the peaceful adjudication of labor
disputes
More detail on the means of achiev-
ing this paradise" of orderly unioni-
zation is promised by Mr.. Lewis when
the Organizing Committee sets up its
headquarters here next week. Thus
far all he will say is that comparable
jurisdictional problems have been
smoothed out without difficulty in the
80 classiflcations of employment in the
coal mines and the so classifcations in
the steel industry, both organized by the
c. I. o. into industrial unions
Moderate Wage Demands.
1t is indicated further that the c. I.
o. organization in this field may also
seek to maintain a more moderate DO
sition on the wage question. 1t is OBJ
viouS, for instance, that so-ca1led con-
struction work, stumbling badly for the
past 10 years, could not stand sudden
upward surge of wage demands Under
such circumstances, it is quite likely
that new union entering this field will
lay greater stress on protection of pre-
vailing" rates than upon their imme-
diate increase.
All of this is not to say, of course,
that the way is open for the c. l. O. to
step in and sign up thousands of dues
paying building workers. Actually their
prospects are no better than fair in the
face of conditions as they will find
them in the industry and the resist
ance that almost surely will be mustered
by the federation.
The vigor Of this resistance, incident
ally, will undoubtedly reflect as much
as anything the deep and bitter hatred
existing among the leaders of labor, for
no feud is more celebrated than that
running for years between John Lewis
and William l.. Chg BilD Hutcheson,
president of the Carpenters Brother
hood, climaxed when they wrestled and
slugged each other to the floor at the
1885 convention of the A. F. L. in
Atlantic City. It was this exhibition
that Immediately preceded the formation
of the G. I. o.
And it was Dan Tracy's Electrical
Brotherhood that suffered when the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board invalidated
a Consolidated Edison Labor contract,
to the advantage of the G. I. O.'s United
Electrical Workers; while it was Harry
c. Bates, president of the bricklayers, who
served as chairman of the joint nego-
tiating committee which last spring
sought at personal behest of President
Roosevelt a reconciliation between the
fighting wings of labor. Mr.. Bates ef-