Montana labor news., 1939-11-30
EIGHT HOUR DISPUTE
IN DISTRICT (0URT
lContinned from Pad 1l

AS9AANAAAAA@0 LA1AA a 161
the negotiations the union was, al
most exclusively out of considera-
ton for the welfare of the commu-
ALPHABETICALLY small business in
terests-forced to avert a strike
which had been decided on by a
referendum vote chiefly influenced
by the company's refusal to grant
the eight-hour day.
Rather than cause the wheels OF
Butte's industry to stop, and cripple
the economic life of the community,
the union decided to carry the
struggle for shorter hours into the
courts.
Ruling Against Present Hours
Obtained from FreebOurn
With a determination and conf
dence that only a just cause can
inspire, the union proceeded into
legal chambers which were thought
wiser and not detrimental to the
community as are stoppages of work
such as the one which was forced
on the organization in 1884.
Officers of the organization OBJ
tanned an opinion from Attorney
General Harrison J.. Freebourn
which confirmed the position of the
union that the work-day in the Ana
conda company's Butte mines does
not by any stretch of imagination
comply with the 8-hour provision
in our state Constitution.
The attorney general wrote in part
as follows: "Such time (time on en-
ployer's premises) whether spent in
actual work in the mine, securing
tools, waiting for o II riding in the
cage, or otherwise, constitutes ener-
gy and time spent in the employers
service. Our constitution and stat
utes in effect declare that eight
hours of such employment shall con-
stitute a maximum days work. Sec.
4, Article XVIII of the Constitution
as amended, Sec. 3O71 R. C. M
1885,"
Following this opinion the union
decided to engage Attorneys Well
ington Rankin and Philip O'Donnell
to carry the question into court.
Hours Reduction Crying Need
It has been Sc years since the
working day of the Butte miners
was shortened. This in spite of the
fact that five thousand miners in
Butte today produce as much ore
as fifteen thousand did in 1903.
Almost every mining camp in the
west, with the exception of the Butte
mines, operates on an 8-hour collar
to-collar basis. Even the Anaconda
company's Inspiration mine in Ari-
iona enjoys that condition. The
members of the Butte Miners Union
working in the Lexington mine III
VAUDEVILLE Qess than a mile from
the center of Butte gained the g.
hour collar-to-collar day last month
Only 81 miles from Butte, the High
lands mine operates on a 7-hOul
cOIlar-tO-cOllar basis in accordance
with the agreement signed between
the Butte Highlands Mining Co. ano
the Butte Miners Union No. l more
than a year ago.
Hour Cut Would Lessen Health
Dangers
The establishment of shorter hours
in the Butte mines would partially
protect the Butte bread-winners
from the hot, dusty, gassy, danger
GUS, silicosis-breeding holes which
only experience can describe.
The fact that 27 per cent Of the
inhabitants of the richest hill on
earth die of s%ilicosis, as shown by
the county records, is gruesome evil
dence of the vital need for short
ening the work day.
The miners, therefore, cannot be
held back from the fight for a short
err work day by any idea that il
might eat into the company's profits.
The fiction that the Butte mines
produce no profits for the Anaconda
Co. has been exploded by the recent
reports Of the corporation which
show an increase in profits for the
first nine months of 1889 Of about
six million dollars above those Of
the same period of last year.
The shortening of the work day
of the Butte miners must inevitably
benefit the entire community. An
improvement of the hath and we'll
being of the miner means an i'm
improvement of the health and we'll
being of the entire population.