Evening star., 1939-07-10
Wages
CONTINUED From First Page.)

O4A RAOJOSUo Vi C1lC W. "A. NC 1C
quired to work 130 hours per month
and that the earnings of such per-
sons be on monthly basis"
Meanwhile back-to to-work move
ment was under way. According
to the Associated Press, majority
of $4,000 striking w. P. A. workers
in Ohio returned to work today
rather than subject themselves to
dismissal for absence of five con-
secutive days.
Col. Harrington's recommendation
was the outgrowth of long w. P. A.
study on the advisabiity of aban-
doning the prevailing hourly rate of
pay it was said. w. P. A. had trou-
BILE trying to adjust wages and hours
under the old system. A building
construction project in Pittsburgh
supplies an easy example:
Under the prevailing wage sys-
tenn, to earn the amount permitted
them, bricklayers worked 4812 hours
a month, hod carriers 6312 hours
and unskilled laborers 120 hours.
Plumbers worked so hours, but their
helpers had to put in 71L2 hours.
Compressor operators did 56s4 hours,
but those working with jackham-
mers worked 119.
All of this required great amount
OF bookkeeping. 1t took almost three
relays of bricklayers month to put
in the same number of hours that
the unskilled laborers worked.
Congressman who wrote the 130-
hour provision into the relief bill
were in hearty accord with the
originators. Two particular points
were stressed in their arguments
for it,
Would Weed Off Pay Rolls.
w. p A. officials felt that the
monthly wage, and 100 hours of
work to earn it, would help to weed
off the pay rolls any who might not
be in actual need of relief. They
argued that those who had any other
way of living would not, in general,
work that many hours for bare
subsistence wage
Furthermore, both Col. Harring-
ton and a group of congressional
advocates felt that if the relief work.
ers put in that much time for W.
P. A. wage, they would not have out
side free time left to work at private
employment. They either would
have to quit their w. P. A. job and
take the outside one, or they would
have to cling to the w. P. A. one and
turn the private one over to some
unemployed person who needed it.
The Workers Security Federation,
which estimates that more than
$4,000 of its members have quit
their jobs in protest at the boost
in their work hours which pre-
viously have been ranging from go
to 80 a month, was responsible for
the efforts to get the men back to
work, but in advising this course
the Federation urged that an "effec-
tive protest" be carried on against
the Relief Act by night mass meet
ings and other demonstrations.
Organized From Local Unions.
j. Clark Waldron, publicity chair
man, said that "all our group de-
sired was an effective protest"
The Federation recently was Or
ganized from local unions of w. P.
A. workers and the unemployed,
some of them groups which had
withdrawn from the Workers AL
lance which is also a union of
w. P. A. workers and the unem-
ployed
In New York, 1t. Col. Brehon
6omervell, local w. P. A. admins
traitor, announced that work was
under way on all construction prof.
ects in that city despite American
Federation of Labor assertions that
80 per cent of the jobs would be
tied up by protest meetings, the
Associated Press reported.
Thomas A. Murray, president OF
the A. F. l.. Building Trades Council
claimed $1,000 of the $4,000 men
regularly employed on the projects
were on strike.
Col. Somervell said hundreds OF
workers passed through an A. F. l.
picket line at the SAC, 100000 North
Beach Airport, which will become
the new trans-oceanic and trans
continental air terminal for New
York City. Normally, $4,000 men
are employed there.
Labor United on Issue.
The c. I. o. and the A. F. of L.,
divided on many labor issues, stood
side by side in their opposition to
the new requirements which have
the effect, by imposing a longer
work month, of reducing the hourly
w. p. A. wages.
The executive board of the Mary
land and District of Columbia Tn.
dustrial Union Council &C. 1. o.
meeting here today, indorsed the
bills restoring the prevailing wage
rates.
William Green, A. F. of L. pres;.
dent, has summoned A. r. Of T.,