The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1941-07-28
Striking LabOIers Have
Failed To Resume Work

International leaders of Amer
lean Federation of Labor car
penters and laborers were called
into the complicated labor picture
here today( as 600 union car
penters walked off their jobs in
sympathy with the four-day-old
laborers' strike.
The carpenter walkout, de-
scribed by Business Agent Clar-
ence Higgs as a Spontaneous
| move" in protest against treat
ment accorded the laborers,
came shortly before Lieut.. Albert
j. Fay, navy public works Of
ficer, announced that the navy
department had informed him of
an agreement between the AT of
l. and the Office of Production
Management outlawing strikes. y
Lieutenant Fay said the agree
ment, as detailed to him in orders
from the navy department at
Washington, provided that the
union would permit no strikes on
defense construction.
Informed of the order reach
ing Lieutenant Fay, Higgs coun-
tered by pointing out that the
carpenters are not on strike Of
ficially, and that the agreement
could not affect the laborers,
since they were out before the
pact was signed. He added that
no information about such an
agreement had been received at
his office.
Thurston Calls Leaders
w. P. Thurston, president of
the struck Thurston Construction
company, called on international
headuarters of the laborers' and
carpenters unions this morning,
asking for aid in getting men back
to work here.
Thurston termed the strikes
illegal, since neither union fol-
lowed the, AT of l. rule that in
ternational headquarters must be
notified 80 days in advance of a
strike. The laborers' headquar-
tiers at Washington said they had
heard of the strike only this
morning, Thurston revealed.
About 100 negro laborers re-
turned to work on the Thurston
job this morning, after members
of the laborers' union had voted
yesterday, 314 to 1856, to continue
the strike until they receive a pay
boost to 6212 cents an hour. The
men returning to the Thurston
Job were put on the payroll at so
cents an hour, the figure fixed by
the navy department as COM
promise.
Call Out Guards
Capt. Fred Marvil, commanding
officer of the newly formed state
defense force here, meanwhile
had called out the guard COM
panies at 1915 o'clock today in
preparation for possible outbreaks
between the strikers and the
laborers who had returned to
work. agf4 5HY (
Mayor. Willard NJ, Albury put
all poicd officers on 24-hour duty
and assigned night men to patrol
duty today around the entrances
to construction jobs.
Sheriff Berlin Sawyer also took
steps to prevent trouble in the
strike, calling on extra deputies
to keep up a continuous patrol
duty around the struck jobs.
! With the walkout into its fifth
day, work on all government con-
struction jobs except the Paul H.
Smith housing project had come
to halt today. The Smith COM
pany last week returned the
laborers to work at 621s cents an
hour, pending a settlement of the
wage dispute at the other prof.
ects.
| Capt. Russell S. Crenshaw,
navy station commandant, said
this afternoon there had been no
new orders from Washington
setting a deadline for the end of
] the strike. Asked about recur-
ring rumors that the 62R cent
scale may be accepted by the
! navy, Captain Crenshaw said he
had received no information since
/ he was informed last week that
civil service workers would be
used if the laborers failed to re-
turn for so cents.
rN Tsr ~v