The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-09
Officials Of Chicago Facing Grave Danger
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, over 5000 as proposed for economy reasons they still would be above union scales.
 Police At Bridges Altman ordered policemen sta- toned at all bridges to prevent op- orators opening them and walking off their posts. The policemen were told to keep the bridges down even If the operators walk out. This would conflict with U. s. Army regulations which require the bridges over nav- igable streams to be manned during certain hours of the day to permit passage of boats.
 There are 57 movable bridges in the city, most of them over the two branches of the Chicago river which forms almost a complete moat around the loop district, and others over the Calumet river which con- trols approaches to the grain eleva- tors and steel mills engaged in de- fense production.
 Fifty traffic lights in the heart of the loop business district were shut off at 9:15 a. m. (10:15 a. m. EST) Extra police were assigned im- mediately to crossings not previous ly covered by traffic officers and there was only brief confusion. The bridges did not rise at 10 a. m. and there appeared some doubt they would later.
 Several bridge tenders said they were on strike but were restrained l from lifting their bridges by two po- licemen in every bridge tower.
 "Yes, I'm on Strike," one tender said.
 Are you putting your bridge up?" he was asked.
 He replied: How the blazes can with two coppers sitting right here beside me"
 Wage Cut Threatened The strike was caned because the finance committee of the city coun- Gil had promised a sliding scale of pay cuts for civil service employees Representatives of 13 American Fed eration of Labor unions to which the employees belong, met last night and voted to call out the workers.
 Mayor Kelly announced that a committee representing the work CTS had arranged a conference in his office at 9:30 a. m. (10:30 a. m. EST). half an hour before the coun- Gil conyenes to hear the pay cut recommendations.
 Barnet Hodes, Corporation Coun- Sel, issued this statement in behalf of the mayor:
 "No city can condone action by its employees who, on acceptance of public employment, use ttieir posi- lions to put in peril the health, the safety, and the general welfare of the people whom they were em- ployed to serve. Such conduct is contrary to the spirit and letter of the civil service law and subjects any employe engaging in such conduct to disciplinary action by the Civil Service board, which means either suspension or dismissal from the city service"
 Most Vital Danger
 The most vital of the services af- fected would be that of garbage col- lection. If the strike was 100 per cent effective, elevators in municipal buildings would cease to operate, there would be no maintenance of the street lighting system, no work on paving and other street projects, no heat or other services in munich pal buildings. The unions involved were those of the electricians, the operating engineers, the elevator operators, steam filters, plumbers, janitors, street laborers, chauffeurs, bricklayers, painters, machinists, window washers, and refuse collec- tors.
 The proposed pay cut would af- feet approximately 1900 workers who make 5000 or more annually. Their salaries would be cut three to 10 per cent during 1941 as part of 8 general economy campaign to re- duce the city budget $2,000,000 to about $53, 100000.
 The unions had proposed several alternate methods of saving on the budget but al wslthe reeeertpkthe budget but all these were rejected by the council finance committee.