The union times., 1947-04-19
STUMBLING BLOCK

STUMBLING BLOCK
 James O'Kane, secretary-treasur- CT of the Connecticut Building and Construction Trades Council, point ed to the fact that the Associated General Contractors ''are the only stumbling block to settling the si- tuatiOn.''
 "The time has come for the ACC. to realize that they can't gang up on organized labor" O'Kane said. And the time has gone by when they can influence public opinion against us. The public knows that our wage scales are far behind the increased cost of living. They know that construction costs are high because building mate rials are at the highest peak in his- tory, and are now coming into good supply. They know that profits in the building industry have zoomed sky high.
 LOOK AT THE RECORD
 "The building trades unions have the best record of labor-management relations of any group of working men in the country. The ACC. is follow ing a short-sighted policy in trying to give the public the impression that we are to blame.
 'We are not surprised that the sub-cOntractOrs are refusing to allow themselves to be intimidated by the general contractors. Con- spiracies of this kind are rarely suc- cessful."
 O'Kane pointed out that southwest of Bridgeport, all the trades were signed up with the exception of the Painters in Greenwich. As of Tues day, there had been no difficulty in Hartford, New London, Middletown, Meriden, and Waterbury.
 We want to go on with the con- struction program" he said. Its time the general contractors stopped hors- ing around"
 PUBLIC KNOWS THE FACTS
 Nor did the building trades confne their activities to economic action. Realizing that the contractors are at tempting to turn the public against or ganized labor, the unions, acting upon advice from the State Building Trades Council, are keeping a sharp eye on their public relations.
 The State Council advised the local councils in each city to issue a state ment of the press, giving the true facts of the situation. The statement issued last week by Saul Kreas, president of the New Haven Building Trades Council, was part of this program.
 Also part of this program was a statement issued this week by James DiLOnardO, business repre- sentative of Conn. Local No. 6, Bricklayers Union. The statement followed meeting called by Mayor Celentano, which was incOncIusive, and was attended by officers of the Building Trades Council and by officers of the Associated General Contractors. Following is the text of DiLOnardO's statement:
 SIMPLE ISSUE
 ''In behalf of Local No. 6, I want to thank Mayor CelentanO for his interest in this situation.
 'My union, in fact all organized labor, believes that the people of New Haven are entitled to know all the facts concerning this situation, presented without bias or distortion. We welcome this opportunity to make the facts public. We are sure that the press will live up to it's responsibility of being fair to all concerned.
 ttThe issue here is a simple one. Eighty percent of the contractors on our fair list have signed a new agreement with the Bricklay- CTS Union. In actual figures, we have 50 contractors on our list. Forty of them have signed agree ments for I947, and our men are at work. These 40 contractors employ 80 per cent of our active member ship. | met with these 40 cOntrac- tors individually and jointly; there was free, collective bargaining, and an agreement, mutually agreeable, was arrived at.
 A MINORITY
 Thus, it would appear that ten con- tractors are unwilling to pay the pre- vailing rate of wages. This rate has been set by the 40 contractors who have signed with us.
 ''It is difficult for us to under stand what these 10 contractors ex- pect to accomplish. I think they will agree that the prevailing wage
 (Continued on Page Three)