Threatened Strike of Structural Iron Workers

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1903

Threatened Strike of Structural Iron Workers

A TELEGRAM from New York City speaks of a threatened strike, which, should it occur, will be the “greatest strike known in history.” The International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers is the organization by which the strike will be precipitated, unless the employers come to the terms demanded by the union. The president of this association, Mr. Frank Buchanan, says:—

There are five thousand of us now in a strike against the American Bridge Co., a part of the steel trust. Something must happen within a very few days, or there will be four hundred thousand of us on strike, and in a fight which will, without question, be the final test of labor organizations in the world; and we will win. We have sent a communication to President Roosevelt to exercise his power.

The last sentence of this statement shows how the extraordinary action taken by the president during the late coal strike, when he went outside the government for power to settle the difficulty, has become a precedent to be followed henceforth in the settling of labor troubles. At least this will be the method sought by the labor unions.