The Labor Controversy

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 8, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 14.

The Labor Controversy.

Each week furnishes its quota of strikes and controversies over hours, wages, and relations between employer and employee. During the week there have been a number of important developments in these matters. Perhaps one of the most important is the decision of the great cotton, woolen, and silk mills of Lowell, Mass., to close on March 30. The union operatives had made a demand for an increase of ten per cent in wages, with a threat to strike on that date if the demand was not conceded. Between 18,000 and 20,000 persons were employed in these mills, and their wages aggregate $138,000 per week. The mill owners have decided to close down for a long period. The large leather manufacturing concerns of Chicago, on whom the union tanners have made a demand for a ten per cent increase in pay, have declared that they would move their plants from Chicago before they would agree to the demand. The manufacturers formed an employers’ association for the purpose of withstanding the unions. A strike is expected there in a few days. In Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., a strike of street-car employees is now on. The strikers demand the recognition of their union, and the companies refuse to grant it. Cars are running in both places, tho the companies have not been able to secure sufficient men to operate their full number. Representatives of the various coal-mining companies in California have formed an organization for the purpose of protecting themselves against the unions. One of their declarations of principles is that in the employment of laborers they will “not discriminate against non-union men.” The Wagon-makers’ Union of Chicago has declared a strike, tying up commercial interests amounting to $25,000,000, and some of the vehicle manufacturers are threatening to remove their plants from Chicago. The structural iron-makers of Chicago are threatening to strike for an increase of ten per cent in wages. The work of the American Bridge Company is seriously interfered with, owing to a strike of its employees, and it is seeking to fill the places of the strikers with non-union men.