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IRONWORKERS' BLAME UNION
BOSSES FOR TROUBLE
Responsibility for the strike of
structural ironworkers rests princi
pally on the shoulders of the Build
ing Trades Council. .TJie strike could
be settled quite rapidly, if Simon
O'Donnell and the B. T. C. bosses had
nerve enough to live up to its given
word, say Richard Houlihan, McMul
len, Fitzgerald and all the other iron
workers' leaders.
The ironworkers want no wage
raise this year, but they do want ju
risdiction over the placing of steel re
inforcements in concrete. For the
past twelve years every national
meeting of the Building Trades dep't
of the A. F. of L. has said that this
work belonged to the ironworkers.
Following the las tnational ruling
in their favor, at the 1913 Seattle
convention of the Building Trades
Dept., the Chicago ironworkers asked
for the work, which was and is being
done by laborers who get 40 cents an
hour.
In April, 1914, the Chicago iron
workers went on strike, demanding
that the concrete-steel work be tak'en
from the laborers and. given them.
The matter went up before the
Building Trades Council. At that
time the laborers' union had agree
ments with contractors running till
April 30, 1915. The K T. G. told the
ironworkers that if they would wait
till the laborers' contracts ran out the
B. T. C. would see tha tthe ironwork
ers got the concrete-steel work. The
ironworkers, display n -agreement to
this effect, which they say was signed
by the Building Trades Council
April 17, 1914.
The ironworkers called off the 1914
strike. A few weeks ago they went
to the B. T. C. and reminded it of the
agreement, telling of their intention
to demand jurisdiction over the concrete-steel
work as soon as the labor
ers' contracts expired. With them
they took a copy of a letter dated
April 9, 1915, from Thomas Williams,
president of the Building Trades!
Dept of th eA. F. of L,, saying that
the concrete-steel work belong to the
ironworkers. The ironworkers expected the
Building Trades Council to say:
"Every national convention has de
cided the work belongs to you, we
signed an agreement that April 30
this year you would get the work, and
we will live up to our agreement and
see that you get what belongs to
you,"
"Instead, the B. T. C. officials
crawfished, say the ironworkers.
They dodged the issue and are now
trying to shift the responsibility they
assumed to the shoulders of Tom Wil
liams. They have whitten him again
for his opinion," said a union official
today.
"If the Building Trades Council
keeps ifword we will win a complete
victory saia uouunan ioaay. in
nearly every other city in America the
ironworkers are doing the concrete
steel work. It belongs to us here
and it is up to the Bf T. C. to see
that we get it"
Mayor Thompson has offered his
services as mediator between the
striking carpenters and the Carpen
ter Contractors' ass'n. The laboi
men are willing to accept hi mas a
mediator.
TELEGRAPH BRIEFS
Cincinnati. Frank R. Walsh,
chairman federal commission on In
dustrial relations, speaking in thea
ter owned by C. P. Taft, brother of
ex-president, attacked Taft John D.
Rockefeller and John D., Jr. Assailed
land conditions in Texas, which, he
said, border on serfdom.
Bloomington, III. Mayor Charles
H. Forward electrocuted while throw
ing switch that controls, city lights.
Milwaukee. Robert Strauss,1 22,
killed, 12 other passengers injured,
when jitney bus overturned.
o o
More than $200,000,000 has been
spent by the various states-on 31,000
miles of state highways,
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