1903-08 August Electrical Worker.pdf - International Brotherhood of ...

tryon earth along with the rest of the nrmin
aad pesting insects, just to give us a
mild taste of what we might expect down
below, proriding we do not follow the
'" straight and narrow path." Did you ever
notice that our true scab is something like
our pet corn? Keep him constantly pared
do~ and he isn't much bother, but let up
on him for awhile and he is back again,
" Johnny on the spot," with another to keep
bim company.
Hope you will excuse me for this time,
Mr. Editor. I am going down town now to
enquire about the price of lightning rods.
Fraternally yours,
CHAS. W. HOI.I.AND,
Press Secretary.
Local Union No. 292.
MINNltAPOI.IS, MINN., August 2,1903.
Editor Electrical Worker:
The strike here is still on and I would advise
the boys to keep away. The Federal
Building was tied up here last we~k for a
day. One of the contractors who signed
that agreement, which appeared in the last
issne lof the Worker, sent some scabs to
work on the building. Of course, the
Building Trades Council was unable to pull
the job officially, nor could No. 292, as there
is an injunction restraining No. 292 and the
Building Trades Council from "going on
jobs where plaintiffs are employed and ordering
men to quit;" also restraining us
from notifying customers that luch and
such a firm is unfair, which is, in plain
English, denying us the right of. free
spe~ch. This injunction also preTented all
trades affiliatedwith the building trades from
going out in·a body. Well, when these
scabs showed up the men all quit individually,
and Judge Cray and this certain contractor,
as well as the rest of them, found
out that there was more ways of killing a
cat than by throwing it out of a balloon.
The men simply did not want work and all
the Judge Crays and injunctions in tht=
world could not prevent the men from quitting
their work i~dividually, if they had a
mind to.
I have it from a reliable source that the
American Anti-Boycott Association is backing
these contractors in their fight against
us. This same! association is 'backing the
THB ELECTRICAL WORKER 81
Kellogg people in Chicago, and, I understand
they have a capital of over a billion
dollars.
Well, we don't care a rap who is backing
them. We have public sympathy and haTe·
done nothing to justify such a rank piece of
work as was done by Judge Cray when he
allowed an injunction to these contractors.
This injunction was altogether too broad
aud sweeping. It left too much room for argument.
It prevented a man from going to
a job where any of these CQntractors were
at work and interfeIing with their business.
Well, almost anything that a man could say or
do, in fact his Tery presence there, could be
construed as interfering with their business.
It is really too bad that Judge Cray can not
prevent men from talking together. I suppose
that if he had his way about it we
would all have to go to him and get a written
permission to say what we wanted to
lay, and if he did not like w.hat we wanted
to say we would not get the permission.
Nice state of court tynany in this man's
town. If I had it to say he would not be on
the bench as judge, but dowD-down-~el1,
where he belongs. .
There is another johin to~n that has to be
done by the first of September. The contract
is let to one of the firms that signed
the agreement with contractors. The work
is to put a lot of display1ights on the outside
of a certain building. Now, I am
working on that job myself, and I can freely
assert that if any scabs appear on that job
while I am there there will be something
else tied up besides the job. And I can also
assure them that there will be a plentiful
scarcity of union men there.
The Building Trades Council has carried
the injunction proeeedings to the supreme
court, and I am satisfied, in my own mind,
that the injunction will be thrown out.
The master plum bers of St. Paul (across the
creek) applied for an injunction also after
they saw that the electrical contractors in
Minneapolis got one. But Judge Kelly, God
. bless him, did not give them what did not be
long to them. They got it where Nellie
wore the beads-and that is just exactly
where the electrical contractors of this city
are goiftg to get it. Watch-my-smoke.
EUGltNlt F. MltlltR~,
Press Secretary.