Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1911 — Strike Situation Grows Serious in Lake County. [ARTICLE]

Strike Situation Grows Serious in Lake County.

Gary and all Lake county seems now to be in for a long continued strike affecting many trades and the outcome of which it is difficult to predict. Last Friday all the big contractors working in the county in a conference held at Gary decided to declare the territory “open shop,” meaning that all unions will be discredited and that any man can go to work. While the contractors were holding their meeting the carpenters and painters were also holding a meeting and they decided by an overwhelming vote to call out every man who is working for a member of the employers’ association unless the employer consents to sign the agreement for arbitration. Teamsters are expected to go out also. John Medicus, who has been idle for several weeks because of the strike of the lathers, states that he believes there will be 4,000 idle men in Lake county if the strike becomes as general as it looked when he was there last week. v