Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1907 — LABPR NPTES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LABPR NPTES

A New Sheet Metal Workers’ Union organized recently in Red Wing, Minn. San Francisco retail grocery clerks met recently and formed a nnion. The Kansas City (Mo.) Labor Temple Association has decided to commence work on its building. The total membership <?f the Women’s Trade Union League in Great Britain is in excess of 135,000. The Brooklyn silver workers’ strike for the nine-hour day resulted in a complete victory for the men. In the Gloucester (England) district, the foundrymen’s wages have been advanced one shilling a week, with one hour’s reduction in time. One of the pioneer labor unions of this country is the Journeymen Stone Cutters of Newark, N. J., organized May 10, 1834. The headquarters of the International Union of Carriage and Wagon Workers of America will shortly be established in Washington, D. C. The Horseshoers’ Union of Boston has won its inoreased scale for the current year and all the men have returned to work. An Immigration bill now pending in the British Columbia Legislature imposes an educational qualification, which it is believed will result in barring Chinese, Japs and Hindoos. In Boston many of the labor unions make their meetings interesting and instructive by having men well versed on trades and mechanics deliver short addresses or lectures bearing on the practical in the particular trade of the union addressed. More than 90 per cent of the stereotypers and electrotypers of the United States and Canada are within the ranks of the union, while in many of the larger cities it is not an uncommon thing to find .every workman at the business a member of the union. An important step toward conciliation has been taken on the northeast coast of England by the decision recently to establish a conciliation board for the regulation of wages and the settlement of trade disputes, and with arbitration should the parties fail to agree. Wages of the coal miners of England and Wales are to be increased 5 per cent. This applies to all underground labor and to tbe wages of surface labor engaged on the pUbanks and screens in manipulating the coal. A strong branch of the American Federation of Labor has been established in Mexico. The organisation takes in all classes of labor. So far the membership is confined to Americana who work in Mexico. The organization baa nearly 09,000 new members in the southern republic and tbe promise is held forth that tbe membership will soon bo doubled.