Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1907 — LABOR NOTES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LABOR NOTES

During May 287 employes were injured in Canadian Industrial accidents. Austria has 2,404 local unions, ( with a total membership of 323,099. ’ v The fortieth annual British Trade* Congress will assemble at Bath 1 , England, Sept. 2. ■* . ~ Oklahoma City (O. T.) flour mill employes have organized and applied to th* international union for a charter. The strike of railway employes at Buenos Ayres, Argentina, has ended. Disputed questions will be arbitrated. The iron molders at Winnipeg, Canada, will go on strike for better wages unless a suitable agreement is reached. Chief Statistician Pidgin of Massachusetts says that th* increase of cost of living for R)O6 exceeded the average wag* increase. lY --t-- ~’Wm The British Postmen’s Federation held its sixteenth annual conference recently in I.ieeds. The membership was stated to be 15.358, an increase of 446 in the year. The school janitors of Minneapolis have taken steps to form a onion, and as soon as the organization is completed they will apply to the American Federation of Labor for a charter. The Scottish miners have decided to renew their demand for 12% per cent advance in wages to the conciliation board. The men’s representatives 'declare that the demand must be enforced. 4&tJ|| The Broommakers’ Union, —at- San Francisco, is making a fight against con-vict-made brooms. It has asked organized labor not to purchase any broom that does not bear the union stamp. At a recent meeting of the Manchester (England) Trade Union Colliers resolutions were passed in favor of urging upon their representatives in Parliament the necessity for supporffng the miners’ eighthour bill. The metal trades division of the Trade* Council of Cleveland is considering the advisability of establishing and maintaining a legal department that shall take charge of all the legal business of the unions and members in that city. ,tjggj From the American viewpoint the wages paid both skilled and common laborers in France are very low, while the cost of living is relatively higher in France than in the United States, With - the exception of house rent and wages. The factory inspectors of the Grand Duchy of Baden have published a comprehensive report on the home industries of their country, which has attracted much attention because of the picture it paints of the misery and destitution in which a large portion of the population lives. The central committee of German trades unions has published a statistical table showing the wages earned in each of the sixty-six organized trades of the empire. The most remarkable thing about the table is the evidence it bring* that in twenty-seven of these trades th* average daily wage is less than 75 cent*. The Central Labor Union of Detroit has added to the Labor day celebration & feature that will give much added interest to labor’s national holiday. The new feature is the election by popular vote of a “Queen of Labor Day.” The crowning of the “queen” will be one of the attract tions of the day. Encouraged by the success of the operations of the loan fund plan which waa established six months ago, the Minneapolis Cigarmakers’ Union has decided to go a step farther in the way of looking after its membership in a pecuniary way. A plan is to be considered to establish a banking system on a small scale, to bo operated under the direction of the anion. Recently about 1,500 laborers at Salford docks, England, ceased work, owing to a refusal on the part of officials to accede to an informal request for an increase in their wages. The men engaged in unloading timber began the trouble, by making a verbal demand for payment at the rate of 8d an hoar, or 6s a day, instead of 7d an hour, the present rate of pay.