GUERILLA STRIKES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2010, 18 March 1914, Page 9

GUERILLA STRIKES.

MASTER BUILDERS' STORY OF BROKEN CONTRACT.

. "The leaders of the men should cease their open-air speeches and get down to-business,", said a past president of the London Master Builders' Association to a "Daily News" interviewer recently, on the subject of the great strike which is at present crippling the- briilding trade in England.. "One thing is certain: we masters intend to have a monetary guarantee that contracts between iu and the unions will bo kept in future. If is obvious to us that it is the only way to make some of the men's leaders—l have in mind the .young firebrands—realise their responsibilities. "More than that, it is necessary, if we havo td deal with the men's federation, that it should eliminate the alien unions it embodies. Wo cannot come to_ te.rms with workers not concerned with our industry and whom we never .employ. It is ridiculous to say the masters are out for union smashing. I myself know very well that settlement will have to be arrived at through collective bargaining.'' ''Our case," he proceeded,, "is quite a'simple one, and the public have never, yet had a chance to examine it—nor many of the men either, for that matter. Eighteen mouths ago we came to terms with the men. They cot betterment of hours and wages. We got included in the agreement the old rules: 'That no exception should bo taken to the employment or non-employment of a man on the ground that ho was a nonunionist ; (2) that disputes should be referred to a Conciliation Board, which should be.summoned in seven days.' ' "See what happened. Tito contract was no sooner signed than it was broken. From May in November last year we had twenty strikes, all on the question rif non-union labour. The federation brought them about by appointing a 'ticket steward'- to each job. He had to see who were the non-unionists there. Hi.o result was the jobs wero in a constant upset; the work was retardedwork which master builders had to finish within a specified time under a penalty. "We could get no redress from the Federation, who admitted the strikes wcro non-official, but flatlv declined to exercise discipline. The Federation reduced collective bargaining to a farce. Wo suggested a Kuarantpc fund, musters and men to be equally liable. Nothing Jiapp«ned. So wo went direct to tho men, showing them that in asking tor their ngreomen to work with noniimonists we wero only asking for what their leaders had contracted, but had rerused to give."