30,000 locked out : $b the great strike of the building trades in Chicago
John Locke · en
Officers were elected as follows: President, Lewis Meyer; secretary, T.
D. Price; treasurer, T. J. Fellows; sentinel, Henry Annes.
The officers were directed to procure a charter.
NATIONAL BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL.
On Tuesday, June 28th, the first national convention of the Amalgamated
Building Trades was held in Chicago. There were sixty-eight delegates
present, of whom fifty were from Chicago. The others were from Detroit,
3; Washington, 1; Cincinnati, 2; New York, 3; Pennsylvania, 1; Bay City,
1; Brooklyn, 1; Denver, 1; Milwaukee, 1; Philadelphia, 2; Sioux City, 1;
Pittsburgh, 1. P. W. Birk, of Brooklyn, presided during the session
which lasted three days.
The objects of the council were defined as follows:
The objects of the Council are to assist in the organization of the
journeymen workers of the building trades, and the federation of
such trade organizations into building trade councils and central
bodies in each locality of the United States; to create a bond of
unity between the wage-working builders, and to aid by counsel and
support all legitimate efforts made for the betterment of the
condition of members of the building trades.
The following appeal to the building trade organizations was adopted and
directed to be sent all over the country:
TO ALL COUNCILS, FEDERATIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS OF THE BUILDING
TRADES IN THE UNITED STATES--_Greeting_: The time has come in the
wisdom of the soundest thinkers and most experienced workers in the
ranks of labor when it is not only proper, but necessary, that the
journeymen workers of the building industry in the United States
should be thoroughly organized and federated under a national
council. Such an organization, by the conservative exercise of the
control delegated to it by a constitution upon which all local
organizations can unite, could do a great work in looking after the
interests of the various crafts and callings engaged in the
building industry; and, by a timely and wise supervision in cases
of wage or other difficulties, exercise an incalculable influence
in directing the course of events to a solution favorable to the
workers, by keeping the craftsmen of the whole country fully
informed of the situation and the necessities of the case. The
contractors, or "Master Builders," have formed and are endeavoring
to perfect a National Association with the declared purpose of
opposing the efforts of the labor organizations to regulate wages
and the hours of labor.