Strike of Glassworkers, Brookfield & Ellenville listed

STRIKE OF GLASSWORKERS.

THE glassblowers employed in all the country east of Pittsburgh have been ordered to strike by one John Coffey, of Philadelphia, Master Workman of the Druggists' Ware Glassworkers' League, Eastern Division.

Mr. Coffey, as far an can be ascertained from the glassblowers hereabout, is a demagogic sort of person who has just been elevated to a position of trust by his fellow workmen. He is now celebrating his elevation by the peculiar sort of methods recently employed by one Butler out in Chicago, who engineered so disastrously the strike of packers, and by Martin Irons, who gained such an unsavory reputation in connection with the strike on the Southwestern system. By reason of Coffey's imperative orders all the glassblowers employed at Hagerty Bros. & Co.'s in Brooklyn and nearly all of those employed at the Bushwick Glass Works, are also out. This enforced strike, which is not approved by a great majority of the men who are members of the Glassblowers' League, was brought about in this way:

Last summer the executive committee of the League held a meeting at Atlantic City, N. J., and adopted as their scale of wages for the blast from September, 1886, to July, 1887, the scale adopted some few years ago, less 10 per cent. — that is, the same scale as was employed during the year 1885-86, This was submitted to the Green Glassware Manufacturers' Association, East, of which William Brookfield; of the Bushwick Glass Works, of Brooklyn, is president. The Manufacturers' Association held that the scale was too high, as it was nearly equal to the highest wages paid at any time during the war, and the condition of trade did not warrant the payment of so high a rate. So they asked that the rate be made 20 per cent. below the scale. The manufacturers, too, asked that the employment of two apprentices to each furnace be permitted, though the union men refused to allow the employment of any apprentices.

A long discussion followed in which the workmen were represented by F. S. Tomlin. whom the manufacturers have always been ready and willing to see and treat with, as he is an intelligent, fair-minded and thoroughly competent man, willing to hear as well as be heard. With him a compromise was finally effected by which it was agreed to pay the men 15 per cent, below the scale, and give the manufacturers the right to employ and train the two apprentices they asked for. On this basis, which was perfectly satisfactory to this executive committee, the men were ordered to go to work, and they did so on the first of November. They were not badly off, certainly, for under it they could make from $5 to $9 a day.

Just after the furnaces were started, when the men were willing to work, there came a call for a special meeting of the league at Camden, N. J. Not knowing that anything of importance was coming up, a large number of factories failed to be represented at this meeting, held two weeks ago. Its principle outcome was the deposition of Tomlin from the position he had so long and satisfactorily occupied, and the substitution of John Coffey, a radical workman and agitator of the Home Club school.

Hardly had Coffey been inducted into office before like a flash from a clear sky came the order to strike. There had been no notification to the Manufacturers' Association, and none to the men in this section of the country at least. No reasons were given for ordering the strike, and no opportunity was offered to avert it. The only theory for its being ordered that either manufacturers or workmen can give is that two small cooperative concerns, one of them in Scranton, Pa., were paying the scale adopted by the League before the compromise was effected. The workmen in the factories throughout New Jersey refused to strike at first, and in about half the factories throughout the country where League workmen were employed this was the case.

Coffey was dumbfounded by the refusal of the glassblowers to obey his mandate. So he started on a missionary tour among the stubborn workmen. He has been to Ellenville, N. Y., and the men there left work after his visit. He was in Brooklyn last week, and the men left work according to his orders. This week he will devote to trying to drive them out of all the New Jersey factories. The Cohansey Works, at Bridgeton, N. J., have already accepted the gage of battle, and its managers have announced that they will not be dictated to, but will fight and will employ only non-union men. The blowers struck there, but soon offered to return to work. Their offer was promptly refused, the blowers in New Jersey who are opposed to Coffey's arbitrary order are under the leadership of Wm. Manka, of Millville, one of their old executive committee, a conservative man who is opposed to Irons-Butler-Coffey methods in labor matters.

November 23 the workmen of the Bushwick Glass Works notified Mr. Brookfield that they had been ordered to strike, but added that they should not do so, because they had signed an agreement with him to work until July next. That agreement, they said, they would stick to. Coffey heard of their agreement and came on here. Finding the men inclined to stick to their agreement with Mr. Brookfield, he began with the apprentices, who are indentured to the firm for five years, and induced them to strike. Then he had a meeting of the blowers on the evening of Thanksgiving day and persuaded them to strike also. He then met Hagerty & Co.'s men, and they struck when they finished work Saturday night. They were paid off for the work they had done up to that date.

When asked about the condition of affairs at his works Mr. Brookfield said: "When my men went to work on the first of November I made them all sign an agreement to work out the blast — that is, until July 1 —before I would start the furnaces. They did it willingly. When the strike was ordered the men voluntarily told me that they would stick by their agreement, for I went to the factory at once and ordered the fires drawn. I accepted their promise to work for me as one made in good faith and allowed the work to go on. Then Coffey came up here and got my apprentices, who didn't know any better than to listen to him, to strike. Then he coralled the blowers on Thursday night, and Friday a committee of the men came and told me they had got to strike in spite of their agreement, or else violate their obligation to their union. Part of the men belong to the Knights of Labor. To-day when I again ordered the fires drawn seven men who were ready to strike refused to do go. Seven others, finding the ice broken, followed their example, and so I have had fourteen men at work to-day. How long they will be allowed to remain at work I cannot say, for coaxing and intimidation will probably both be used. If there is any more trouble I shall close the factory and won't start it again until I know the men are at work to stay. It's cheaper to abandon the plant than to have this sort of thing going on, and I'll certainly do it. Why, in the meeting on Thursday night, when one of my men protested against Coffey's order, Coffey ordered him out of the room, and issued an order that hereafter no member of the League should work with him on pain of expulsion from the union. That's the high-handed manner in which he runs things, and it isn't any wonder that the workmen are kicking against him. So far as our factory is concerned, the strike directly and indirectly affects some 200 working people.''

Coffey's order, if carried into effect, will throw some 8,000 people out of work and close all the factories where druggists' bottles are blown in this State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Eastern States. A large majority of the blowers are satisfied with the present scale of wages, and the only trouble seems to be about the employment of apprentices. Coffey and his followers are not willing that the boys employed in the factories shall be allowed to learn the trade, which they seemingly desire shall die out with them.

On Monday matters remained unchanged at the works of Hagerty Bros. & Co. An executive committee of the men sent word during the afternoon to Mr. Michael Hagerty that they would like to meet him. Mr. Hagerty went over to Brooklyn, but the consultation was without results, the committee finally informing him that the men would not return to work. The fourteen men at the Bushwick Glass Works who refused to go out with the rest of the workmen have so far stuck to their tubes. They are able to keep one furnace employed. Mr. Brookfield, fearing that they might come to grief at the hands of their former fellow workmen, saw that they had police protection on their way to and from their work. He thinks they are deserving of great praise for their good sense and courage in keeping their agreement with the company.

Mr. Brookfield said he thought there was little chance Coffey would succeed in making his order to strike obeyed. The men generally were too intelligent to be ruled by such a high-handed despot. In New Jersey, where there are more glassblowers than in any of the other Stales affected by this order, Coffey would find very serious opposition. If he persevered in his present course the men might leave the League and form another organization. Telegrams and letters received from different places in New Jersey added weight to Mr. Brookfield's opinion. The men in the Hawley Glass Works, at Hawley, were at work, apparently oblivious of the existence of an order to strike or of Master Workman Coffey. Mr. Synnott, secretary of the Manufacturers' Association, wrote that his blowers had wired the men at the Bushwick Works to keep at work, and that the blowers all over New Jersey were organizing to beat Coffey. The indications are therefore that the Master Workman will have to use his influence with the members of the League in New Jersey for all it is worth if he is to make the strike successful in that State.

One of the cities where Coffey succeeded by his presence in making the men quit work is Baltimore. Mr. Becker, of Becker Bros. & Co., of that city, was here Monday, and first learned from the newspapers that his men had yielded to Coffey's demands. He had come to New York on business, but dropped it very quickly and started back for Baltimore in the evening. There will be no yielding on the part of his firm, as he thinks it can stand a shut-down better than the men can. All the manufacturer's seem decided on the same course of action — that it their men will dot return to work and agree to remain until the end of the blast, July 1, they will shut down their works. If Coffey wants to drive well-paid men away from their work manufacturers will have to co-operate with him to this extent. Should the men agree on this strike the manufacturers will have hard work to fill their places on account of the skilled nature of the work, but they have so far had the experience that a positive shut-down is very damping to the ardor of strikers, and expect that rather than have it occur Coffey's commands will be disobeyed. Said a large manufacturer; "I heard a blower say the best thing for Coffey would be for someone to throw him into the river and cool him a little."

Forty men employed in Hagerty's factory, Brooklyn, struck Monday for an increase in wages, although they signed an agreement with their employers on November 1. The strike threw about 300 men out of employment. The men earned from $5 to $10 a day. All the employes in "Brookfield's factory also struck, but by one o'clock half of them had returned to work. These are the only factories in Brooklyn affected by the strike.

IN PHILADELPHIA.

A special session of the new executive board of Green Glass Blowers' District Assembly No. 149 was held at the St. Elmo Hotel, Philadelphia, on Saturday night, November 27 to hear the report of Master Workman Coffey. The report showed that the following places were now in operation under the regulation of District Assembly No. 149: Montreal and Hamilton, Canada; Lockport, Lancaster, Buffalo, and Rochester, N. Y.; Honesdale, Green Ridge and Philadelphia, Pa.; Mount Winans, Md.; Camden, Woodbury (Wyman Bros.) and Winslow, N. J. The list of places where the men have stopped work and the fires are out is as follows: Clyde, Binghampton, Poughkeepsie, Ellenville, East Brooklyn and South Brooklyn (Hagerty Bros.) New York; Baker Bros., Swindell Bros., Baltimore; and Cohansey GlassWorks, Bridgeton, N. J. The factories where the blowers have not yet heeded the orders of the District Assembly to stop work are those of G. C. Green, Woodbury; Whitney Bros., Glassboro; Moore Bros., Clayton; Bodine, Thomas & Co., Millville, and Craven Bros., Salem, N. J. The board will now proceed to deal with these insubordinates and deprive them of their charters if they do not obey orders.

IN BALTIMORE.

The strike in Baltimore is not popular. There are about 160 blowers and 200 apprentices and helpers affected by the strike. The men have been getting from $4 to $7 per day, and they were satisfied with their pay. They only organized their district assembly in connection with the Knights of Labor a week or two ago, and as they have no money laid by it goes hard with them to be ordered out, and the sentiment of the men, privately expressed, is strongly against the strike. The whole week was one of uncertainty to them. The strike was ordered November 23d, and the fires at Swindell's and Baker's factories were blocked. On Tuesday telegrams were received saying that the factories in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey were sill running. As a consequence the men gave up the idea of a strike. Then Master Workman John Coffey came to Baltimore, and the result of his visit was the blocking of the fires Saturday night.

The fight is declared to be not so much for an increase of pay as for a reduction of apprentices, the increase of whom by the Atlantic City Convention last summer is considered by the blowers to be damaging to their craft because of its tendency to enlarge the number of workmen and to reduce the rate of remuneration. Still, the men do not like the order. They were on a strike a month ago; they had to give in then, and they have not since had time to recover. The present contest is likely to last some time, and there are no indications of its resulting favorably to the workers

IN ST. LOUIS.

The Great Western Glass Co. discharged all their men Saturday and closed their works. Mr. Cordova, the secretary and treasurer of the company, says they were obliged to take this action in consequence of the drinking habits of most of their men, which rendered them so unreliable that the works could, not be operated in a proper manner.

IN MIDDLETOWN, N. Y.

The presence of the president of the Eastern Glass Blowers' League as a mediator in Ellenville and his negotiations with the proprietors of the glass works have proved futile, and both bosses and men have settled down to what promises to be a protracted labor struggle. The men struck pursuant to an order of the executive committee of the League against a proposed reduction of 5 per cent. in wages, and in favor of a regulation limiting the number of apprentices that any factory may employ.