Excerpt from Report of the Industrial Commission on the Chicago Labor Disputes of 1900, Vol. 8: With Especial Reference to the Disputes in the Building and Machinery Trades
A special subcommission of the Industrial Commission went to Chicago in March, 1900, and took the testimony of a large number of witnesses, chiefly concerning the great disputes in the building trades and the machine shops which were then in force there. Representatives of both employers and employees were heard, and also a number of witnesses who were neither employers nor employees. The strike of the machinists was settled in May, 1900, and two witnesses, representing the employers and employees respectively, gave testimony at Washington soon after regarding the conditions of the settlement. The building trades lockout was much more prolonged, but was practically ended by an agreement between the contractors and the carpenters unions in February, 1901. At that time a representative of the contractors gave evidence in Washington, and Professor Taylor, of the Chicago Commons, who had been active in attempts to bring about a settlement of the dispute, also appeared as a witness. The representatives of the employees at this time declined to present further evidence.
The testimony herewith presented gives a detailed picture of the conditions i and differences leading to the two great disputes, the policies and practices of the organizations of workingmen and of employers in Chicago, the methods of both parties during the disputes, the negotiations for settlement, and the final outcome. It must be remembered in reading the testimony, as well as the review of evidence and the digest, that most of the witnesses testified during the existence of the strikes. Later events would, of course, have modified their statements materially. In the digest of testimony these statements of witnesses are mostly summarized in the present tense.
A small amount of testimony was also taken by the subcommission at Chicago concerning the lockout of the journeymen tailors then in force, concerning the conditions of labor in the clothing trades, and concerning more general matters. Such of these statements as appear of sufficient importance are summarized in the following review, while the others are covered by the digest of testimony.
Inauguration And Causes Of Machinists' Strike.
It appears from the testimony that in January, 1900, the officers of the Chicago local lodge of the International Association of Machinists asked the machinery manufacturers to meet the representatives of the association, to discuss an agreement as to wages, hours, and conditions of labor generally. On the date fixed for this meeting few of the manufacturers appeared. One witness asserts that this was not due to any desire to disregard the request of their employees, but rather to unwillingness to deal with business agents with whom they were unacquainted. Another manufacturer, however, thinks that the employers were at fault in disregarding these first demands.
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