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Document: "Timber Workers Ask Mill Owners to Sign" The Cottage Grove Sentinel, 25 July 1935 The question being asked most often here is "Are we going to have a strike of timber workers just as the situation seems to be clearing elsewhere and after this community has gone through the coast strike to date without trouble of any kind?" The reason the question is asked is that the timber workers’ union has presented to operators a proposed contract with the request that it be signed by the operators. The proposed contract is a mild one compared to the one that was presented operators in the Portland area and has been courteously presented without any threats of what may happen if it isn’t signed. There is a lack of the radical element in this community, a large proportion of timber workers being those who have lived here many years and have been employed many years by the same companies. Sawmill operators have stated that they can not possibly meet the proposals in the propose contract and what will follow when it becomes certain that the contracts are not to be signed is not certain. The proposed contract affects woods employees only and it asks a five-day week of 40 hours, time and a half for overtime, five holidays a year, recognition of seniority, recognition of collective bargaining under the provisions of the Wagner bill and wage increases with a minimum of 50 cents to a maximum of $1.12.5. Wages at present are from 47.5 cents to 77.5 cents. A Portland official of the American Federation of Labor was here during the past week conferring with sawmill owners and sawmill and woods employees.
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