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Document: "Conditions Lumber Strike are Peaceful" The Cottage Grove Sentinel, 8 August 1935 Strike conditions in the lumber industry remain quiet. Pickets have been orderly and there has been no suggestion of violence. Saturday night pickets at the Chambers mill sent in word that two communists had approached them and offered to burn the property for $10. Union officials immediately sent men to guard the Chambers plant, the Woodard mill and the Woodard remanufacturing plant. The Bohemia Lumber company at Clup Creek has ceased sawing for lack of logs, but men who remained on the job have been put to work constructing a railway to timber. Logs at the old setting had been practically cut out when the strike was called and this plant would have had to close for the railway construction. The Chambers mill continued sawing until Wednesday of this week, but the log supply has become exhausted. At the Woodard plants arrangements have been made for a continued shutdown and W. A. Woodard, manager, has gone east by airplane on business not connected with the strike. Lumber has been moved from the Chambers mill and the Bohemia lumber company’s mill under police protection, although such protection has not seemed necessary. None of the operators has given voice to future plans if any have been made. A dozen mills smaller than those affected remain in operation. One of these is the Scott mill, across the river from the Bohemia Lumber company’s plant. Two others are the Cottage Grove Lumber company at the city boundaries and the Pioneer Lumber company at Curtin. No definite word has been received as to when a federal mediator will arrive, but that a mediator will be sent has been promised by Senator McNary. The local union had sent a telegram asking for such a mediator under the Wagner bill. Union officials claim that 800 men are out. Those at the three plants affected who did not go out number that many or more. The good-natured way in which picketing is being conducted is illustrated by an Incident at the Bohemia Lumber company’s mill. LaSelle Stewart, one of the owners of the mill asked a picket if he knew where a claw bar could be found. The picket said he did, whereupon Stewart offered to carry the banner which the picket was holding if he would get the claw bar. The picket agreed and Stewart carried a banner for half an hour which said "Strike Conditions Prevail by Order of the A. F. of L" J. H. Chambers of J. H. Chambers & Son in a statement Wednesday said the owners were going on strike that night and would remain on strike until such time as demands of workers are such that owners can operate their own businesses and can conduct their business at some profit to themselves, which statement was taken to mean a complete shutdown. The dispute between mill operators and the union is not such as to preclude early settlement of the strike, according to President C. C. Ritter of the sawmill and timber workers local union. He said "Wage demands submitted to employers average approximately 30 per cent under the Portland and Pacific coast schedules, this differential being necessary by reason of additional freight which inland mills must assume. "In addition to wage demands which begin with a 50 cent the hour minimum and which represent an increase of from 2.5 cents to 5 cents over that now being paid by employers, they are demanding recognition of the union, a 40-hour maximum working week with time and half for overtime. This does not mean that the employer is compelled to furnish a full working week of 40 hours. It means that the employer agrees to not work men for more that 40 hours in any one week, unless he is willing to pay time and half for overtime beyond the maximum 40 hour week. The reason for this demand is that it will have a tendency to furnish employment to a greater number of men, since employers are likely to put on more men rather than pay overtime. "A much disputed point which is not clear to the average person is the demand for union recognition Recognition of the union does not mean a close shop. It means that the employer agrees to bargain collectively with the union so long as it represents the majority of employees. Union recognition would not exclude non-union men from obtaining employment." Latest word from Portland is that Mr. Marsh federal mediator, will be sent here sometime during the week Mr. Marsh is said to have been largely responsible for settlement of the strike at Tacoma, where employers signed an agreement with the union effecting a complete settlement of all difficulties involved. "So elated were both employers and employees of the Tacoma area with settlement of their difficulties that a big picnic was staged at Pt. Defiance park, in which both employers and employees participated."
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