Paint Strike Deadlocked on Labor Demands

With the Brotherhood of Painters, Paper-hangers and Decorators District Council No. 9 and the Association of Master Painters and Decorators deadlocked over labor conditions, a bitter fight to the finish loomed yesterday.

The refusal of the members of the Association to capitulate to the demands of the striking employees intensified the feeling between the two factions. The Association came forward with an offer of eight dollars for an eight-hour day but the union officials intimated yesterday that they would accept nothing less than nine dollars for a seven-hour day.

In the meanwhile in an effort to take their grievances to the public 2,000 members of the striking union held a peaceful demonstration in the Westchester avenue section of the Bronx shortly after noon yesterday. Strikers carried banners demanding their rights under the NRA and condemning the Association of Master Painters and Decorators for cutting wages and lengthening hours.

It was revealed at union headquarters, 244 West Fourteenth street, that a huge demonstration of all 12,000 members of the union will be held Tuesday in the business, financial and residential sections of the city. At the offices of the employers group it was announced that a meeting has been arranged for Tuesday at the office of Ben Golden, executive secretary of the Regional Labor Board, at which the two groups are to present their respective demands. This announcement was confirmed at Golden’s office but at union headquarters there was no knowledge of the meeting. Leaders of the union expressed willingness to attend.

CLAIMS INDUSTRY IN PARALYSIS

Although the entire industry is in a state of paralysis a union spokesman told a Jewish Daily Bulletin reporter that independent bosses are settling with the union on its demands. Fifty independent employers have already settled, the spokesman declared. Two hundred more applications are pending, according to the union official, but the union desires a strict guarantee that its conditions will be complied with before it signs a settlement.

If the Association members remain adamant and refuse to sign an agreement with the union, the independent employers will grab all the work, the reporter was told by the union spokesman.

At the office of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union it was disclosed yesterday that the strike committee of the Joint Council of the Knit Goods Workers, had not yet convened for the purpose of determining when to call a strike.

The Knit Goods Workers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to go out on strike. The union is demanding a ten to twenty per cent increase in wages, according to the classification of the workers, and a reduction in hours from thirty-seven and a half to thirty-five weekly.