100 YEARS AGO

Monday, July 29, 1918. Workers at the Corinth plant of the International Paper Company return to work this morning after the federal War Relations Board settles a dispute between labor and management.

The Corinth men voted to return to work at a Parish Hall meeting attended by 400 people yesterday. The vote followed a recommendation to return to work from International Brotherhood of Paper Makers president J. T. Carey.

The strike that reduced International output by 75% in New York and New England was provoked by the company’s alleged retraction of a promised bonus after the government ordered the International to pay employees time and a half for overtime retroactively from May.

The War Labor board determined that workers weren’t entitled to the bonus, but “were entitled to an increase of 10 cents an hour and a shortening of the workday from nine to eight hours.” On those terms the union voted to end its walkout.

“The War Board so plainly explained the meaning of its ruling that both the men and the company could readily interpret its meaning,” local president M. T. Jones tells The Saratogian.

“The men have returned to work with the same spirit of co-operation and with the same determination to produce the maximum of production as they had before the trouble. Every one is much pleased that the misunderstanding has been so easily adjusted.”