Demand for pay increase

With several hundred workers in the bureaus of parks and streets still out on strike for a living wage, and Albany city streets already becoming not only an eyesore but a public health crisis, the city was dealt another potential blow. Men employed at the sewage disposal plant and in the bureau of water made a “polite but firm demand” of the city’s administration for an increase in pay. Commissioner Wallace Greenalch of the department of public works, could do nothing but forward the request on to the board of estimate and apportionment, because it was not within his power to boost pay. Insiders said a strike would result if the demands were not met.

— Times Union, June 2, 1920