Progress of Power Plant and Houses Threatened by Strike of Iron Workers--1800 University Workmen Concerned

Once again the firm hand of Labor has grasped at the working tranquility of Harvard University, when members of the Iron Workers Union now working at the Elevated Power Plant conducted a strike that threatened to cripple the work not only on the plant itself, but also the progress on Lowell and Dunster Houses.

The job of demolishing the building has been contracted by the Stets Company of Boston, who have agreed to have the building void of all machinery by April 12. The contract was sublet to two concerns, one the Zimble Company, which is removing the generators, and another the Shaughnessy and Ahern Company, which is taking out the old boiler equipment. The men working for Zimble were non union men, while those employed by Shaughnessy and Ahern were strictly union.

On this basis the work has gone on, with union riggers and generator wreckers working side by side with non-union burners and riggers in peace and comparative quiet.

Crane operators of both types man-oeuvered their hooks with equal calm and skill, feeling that as long as they were working for different concerns on different jobs they could restrain any evil feelings that might otherwise have arisen. The break came when some of Zimble's non-union men did a job for Shaughnessy. At once there was friction in the air. Labor unions representing all the workers employed at the plant investigated the state of affairs, and incidentally ordered a strike. For the past week no work has gone on in consequence, and with the continuance of the break it was feared that the 1800 union men working for Harvard University, would strike, including those employed on the houses, since the union order asserted Harvard to be their common employer. By a drastic change in the personnel at the plant and the substitution of union men in all the work found in the hands of non-union workers this crisis was avoided.