The Camas Post 11/23/1917, p. 3

PAPER MILLS WILL NOT EMPLOY UNION LABOR

Oregon City Enterprise of Last Friday Prints the following on Strike Situation

While no official statements have been issued, there is good reason to believe that no member of a union will again be employed by either the Crown Willamette Paper company or the Hawley Pulp & Paper company.

It was reported Thursday from reliable sources that the two companies have determined to settle the labor situation for good and all and that they have determined to adopt a policy of operating non-union plants. The mills, while not favoring union labor organizations, made no fight against the formation of a paper mill union at the outset, but not that they have faced two strikes in six months, they are going to the bat to finish, and they believe they have the backbone of the strike broken.

Five hundred men are working in the mills of the Crown Willamette paper company and the Hawley Pulp & Paper company is making all of the paper it can make shipment of. There are rumors current of a wholesale break in the ranks of the strikers next Monday morning, when it is said many of the men who have been out of work three weeks will desert their organization and go back to work. These reports are denied by the strikers.

Disquieting rumors were afloat in Oregon City among the business men to the effect that a petition is in circulation in the Crown Willamette mills asking that company to establish a company general store and sell its merchandise to the employes (sic) at a figure only slightly in excess of the cost. It is said that many of the men now working in the mills are displeased over the present condition of affairs, as they are not able to go to and from their homes without being annoyed by the strikers who are picketing at the end of the suspension bridge.

The Enterprise was informed by the management of the Crown Willamette company Thursday that the local workers would be taken back only under the conditions that existed prior to May 4, 1917, before the organization of the union, and only as long as there are vacancies. “There are many agitators and pickets who will never be taken back under any circumstances, ” says the management. “When the positions are filled and we have over 500 men working the balance of the strikers must look elsewhere for employment for we will surely stand by those who have stood by us.”