Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-15
OBJECTING TO THEM.
Pennsylvania Company Employees
Want to Elect the officers
OF THE NEW RELIEF DEPARTMENT.
A Claim That the System Will be Liable
to Lose Its Charter.
OTHER CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION

The employees of the Pennsylvania Com
pany, in this city and Allegheny, are still
awaiting some official notice of the new re-
lief scheme which will go into effect on all
the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg in
July.
There is considerable dissatisfaction aris-
ing out of the appointment of r. F. Smith,
General Agent of the Cleveland and Pitts
burg road at Cleveland, to the position of
Superintendent of the Relief Department
and +. G. Thayer, Assistant Auditor of
Disbursements in this city, to the position
of Assistant Superintendent.
When the relief idea was first broached
the majority of the employees thought that
the officers of the association would be elect
ed by the employees, and not appointed by the
company. The executive officers of the COM
pany have said that the association was to be
entirely free and independent from their juris-
diction.
WHERE DISSATISFACTION EXISTS.
In view of this the employees in Allegheny
think the company had no right to appoint the
officers to manage the business of the en-
ployes.
Most of the dissatisfaction exists in the
operating or clerical departments of the COM
pany although there are any number of men in
the transportation department that say
they will object going into the association.
Men who hold clerkships say they will be CON-
men who are running on the road The former
are not exposed to accident or death, while the
latter are liable to be manned or killed every
moment they are on duty. The men who do
not run any risk of accident say they will not
give part of their wages ito stave off damage
suits" that may arise against the company.
Some OF the officers have told clerks that they
would not be entitled to any insurance benefits
if they met with an accident while not in the
discharge of their duty.
An old freight conductor said yesterday:
CONDUCTOR SPECIFIES.
"If 90 into this thing 1 will have over s. de-
Quoted from my pay each month. This goes
into a common fund. In four years will have
paid in nearly slO0 Suppose get sick or get
several ribs caved in while making coupling
will probably get about 81 a day of my own
money while am laid up. 1 will lose my time,
which may amount to So 70 or SS, while
0f' 0f On Senss a9 Wng gouS 70 the eot 10" s Fats
to be off day longer than
was absolutely necessary, or my family would
suffer. Suppose should afterward die indi-
question whether my widow would get any
thing or not If she did get about $500. the
fact of my joining the association and my
widow taking the insurance money, she would
waive all claims for damages. She would sign
away her rights to recover anything more and
the company would be the gamer, even when
they were responsible for the accident that
caused my death.
THE MONEY RECOVERED
by railroad employees in year on large sys-
tenn amounts to hundreds of thousands of dol
lars annually, This money does not come from
the pockets of employees either. When the
association gets in working order the company
will tell us that we cannot sue them for dam
ages. In Youngstown, o.. some men have re-
covered as high as $4,000. There Is q big diff
ference between this and about $780,"
The officials of the company say it will be
optional with each employe as to whether they
join the association or rot The men say this
is bluff, and any man who objects TO joining
will be the means of causing a vacancr.
Another point raised by the bralxemen yester-
day was shat the company was liable to have its
charter revoked by engaging in the insurance
business, which is something foreign to the
purpose for which the company was organized
and chartered.