St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-18
TOOLS LAID DOWN.
iron Workers in Union Pacific
Shops in Many Towns Go
on strike.
The Men Claim the Company
Violated the Nine-HOur
Agreement.

OMAHA, Neb., April 17.-When the
noon whistle blew today 500 employees
Of the Union Pacific shops in this city
quietly gathered their tools, blous 8,
oyeralls and dinner buckets together
and left the employ Of the Union Pa
cilic in yindication of what they believe
to be an inherent principle of
right, the right TO voice as to
who should be employed in the several
departments of the shops, and the time
when such employment should take
place. As the several departments, in
Guiding the machinists, boilermakers,
blacksmiths. molderS and patternmak-
ers, mingled i'll the swarm OF workers
going TO their dinners. there was little or
no demonstration, except now and then
some OVer-Zeal0uS striker would let out
yell. The carpenters, painters. car
repairers and car inspectors went to
their several lodging houses or remained
eating their monday meals in the shops,
showing little or no concern III what
was being done by their cOmrade-Work-
erS in iron.
The employees claim that the company
has acted in bad faith concerning the
fulillment of an agreement entered
in to allow the force of men employed
TO reduce itself when the time was be-
low the standard Of nine hours day.
1t is claimed that the company instead
of allowing the force of men EN-
ployed to reduce itself. naturally has
kept up the full quota of men and
in some shops, Omaha included, has IN
creased the force. The company not
only increased the force, but reduced
tie standard of time from nine hours to
eight hours for working day
Jan. 5 of this year. The en-
ployes claim to have a written
agreement signed by General Manager
Dickinson and Assistant Superlntend-
ent MertZenheimer, that while ten men
are working eight hours, it Is under
stool that places of men who leave the
service will not be filled, except when
absolutely necessary in order to carry
Oh the work to advantage.
President S. II. H. Clark when seen
this afternoon refused to make any de-
tailed statement of the difference be-
tween the men and the company,
saying that his remarks might be
miSconStrued and that irritation would
rise. He believed that the men, as
whole, would not act rasnly and that the
strike would not be general. The men,
he said, had simply asked more than
the com pany could grant and he could
not. to the eXteut desired, surrender his
authority over them
The strike inaugGrated today affects
about 2,500 men on the system, and
only interests the workers of iron,
or those men who are working
eight hours instead of nine, as
they alleged they wers promised
on Jan. Is. The towns to be most at
fected by the strike, in addition to
Omaha. are: Denver, Cheyenne, Salt
Lake, Rawlins, Armstrong, Pocatello,
Evanston, Laramie, La Grande and
Shoshone.
DENVER, April 1.-THE threatened
strike Of the machinists, boilermakers
and blacksmiths employed in the Union
Pacific shops here did not occur today.
The men are in the dark in
regard to the cause of the trouble
and tonight a committee was sent to
Omaha to straighten things out. 1t is
probable that no decisive movement
will be made until the committee re-
port is received. Many of the men en-
| ployed in the shops here are Knights Of
| Labor. the balance consisting of men,
| bers Of the Amalgamated Association of
| Engineers, BOilermakerS and Machl-
niStS' association. Should the strike go
| into effect there will be about $50 trades
unioniSts who will walk out of Denver
shops, while about 200 of the men who
belong to the Knights of Labor will re-
main at their posts as they have re-
ceived orders from District Assembly,
S2,which governs the Knights of Labor
Union Pacific employees from Chicago TO
San Francisco, that no cause for strike
exists. For several years there has
been more or less feeling between the
Knights of Labor and the trades unions
employed on the Union Pacific, and it
is quite evident that the strikers would
have to combat the Knights of Labor as
well as the railroad,