St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-26
STILL NOT SETTLED.
Continued From, First page.

agents anu opcEdlOfSs tHFce cltThS, Oife
carpenter. one section man and one
assistant cook. Now. the section man,
numerically speaking. would have a
hard time, but suppose the rest desire
to look after his interest.
II In regard TO the existing schedules l
must state again clearly the situation of
the company and the men during the
winter. The engineers-let me go back
about thirteen months ago-the COM
pany raised the pay of it's engineers,
without ANY request from them, during
the winter of 1893; as the business OF
the coIlp and its revenue was great
Iy reduced during the winter of 1894.
the company sent for the men. brought
them here, through their representa-
stIves. and proposed that they should
substantially go bach to the rate OF pay
which they received in the winter of
1888. The reduction was about per
cent. Il was considered by the men;
the reasons given. and. in order to show
good faith OH the part of the company,
the reduction in the earnings was
Shown to the men at the time. Ii
showed that when the pay was raised the
company was earning Si,700 per mile of
oper9fed road per annum, which. for
long road like this, is less than almost
any road in the country. They were
asked to accent the reduction until such
time as The earnings reached 81. 800 per
aiiHum for each mile of road operated,
and they would then have their wages
restored 10 the old schedule, giving as
plain reason the reduction in the COM
pany's earnings, i'll order that these men
might participate to some extemt-to the
extent of about per cent-in the gen.
efal burdens that affected the whole
country. The matter was considered
by their own representatives and by
their grand Officers. and was agreed to,
and Is in effect, under the sanction of
the grand officers. as well as of the COM
pany.
The conductors and trainmen's sched-
ules were considered ny their repre-
sentatives; their grant officers wee
brought here; the main Number of the
men engaged as conductors and train
men We're left Oh the SAME basis Of pay
as they had heretofore, viz: Three
cents per mile for freight conductors
and two cents per mile for freight
brakemen. There was no reduction in
the tralnmeB. with the exception of
some short and special runs and sume
opportunities To make overtime. On
some special runs, where the mileage
was not sufficient to make a fair
| months wages. the run was estab-
| i''hCti at ~ q hClC
| reductions III some OF these runs
as compared with the former
| schedule. The passenger conductors
! pay hal Eeen S125 per month, and it
WAS proposed to make it Sl12.50. In
| some localities where the run Is short
| for instance, between Helena and
| Butte, Mont, the distance is seventy
two mlleS-the company called it 100
! miles to the men. and allowed them tor
! 100 miles The men wanted, where
they doubled on hill, for instance,
| they wanted the distance SO doubled
| counted III addition To the 100 miles
Notwithstanding the distance actually
run WAS only ~ miles, and for
which they received pay for 100.
There was another principle laid
| down; that the company should not
be asked TO pay for time which it mad
no opportunity to use, and could not
use. That is, if the company paid a
| man for days work-a days work
being 100 miles or ten hours-if the COM
Dany took his time for seven hours and
did not furnish him with actual work
| for ten hours. he was entitled 10 the ten
| hours pay. LII other words, if 90 or rs
miles was considered a run, he was en-
titled to pay Tor 100 miles; or, on the
other hand. if the company had bust
ness in CONNECTION with his train be-
tween terminals, we had a right to
call OH linn to do that business
without extra pay, until the time
III the cOmpany'S service should
exceed the ten hours. or the time he was
being paid for; otherwise the company
would be compelled to pay for time that
/ it had no opportunity to use, and that
| Ill itself would be unfair. The con-
| ductorS' schedule was taken by the
committee, the grand officers being here
at the time, to Oe submitted to the men,
and the company to be notified of their
| vote-if the men adopted or voted IN
| favor OF the proposed agreement it
| should take effect Oh the LIST of April;
| if they voted against il the grand Off
| GERS and the committee would come
| here and notify US to that effect, and
! the matter would be considered further.
in the meantime, in order that there
| should be no confusion, the men who
are charged with keeping the time of
! these train men were INSTRUCTED to keep
1t both WAYS. so that whichever way
| was finally voted should govern. Up
| to this time there has been no written
| return TO the company of that schedule.
The men were voting on this schedule
| when the strike occurred, when L sup
| posed the voting ceased. That is the
/ situation
| IN regard to the switchmen and ward.
men at St. Paul, minneapolis and SUI
| perior, they are in the Switchmen's or
| yardlnen'S unions. YaFdmen at other
! points are under the Order of Trainmen,
and we heard from neither the one aSsO-
citation nor the other complaining of any
! matter between them and the company
| further than that the different men
| were voting on the schedule that was
| submitted to them for consideration.
and the result of this has not been re-
turned to the company at this time
! Now, that is the situation as regards
! these schedules and as regards these
! organizations. That is the position of
| the matter at this time, and, as | stated
before, the organizations do claim that
they control their men through their
| committees. We take first the engineers,
| they have committee or eight or nine
| L VIII submit 10 you as matter of fact,
| without prejudice, that the constitution
| of your committee. made up as it is,
| giving the engineers two representa-
| tiveS, two firemen. two conductors. two
| brakeMen, four switchmen, two yard
men, making fourteen altogether. Now,
the shopmen have sixteen On their list,
| the sectiOnmen one. l submit that the
makeup of the list, on its face. does not
| carry out the impression that it is fair
representative list of men to represent
the different branches of the service. 1t
/ this list is the fair representative com.
| mittee of the men in the different
| branches of the service, the company
| is certainly ready to so consider
| them, but in face of the statement
! Of the men and of their committees, and
\ OF the actual men present composing
/ your committee, it does look to me as il
( the case was not shown at all, as
| claimed, that this committee fairly rep
( reSentS The men. and that this commit
/ tee would be able to make for them any
| agreement that the men would carry
| out hereafter. Their Representatives
/ say to US that they DO not desire to be
| represented by this committee, and that
| they would not be represented by ii,
| and that they will only be represented
| by their own cOmmIttees-thelr regular