The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-01
Machinists of the Union Pa
cific Shops in Many
Places Quit
A STATEMENT BY BURT
President of the Road Discusses she
Suspension, Which Affects Fully
LOO Men-COmpany Wants
Piece work.

OMAHA, Neb., June 30-In accordance
with a prearranged plan formal order
was issued early today for general
strike of the Union Pacific machinists by
Vice President T. l.. Wilson, of the In
ternational Association of Machinists.
which went into effect at 10 O'Clock. Their
demand is for an increase of 10 per cent
in wages. and that the company abandon
the recently adopted piece work system.
The order was generally obeyed. Already
the number of men at work had been
greatly depleted by the closing down of
shops at Omaha, Cheyenne. North Platte,
Armstrong, Kan, and the curtailment
of work at a number of small shops by
the company. The machinists have begun
paying strike benefit to 1,700 men.
Reports were received at railroad head
quarters by General Manager Dickinson
that the men at Grand Island, Neb., ana
Evanston, Wyo., had refused to strike.
Mr.. Wilson said this was because the
men misunderstood the strike order, and
added it would probably require the great
er part of the week to get all the men
out. He also stated that Grand President
O'Connell would be here in a short time
to lend his assistance.
President Kennedy, of the local organ
ization of boilermakers, said today that
there were but three boilermakers at
WI ~ vi the SlIlT6 SySlSIu.
Enginemen Not ON Strike.
It is apparent that train and engine
men will not be drawn into the strike
Leaders Of these branches of the service
say it is not their fight The machinists
say they do not expect to ask any as
sistarce. Pickets will be placed at shops
and passenger depots to keep the officers
of the union notified of the arrival of new
men, and at all the large cities commit
tees will keep the local labor officials no.
tilted if new men are hired to come to
this city. Both sides are confident of VIC
tory, and have made plain through the
press their position in the strike.
President Burt Talks.
President Burt today made a statement
of the company's position with regard to
the strike of the boilermakers and ma
chinists. in which he said:
I'VE have most excellent class of men
in our employ, and rney are receiving
the highest scale of wages paid by any
railroad in the country. The car builders
and blacksmiths and in fact all of the
employees in the various other depart
ments are satisfied with the wages they
are receiving.
1.-THE demands of the machinists are
that they receive an increase of 10 per
cent in wages, an, that the company do
not adopt the piece work system. These
demands are unreasonable. The compa-
ny now pays 10 per cent higher wages
for this class of work than other roads,
and the piece work system, instead of
inJuring the men, will give them an OPP
portunity to make more money. This
strike is the result of work on the part
OF agitators, who have no other means
Of making a living. I believe that after
the men have time to think it over they
will see their mistake and return to
work. The Union Pacific railroad is not
antagonizing union labor. This it's en-
plcyes know from past experiences"
Hiring No New Men.
Asked if the road was hiring new men,
Mr.. Burt said: mo, we are hiring no
new men at present. We expect most of
the old men to return to work, and gen.
orally speaking, all good men will be
taken back at the present scale of wages,
except the agitators and these who have
made themselves particularly obnoxious.
We have sufficient machinists and boiler
makers to attend to the current work
and the road is not suffering. We do not
expect it to suffer from the effects of
the Strike'