The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1916-10-14
CAUSES OF NEW YORK
STREET CAR STRIKE

New York.--In public letter ad-
dressed to President Shonts of the In
terborough Rapid Transit Company,
whose employees are now on strike, a
score of well-known citizens ask:
'ls it true that $4,000 workers who
give their lives to this service have no
real voice regarding the conditions I'M
der which they work, and no means of
independent, organized protest against
any conditions which their employers
have seen fit to mpose' A court of
arbitration would answer this to the sat
isfacton of the public
1T is true that legalistc intricacies
were employed to destroy the contract
entered into by the men in good faith
We are told that the conditions which
have led to the street railway strike are
of long standing that the street railway
employees are paid lower scale of
wages in this city, despite its high cost
of living, than i'll any other large city
in America that the men are compelled
to work seven days in the week, 365
days in the year. that they have no day
that they call their own, because the
traction schedule necessitates seven days
in the week work, even to approximate
living wage.
1T is affirmed that the companies
have, in effect, declared war on trade
,lnionism that they subject the men to
the degradation of a spy system that the
men have not been at liberty, according
to the concepts of free people, to
gather together to discuss their condi-
tons without fear of dismissal. We are
told that fear, coercion and espionage
form part of the system of union break
ing which the company has employed
for years. In proof of this assertion,
Rule No. 23 of the company's general
book of rules is cited Any employe
disappearing of the regulations adopted
for his government or not disposed to
aid in their enforcement, is expected to
resign or he will be discharged
"We feel that we have right to in
sist that full knowledge OF these con-
ditions should be laid before the public,
which is partner in the transportation
business of New York The public owns
the streets, it owns the subways, it ad-
vanced the credit with which they were
built. The conditions under which mer
work on the transit lines are, therefore
vitally a matter of public concern.
"On behalf Of the strikers, it is at
lirmed that the companies apparently
admitted the right to organize in thu
accepted trade union sense, righ
which ell iusticeloving people agree i
,, an indispensable right of labor, if it j
to protect itself, but that even Will
ostensiby agreeing to independent or
: ganization, the companies, through th
silent pressure of intimidation, forced
the men individually to sign private con
,, tracts which, in effect, robbed them o.
industrial liberty and destroyed every
: right to be secured for them through in
dependent organization.
"We want to know the facts. Are the
traction companies guilty of an actua
breach of the agreement of August g
which the men were constrained tech
S nically to violate when they became
aware of their danger? Was this tech
t nical violation subsequent to and Sc
! quel to the companies graver violation
of the spirit of the agreement?
t "Were the men trapped into a mino
| violation of the agreement which th'
, COMPANY has previously torn to tatters
Is it true that a semblance of the righ
to organize was offered the men in th'
guise of the brotherhood an organiza
ton temporarily effected under the join
coercion of spy system and phllan
2 thropy? All these facts we feel we hav'
e right to know not from you, nor from
any one man personally, but through al
l impartial tribunal of arbitration"