The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-12
POSTAL OPERATORS QUIT WORK AT TIME SET BY KONENKAMP Offices Are Open, But An nouncement Says Busi- ness Accepted Subject
 to Delay

At I o'clock yesterday morning, the time set by s. J. Konenkamp for, the general strike of the Commercial Tele- members of the union employed by the Postal Company in Birmingham, left their keys. Coincident with this was the fact that the Postal company began to accept business subject to indefinite delay Superintendent w. c. Lloyd, of the Postal company stated that they would. however, still continue to do business. under the difficulties which they were unable to control.
 When interviewed by an Age-Herald reporter yesterday, MT. Lloyd said;
 ''The business of the company has been hampered to some extent by the strike. We intend to keep on doing business however. We have sufficient force on hand now to handle the local business, if it were not for our great amount of relay messages. This nec- cessarily implies that we must do what we can on both the local and relay traffic so that it results in indefinite delay in both cases. I am however, eX- pecting more help, both foreign and local, tomorrow.
 T know of no grievance and do not
  plaint to make about the treatment that they have received at the hands of this company. 1 think they have struck against this company only be- cause of orders from their international president
 q have called up every office in the southern district and have finally been able to get responses"
 l.. M. Butsch. president of the Com ~I,o iro of this city, stated last night, after a meeting held at o'clock at Judge Pugh's courtroom at the Jefferson county court house, that additional telephone girls were rapidly joining the union. MT. Butsch said:
 The strike among the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of Ameriac men of the Postal Telegraph Company was a grand success. only few non union men were left to work the keys We had with us two traffic chiefs, one all- night chief operator one night chief operator, all check boys and girls and the entire long distance telephone de- partment.
 "Everything is moving along smooth ly and harmoniously with regards to the strike of the telephone girls. Fifty more girls were admitted to the union tonight and with the coming Of Mon day, the day set for the strike, we will possibly have a majority pledged Tn support of the union.''
 The Western Union company officials stated that they had had no additional strikers and also claimed that they were handling business with little delay here or elsewhere and that they had re- ceived one additional Morse operator The following messages were received by the president of the local A. w. E from Joseph H. Hayes, international president of the A. w. E., and w. A Reynolds, assistant vice-president tc Hayes at headquarters, Atlanta, Ga.
 "Confirmation from all points enter ing Chicago shows that all employes are on the job and standing 100 percent solid"
 All divisions report everything 1T good shape and all circuits are work ing normally. The so-called nation wide strike did not affect us at all.
 The reference, made in the message from President Hayes regarding the l0t percent strong refers only to those wht remained after the strike of the tele- phone and telegraph operators in At lanta.
 Local Southern Bell Telephone ane Telegraph officials seem to have nc serious apprehensions regarding tht strike threatened by telephone girl. here, stating that the girls have had nc reason for grievances and that they art apparently well pleased with the treat ment received from the company.