New-York tribune., 1919-08-10
spect to the working conditions Of the

spect to the working conditions Of the
men employed by the B. r. T.
During the course Of that con-
troversy the matter was brought to the
attention of your honor, and public
hearing, much like this, was held; at
the conclusion of which you restated
the situation, restated the conditions
Under which the road had been and
would continue to be operated, and in
dicated that if the employees, either in
the departments or as whole, desired
to select representatives to deal with
the receiver, you would see that an
absolutely free and unhampcred op-
portunity would be given them for such
selection, and guarantee to have it
done under the courts supervision in
such a way as to get rid of any un-
toward consequences. or any getting
cut of hand.
"From March on until this month
have been visited by numerous com
mittces representing different shops,
different employments, porters, car
cleaners, ticket sellers. men working at
different stations and at Fresh Pond,
about conditions of motormen, main
tainers and committees of towcrmen.
These are not by any means all-those
occur to me while | am on my feet
And in each case we have had COM
plete negotiation and settlement and a
written agreement on behalf of these
men who represented the employees and
by me representing the company.
"The matter of the recognition of the
Amalgamatcd as the sole person or
agency with whom I was to contract
was not raised again until I was in
that on Friday night the Amalgamated
had held mass meeting and they had
adopted some resolutions which would
result in communication being delv-
cred to me on Monday. | gave instruc-
tlons to receive it on my behalf.
and | Immediately started home and
reached here Tuesday morning.
Resolution Passed
BY Union Summarized
"The communication recited to me
that this mass meeting had been held,
and incidentally that it was attended
by about 1000 employees of the com
pany; that they had passed rcsolu-
tions which they summarized. AS they
were summarized they were Gubstan-
TALLY as follows: First, that I should
rcinstate all men discharged for union
activities; second, that | should recog-
nize the Amalgamatcd Association;
third, that l should pay rs cents to my
operatives, which means motormen,
guards and so forth, and grant pro-
portional increases to all the other
employees of the association; fourth
that | should put into effect uni
versal eight-hour day throughout the
system.
"Mr. Menden, an assistant manager,
who had been deputed to receive the
committee and the communication,
asked which one of their demands they
wished to bring to my attention rs the
paramount issue, and they said No. 2,
which was the recognition of the
Amalga ted Association.
Il Immediately restated my position
to these gentlemen, which the court had
restated to them before, and that was
that il any employees in groups, or
the system, or as lndivid-
uals, had grievances, they had an alb
solutely open approach to me under
any and all coKdtions, and that
would Tot deal with outside organiza
tions tnat insisted that | make con-
tracts with them concerning my en-
ployes. | thought that had been made
perfectly clear last March, SO that any
men on the system having grievances
had an open way to get relief.
~ do not know who these people
were. but whoever left this communica
ton the information was that unless |
replied by 6 o'clock on Tuesday night,
agreeing to make my arrangements
with the ANA lgamated in regard to the
working conditions of my employees,
they would strike at 5 o'clock the next
morning "Wednesday morning.