Evening star., 1919-01-23
FACTS AS TO THE
CLEVELAND CAR STRIKE:
Women Not Hired as Strikebreak-
ers-Refused Admission to Union.
Case to Be Heard.

Case to Be Heard.
To the Editor of The Star:
Permit me to correct The Stars
statements concerning the cases of
the woman street car conductors of
Cleveland and Detroit as published
the other day when the Detroit case
was up for hearing before the Ma
tional War Labor Board in Washing
ton. These cases are, / believe, the
first instances in the history of this
country where working men have
made an open fight against working
women to secure for men a monopoly
Of certain kinds of work. The issue.
therefore, is nothing less than wom-
ems fundamental right to work in fair
with men.
Facts in the Cleveland case are as
follows: The woman conductors were
employed in September, when men had
in great numbers gone into the Army
and into the remunerative war indus
tries. The women who took conduc-
tors jobs were all self-supporting
women from the poorer-paying occu-
attracted in their turn to
what were better wages for them
for street car wages had been raised
in July from 35 cents to 43 and As
cents per hour, or as much as SIPS to
& iiY1 per month.
,ho women proved competent and
My satisfactory to their employ
and the public. And they played
IA, game fairly with men from every
point of view. meeting all the same
terms of employment, and receiving
the same wages as the men.
Denied Union Membership.
The women also complied with
every trade union requirement and
asked for membership in the mems
union, the local division Of the Anal
gamated Association of Street and
Electric Railway Employees. But the
men refused to admit them to mem
bership-not, as The Star said, be-
cause of anything the women had
done or failed to do, but because if
the women were members of the
union the union would have to pro-
tect them in their jobs, whereas it
demanded, instead. their dismissal.
Please note again that there was
no strike at the time the women
were employed and that the women
received the same pay as tl-e men,
had the same hours and seniority
rights, and met every other condi-
ton to which the men were subject.
These facts are established by the
records of the case on file with the
National War Labor Board, and these
records are public. Yet The Star
says: Some time ago the union
motormen and conductors of Cleve-
land struck for more money and their
places were filled by women
- a.
those of strikebreakers." This state
ment is not only untrue, but it is
unjust as reflection on the woman
conductors. aa s'iz7S
Struck After Women Were Hired.
Furthermore, rs to the strike of the
men: This strike occurred after the
women were employed on the cars,
and there was no wage dispute at the
time. The wage question had been
settled two months before the women
were employed, by an award of the
National War Labor Board, dated July
award raised the wage scale from 35
cents an hour to 43, 46 and As cents
an hour, and under the terms of that
award the case could not be reopened
until February 1.1919. at the earliest.
The men. however, denied the juris-
diction of the National War Labor
Board and demanded that the COM
pany dismiss the women. The COM
pany refused. and as the men per-
sisted in their demand, the women
an interlocutory order from
the board. This order was granite
g. forbidding the dismissal
of the women and ordering the men
to withhold their insistence pending
a decision of the board upon the mer-
its of the controversy.
Nevertheless, on December the
men struck because the company had
not yielded to their demand and dis
missed the women. This was the
avowed reason for the strike. and
this alone. The strike was, of course,
tory order of November 29. and the
board itself. in it's recommendation OF
December 3 for the dismissal of the
women. violated its own order. Be
cause of these facts, and the fact that
the women had never been heard on
the question at issue, a petition was
filed by the women for reopening of
the case. This petition is now pend
ing before the board and is to be ar
gued for the women by Frank P.
Walsh. former joint chairman of the
board.
The Detroit Case.
In Detroit the situation was similar
to that in Cleveland, but differences
in the contract between the union and
the company limited the scope of the
boards inquiry and, consequently, its
findings. The decision in this case,
however, handed down by Chairman
Taft the other day, requires that the
women now employed be retained,
although under the existing contract
no woman can be engaged in future.
The Cleveland case is broader and in
wolves a decision as to the actual
right of women to compete with men
for the street car jobs.
The Cleveland case, moreover. be-
cause of it's vital import to working
has been the subject of public
kilograms and letters of
protest all over the country. These
protests have come from women's or
ganizations and Individual trade union
women and suffragists, who appre-
ciate the possible effect of the prece-
dent in the War Labor Boards recon-
of December for the dis
missal of the Cleveland women.
But the action of the Detroit and
locals of the Amalgamated
of Street and Electric
the women, and in refusing them
in their union, is not de-
Tended by many trade union men. and
probably would not be sustained by
any other national or international
trade union body in the world. 1t does
not represent real trade unionism, for
real trade unionism stands for equal
for men and women alike.
The platform Of the American Fed
GRAFTON OF Labor and of practically
every state and local federation OF Ia