St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-10-29
STATEMENT OF
THE N. @. G. N.
RAILROAD

|
service organizations have ordered
the members of their organizations
: to strike, beginning October 80
1921, against the twelve per cent re-
=! duction in wages which was ordered
by the United States SRailroad Labor
! Board, effective July Il, 1921.
The United States Railroad Labor
; Board was created bysan act Of Con-
gress for the purposexof settling dis
! putes between the railroad and their
employees in the matter of wages
! and rules and working conditions.
F; Therefore, this proposed strike is
against the authority pf the Congress
of the United States as expressed
through its agent-the United State;
Railroad Labor Board
/! The twelve per ce4t reduction in
, wages is not sufficient to permit the
New Orleans Great Northern Rail
road Company to opeFate its proper
ty and avoid a receHership. A Il
per cent reduction in wages is very
small per cent of the increase which
I toHrentp4e eyeess% secured during @
period Of Federal control. In 1917.
the year preceding Federal control,
this COmpany's pay roll amounted to
$560,247. In 1920 this company S
pay roll amounted to $1,432,752, or
an increase of one hundred and fifty
SIX per cent over 1917. This enorm-
GUS increase was the result of in
creased hourly rates and change in
rules and working conditions.
Prior to Federal control, as our
patrons know, one train crew Operat-
ed the two turn around passenger
runs on the Shore Line; the two turn
around passenger trains on the
Bogue Chitto Branch; the turn
around passenger run between Co
lumbia and New Orleans; and the
turn around passenger run between
Bogalusa and Jackson. During the
period of Federal control rules AMI
working conditions were SO changed
that it was necessary to put two pass
enger train crews on the Shore Line,
two on the Bogue 'Chitto Branch,
leans, and two between Bogalusa and
Jackson.
Each passenger conductor on the
Shore Line Branch receives $4,000
per month; one is on duty only five
hours and five minutes out of each
|tenty-four hours, and the other one
is on duty five hours and seventeen
minutes.
On the Bogue Chitto Branch the
conductors monthly compensation is
the same, The time on duty in the
case of one conductor is five hours
and ten minutes, and the other oae
five hours and fifteen minutes.
In the case of trains three AMI
four, which operate between Column
bia and New Orleans, the two con-
ductors agreed between themselves
that they would work alternate
days; in other words, each conduc-
tor is on duty every other day,
total Of nine hours and fifty-hve
minutes, and each receives $4,000
a month.
The same arrangement is in effec5
between the conductors who operate
trains nine and ten between Boga-
lusa and Jackson. Each conductor
is on duty eleven hours and thirty
minutes every sother day, and each
receives $4,000 a month.
Our passenger engineers make
from $4,000 to $3190 90 for twenty
to twenty-six days work a month.
All other employees in train ser
vice receive proportionately as high
wages as conductors and engineers,
and are also governed by the same
unreasonable rules and working cor
ditions.
The increase in compensation Of
our station agents during the period
of Federal control, as compared with
1917, ranges from seventy-one to
five hundred and seventy per cent.
Following are a few examples:
Dec Dec.
1917 1920
Talisheek, Agent. :. sS4.31, $277.47
Warnerton. Agent 1886 2658e
Zona, Agent $500. 1912 26o.l9
Morgantown, Agent $500 204.l
Abita Springs, As
sistant Agent -. 27.50 lS4.
It is against reduction of these
high wages that the labor leaders
have ordered their men to strike.
We want our patrons to understand
that we are not opposed to good
r111oc and