New-York tribune., 1921-06-29
Shop Ballot
On Wage Gut
Still Unknown
Jewell, Denying Rejection,
Says Only Two.Tllirds of
Votes Have Been Counted
ON Rail Boards Ruling
Decision Declared Final
Refusal so Accept Means
Violation of Transporta-
ton Act, Says Hanger
Special Dispatch OF The Tribune

CHICAGO, June 2S.--"Some ebody is
trying to organize railroad strike"
was the comment to-day of B. M.
Jewell, president of the railway en-
ployees' department of the American
Federation of Labor, on the report that
the shop crafts have voted to / to
reject the recent wage cut ordered by
the United States Railroad Labor
Board.
These figures would Indicate" said
Mr.. Jewell. "that there must be more
than 100000 men in the shop crafts
organizations, because they have that
many votes already counted AS mat
ter Of fact, that is more votes than VIC
sent out ballots. There are about
$4,000 men in our organization. Ii
100000 votes have been cast there must
be lot Of people voting that are not
members Of the shop crafts h
Mr. Jewell said that only about two
thirds of tho vote had been counted
and that the result might be known
Friday.
Regardless of what the result of the
vote may be among railroad workers
there will be no official action taken
by the United States Labor Board.
Decision Final, Says Hanger
"The decision of the board is final"
said George w. Hanger, one of the
members. eve believe the men will
accept the decision. No one should be
disturbed over reports that the men
will not accept the decision of the
board. Of course, if they do not ac-
cept, there is only one thing the board
can do and that is to declare they are
al n %rp 1,,$,
Through n United States Railroad
Labor Board order issued to-day, ex-
tending operation of the national work
ing agreements for an indefinite pc
riod (eXcepting those involving over
time pay), railways Of the country and
rail employees alike gained at least
temporary advantage. Continued op-
Grafton of these agreements, which the
board April Id directed should termi-
nate next Friday, is welcomed by rail
union leaders. To-dav's order, on the
other hand, favored the railroads by
directing that, pending a final decision
on the point, overtime shall be paid
for at the pro rata rate. In other
words, roads are to pay the same rate
for ten hours work they do for eight.
The order continuing in effect, the
national agreements does not disturb
any agreements that have been nego-
tiated between individual roads and
their employees since tpril /.
Agreement on Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Railroad officials to-
day notified the board they had reached
an agreement on working conditions
with their 10000 engine and train serv-
ice employees. So far as these are
concerned, therefore, the national code
will lose force Friday.
The reasons for extending the time
national agreements are to remain in
force are set forth in the Labor
Boards decision, which follows in
part;
ain Decision 119 (ssued April 14)
the Labor Board determined that por-
tion Of dispute referred to it or April
16, 1920, relating to rules and working
conditions. In it's decision the board
terminated, effective July /, its direc-
tion in Decision No. extending the
rules, working conditions and working
agreements in force under the author
ity of the United States railroad ad-
ministration and called upon the off
GERS and system organizations of en-
ployees of each carrier, parties there
to, to designate and authorize repre-
sentatives to confer and to decide so
much of the dispute as it might be pos
sible for them to decide--such confer
ences to keep the board informed of
final agreements and disagreements to
the end that the board might know
prior to July l, 1921, what portion of
the dispute had been settled"
The decision also provided that the