Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-09-27
RAIL employees.
VOTE To Strike
IS FORECAST Of
UNION LEADERS
General Chairman Of the B,
of R, 7, Begin Counting
the 10000 Ballots Cast
By the Members.
MAY USE WALK0UT AS
WAGE SLASH PROTEST
Next Monday Officials Of
Other Organizations viii
Meet to Count the Vote OF
259,00O Men.
(Ry The AssOrjnted PrefH.l

Wy lut hrNU'"tUu 'VfFf
Chicago, Ser g (by the Asso-
ciated Press.) .ers of the big
four brother " and affiliated
railroad un' sssS Tonight declared
they had 7 So 'ubt that the rail-
way emp, 81 hd voted for gen
eral strj ner than accept a
wage 5 In, but announced
that = .nservative counsel of
the oS I might prevail against
w
4 0hairmen of the Broth
err f Railway Trainmen began
coun. X the $4,000 strike ballots
of their men, but admitted at the
start that, judging from the known
temper of the men, the result Will
be overwhelmingly for q strike.
Pressed for an estimate as to what
that majority might be, Vice Pres
ident James Murdoch said:
Our past experience has
been that 9S per cent of the
men will always vote to
strike"
Next Monday officials of the
brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neers, Order of Railway Conduc-
tors, brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen and Engineers ana
Switchmen's Union of North Amer
lea, will meet to count the vote Oh
their $4,000 workers.
Expect Strike Majorities.
Railroad union leaders here ex-
meet all the brotherhoods and thn,
switchmen's union to cast sub
stantial majorities for a strike. The
affiliated shop crafts have already,
voted by approximately $4,000 .
4S,000 to walk out and are on.s
waiting to see what action the
other unions take and f0r the rail-
road labor board to dispose OF the
pending working rules agreements.
Reports of the general chair'i
men of the trainmen when they as
sembled today were disappointing
to the union leaders. The trainmen
had voted on separate ballot be-
cause their leaders did not approve
of the joint ballot prepared by the
other unions. On September IL
President w. G. Lee, who has been
i'll at Cleveland. addressed letter
to the men who were in the mitssr
of the balloting, in which he po.st-
ed out reasons why he thought a
strike would be unwise at this time
and why the men might expect to
accept some wage reduction.
Lee Fayors n Reduction.
He asked the men to consider the
fact that wages and working con-
ditions of all classes established
since 1918 were the result of the
world war; that 100000 men are
unemployec; that nearly all
classes of labor have been forced
TO accept reduced rates of nav
during the past year." that the in
creased wages granted railroad men
last year were based on increase
COST OF living, and that goyernment
reports indicated a 16 per cent cut
III living costs since July 1, 1920
me strike vote, union officials
POINTED out, does not necessarily
mean the immediate callinp ~
strlke. The question as subn,ittea
10 the men carried a vote for ~.
rsaiilst nes, "a strike unless the wage
teouctlon ia question can be settled
IN a manner satisfactory to the gem
erai grievance committee"
Ihe grievance committee will,
nleet mere when the strike vote ia
it was said. and eitber
take steps to reopen neeotjatinns
with the roads or set date for ths
walkout. 'o ioi tue