New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-27
Pennsylvania Official Says
Federal Board Exceeded
Its Powers in Rejecting
10000 Employees Vote
Tells Balloting Methods
Does Not Look for Strike;
Pres sent Difficulty Is
+ Largely With Shop Men
From a STAFF Correspondent

New with newspaper men, After in
floating his belief that there would
De no strike of Pennsylvania employees,
General Atterbury asserted that the
transportation act of 1920 provided
no way for the Labor Board to enforce
to public opinion, and that the law
provided for no appeal by railroad
company or employees from its deci-
sion except to public opinion.
The Pennsylvania has asked the Labor
Board for a rehearing of the case in
which the board recently refused to
accept the vote cast by 10000 Penn
sylvania employees in favor of accept
ing new working conditions, because
the board did not approve Of the way
the vote was taken. This refusal goes
beyond the powers of the board in
the opinion Of the Pennsylvania man
agement, General Atterbury explained.
because in undertaking to prescribe
the manner in which railroad employees
should vote on question of working
conditions the board assumed an nd
ministrative function which the trans
portation act did not confer on it.
Explains Controversy
In answer to questions, General At
terbury explained in detail how the
present controversy had arisen. The
transportation act provided that each
class of railroad labor might be repre-
scented before the Labor Board by rep
resentatives of it's own choosing. The
Labor Board, in its decision reducing
81 ~ 4
ment to draw up set of rules cover
ing working conditions and submit
these rules to labor. If the rules were
not satisfactory to labor the repre-
sentatives of labor could take an appeal
to the Labor Board This decision,
which became effective July /, abro-
gated, the Pennsylvania management
thinks, the national agreements there
tofore in effect. Acting on this belief,
the management drew up q new set
of rules and submitted these rules to
its employees.
The company provided the machinery
for secret ballot for the purpose of
choosing labor representatives. This
consisted of ballot with blank lines
on which the employee could write the
name of any one he wanted as a rep
resentatve. The employee filled in his
ballot and inclosed it in an envelope
on which the class of employee-shop
man, clerk, or whatever it was-was
written. This envelope was in turn in
closed in one on which the employee's
name was written. The outer envelope
was checked against the pay roll to
see that the man was actually an en-
ployee and then the outer envelope was
destroyed, leaving the employees vote
unidentifable.
Brotherhood Members Did Not Vote
General Atterbury said that there
were roughly 175,000 employees. OF
these about 100000 he explained, were
members of the four brotherhoods, to
which the enginemen, fremen, conduc-
tors and trainmen belong. These four
brotherhoods had previously made their
agreement with the Pennsylvania man.
agement and therefore had no occasion
to vote.
When the vote was counted, General
Atterbury said, it showed $4,000 en-
ployees in favor of accepting the COM
pany's plans, or large majority of the
total number that voted and majority
of all employees entitled to vote. Ac-
tually about $4,000 employees, mostly
in the shop crafts, refused to vote, but
General Atterbury pointed out that even
If all Of these $4,000 men had voted in
the negative there would still have been
a majority in favor of acceptance.
General Atterbury was asked whether
or not an employee could write in the
name of an officer of the union as his
choice for representative and he said
Eyes" "In fact" he continued, "the
signal men elected a straight union
ticket"
He was asked if employees could have
written in the name of union officer
not in the employ Of the Pennsylvania
Railroad and he said mo" He ex-
planned that the choice of employees
representatives was limited to Penn.
sylvania employees.
= General Atterbury said that there
had been under government operation
as many as 265,000 employees at one
time on the Pennsylvania, but that
this number had been greatly re-
duced and that recently the company
ment had refused to let these men,
no longer Pennsylvania employees,
vote.
Appeal to Public Only Recourse
General Atterbury was asked what
the next step would be if the Labor
Board refused to grant a rehearing
The only recourse left, he said, was an
appeal to the public unless the law
SS'' Ao~IH eOA''c way, NOV Ho" dD-
parent, of appealing from the Labor
Boards decision to court.
When asked whether the Pennsyl-
yania would stand by its present plans
before the bar Of public opinion, he
said that it would. When asked
whether he thought this would mean
strike, ne said ne hoped not and that
he failed to. see what the men could
strike about.
"The Labor Board fixed wages and
the Len have right to appeal to the
board IL they arc not satisfied with
working conditions. What have they
10 strike about ?" ne said
The trouble, he explained. was large
~ with the shop men. The Pennsyl-
vania has restored piece work in many
Of its important shops. General At
terbury was asked whether strike
Of shop men could involve sympa-
thctic strike on the part Of trainmen
also. he said that it could not and
explained that in the agreement with
the brotherhoods these men--the train
men and cnginemcn--had agreed not
10 strike out of sympathy with some
other class Of employees.
General Atterbury expressed Opt
n1ism az 70 the general railroad out
look and the prospects Of larger
traffic movement. He said that freight
rates, like everything else, were
bound u come down in time
500 Sh0pmcn Reported
n.s -