The patriot., 1921-02-18
LABOR RULES COST
ROADS MILLIONS
Public Directly interested In
Effort to Stop Drain on
Carriers Income. .4g
BIG SUMS FOB WORK NOT DONE
Railways Asking Labor Board to
Abrogate Wasteful Agreements
Made Under Federal Control.

{ '"The entire country, its consumers;
its farmers, its workmen, and even the
! railway employees themselves, are di.
rectly interested with. the railroads In
cutting down railway operating ex'
.penses."
This is the keynote Of the case pre-
sented by the railroads to the United
States Railroad Labor Board, now IN
session in Chicago. !.
The railroads have submitted evt;
.dence to the board to show why the
National Agreements affecting railway
shop labor should be abrogated, be-
iieving that this Is q ~itaIIy important
step In the process Of reducing op'
Grating expenses.
THIS step is not only necessary Il
insure adequate earning power to the
railroads, but will make possible an
ultimate reduction in rates.
The agreements were made by the
Railroad Administration Just before
the end of Federal control. The sun
total Of the rules and working condt
tiOns provided by the National Agree
ments have increased the operating
expenses Of the railroads by hundreds
of millions, and have decreased thu
efficiency and output of the employees
in other ways resulting IN losses
which cannot be calculated in dollari
and cents.
For several weeks the railroads
have been multiplying instances OF the
absurd and extravagant results Of the
Tabor rules fastened upon them by the
National Agreements.
In one case cited before the board 8
machInist was paid 1914 hours wages
for wwrk all performed within eigh'
hours. This case illustrated the effecl
OF the rule that for each "call" tbs
wor, ~ is ~ be paid five hours wages
even x he works only ten minutes.
The CASE p car repai@r on the
Nirginan R~"way, who was recently
paid over $1,000 M services which
were never rendered, and In addition
the same amount of overtime as wai
1nade by his gang, was another exam
pie.
IN connection with the rule tha'
none but mechanics or apprentice
shall do mechanics work. the follow
ing was cited to indicate Fi% unfsiH
ness:
Five Hours Pay for 80 :'inutes' Wort
"The b Paso & Southwestern Rail
road recently had an engine set out a.
Douglas, and about the time It wat
ready to 90 to IFS train it developed
TINT a window light was broken in the
cab. Il was necessary for the foreman
to call a carpenter to do the work thai
lie could have performed himself In
few minutes. The train was delayed
one hour and 80 minutes, and the EN-
ployee called to do the work was pait
FIVE hours for work requiring 80 min
utes."
The ineflciency created in inflexiblt
application Of the rules contained l.
the agreements in question was Illus
t-p.sd in the following actual case
which recently occurred on the BaltI
mere & Ohio Railroad:
= "An engine was placed in the
shops fer certain repairs. Because
Of the provisions Of the National
Agreement, 1t was necessary that
members Of. FIVE. crafts perform
parts Of this work; formerly, the
entire operation was performed BY
the members Of bpt two crafts"
Se,5oo,ooo for Work Not Performed
!. How the railroads Of the country
were compelled to pay almost $780,.
900 in the fiSt six months of 1920 foI
service not rendered because of the
effect OF but one of the 1S2 rules In.
cluded in the Shop Crafts Eationa,
Agreement was shown In the testt
mony,
This punitive payment for work new.
or performed was required by clause
in the National Agreement, which pro-
vides that when employees are re-
q,rireh to cheek in and out on their
own time they VIII be paid one hour
extra at tEe close Of each week.
The rigid classifcations Of labor,
wien taken in connection with the
rule that requires that a man must
have four years experience before be,
Ing employed to perform any Of ths
work listed in @em, result IN paying
rates applicable TO men who are sup
posed to be fully qualified for work
which does not require men Of four
years experience.
TO illustrate how the inflexibilIties
Of many OF the rules now enforced op-
crate to muIct the railroads of large
sums sfor services which in the alb
sence Of these rules could be obtained
for relatively moderate sums, evidence
was laid before the Labor Board show.
ing that three men who were en-
pioyed at a small pumping station in
Michigan, performing unskilled work.
would, when classified under the rules,
receive an excess Of pay amounting
to more than the value Of all the wa.
ter pumped and current generated at
this station.
The Chicago testimony contains lit
orally hundreds OF Instances such al
these. ali supporting the contention Of
the RAILROADS that the labor rules un-
der which they have been forced to
w,vo.,aT,A 4f,r. StH.nva.