Evening star., 1921-04-04
NATIONAL AGREEMENTS GROWTH
u. FEATURE OF RAIL SITUATION
Seen as Storm Center of Controversy Now
!, Waeing Between the Roads and
: Their Employees.

| allowed to deal with the employees of
| the individual roads.
| It was in 1912 that the Federation
| OF Federations was organized by the
years later this organization became
! the railway employees department of
| the American Federation of Labor.
| The country was divided into three
| divisions by the organization of the
general managers of the railroads
for purposes of their own - the
western, the northeastern and the
southeastern. The workers followed
out this same line of division md
sought to bring about agreements
covering the working conditions OF
the employees in each of the three di-
visions. Finally a great step forward
was made when the shop workers in
the southeastern division entered into
a divisional agreement March 1. 1917.
with the roads of that division. 1t
became effective in September of that
year, a few months before the rail-
roads were taken over by the gov
ernment.
What Employees Believe.
The employees believe that if the
roads had not been taken over by the
government similar agreements
would have been made in the other
divisions. and that these sectional
agreements were merely leading up
to national agreements and stand
ards of work and pay. In fact. it Is
their contention that the railroad
managers were themselves looking
forward to such agreements realizing
that it reant a saving of time and
money to deal with the employees col
lectively rather than in smaller
groups.
UyL~- ~. 800. o,rna oud tho Oov-
ernment took the roads then there
was but one employer to deal with,
and naturally, the men say, the ma
tional agreements followed. The ma,
tional agreement, they say, is based
upon the old Southeastern agree
way employees department OF the
A. F. of L. in St. Louis. in 1918.
committee was appointed to seek
such a national agreement. seventy
three men, representing an traces e
and all parts Of the country, met IN IN
Washington with representatives OF
the roads and drew up the agree
ment. 1t was presented to director
General McAdoo. He was going out
of Office and he turned the mater
in turn, referred it to the board OF
wages and working conditions. A
conference, made up of fourteen rep
resentatives of the roads-ali prac-
tical railroad men-anQ fourteen rep
resentatives of workers worked fur
ther on the agreement. Later still
another committee of five. appointed
by the director general took hand
in the matter, and finally. on Septem-
Der 20, the national agreement was
signed.
The rules set down in the fTrious
national agreements are vers COM
prehensfve. The eight-hour day as
provided for in the Adamson act is.
O. course, included. and provisions for
overtime pay under various cond1,
tions. Seniority must be considered
in making promotions. along with
merit. The rules deal with the hours
for going to work, for meals, for
LAYING of, for filling vacancies tenn
porarily, with the character OF work
to be performed by the various
crafts. with apprentices and helpers,
and, in fact. every conceivable con-
tingency that may arise.
STANDARD Wages Follow.
Standardization OF wages through
out the country naturally followed.
the men point out, when the railroad
started to hx wages
and grant Increases In pay. The gov
ernment could not well pay . machin-
ist doing q certain kind of work on
one road more or less than . ma
chinist doing the same kind Of work
on another. The railroad executives
are bitterly opposed to this standard