The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-22
WHERE THEY DIFFER.

Inc 1nIOrmAA conferences nelQ Dy
Chairman Hooper Of the railroad Ia
Dor board recently with several rail-
way executives and representatives of
the striking shop crafts unions have
made clear there are five matters
upon which these railway executives
and the labor leaders differ widely,
and which must be settled before the
strike can be terminated, says the
Railway Age. The five major points
involved and the positions taken by
the railway executives and the labor
leaders in these conferences the Age
sets forth as follows:
First: Wage decisions of the Labor
Board. The labor leaders insist that
before the men with return to work
the railroads must agree to pay wages
different from those awarded by the
labor board The railway executives
have positively refused to consider
paying any wage except those awarded
by the board, but have indicated that
the railways will be represented at
any further hearings that the board
may hold, and will accept such modi-
fications, II any, in the wage awards
as the board may hold reasonable
after rehearing.
Second: Rules and working condi-
lions. The labor leaders demand that
the railways agree to notifications of
the working rules made by the labor
board as a condition of calling off the
strike The railway executives have
positively refused to consider this. al
tho indicating that If any modffica-
lions of the rules should be made by
the board after further hearings they
would be accepted. The position of
the railway executives who have con-
ferred with Chairman Hooper has
been that for the railways to- grant to
the strikers any rules or wages not
authorized or fixed by the board
the use of force, more than the en-
ployes were able to secure by peace
full means. For the railways to let
the labor unions get by force what
prescribed by law it is held would be
directly to encourage the use of force
in future labor controversies.
Third: Contracting of work. All
the railways except two which have
done contracting of the kind against
which the labor board has ruled have
agreed to discontinue doing so in
compliance with the boards request.
Fourth: Boards of adjustment.
The leaders of the shop crafts have
demanded the establishment of ma
tional boards of adjustment by the
carriers as a whole" The railways
have insisted on the establishment Of
boards OF adjustment representing
only eaCn carrier ana llS own en-
ployes, but the railway executives who
have conferred with Chairman Hooper
have indicated willingness to establish
regional boards of adjustment with
the shop crafts as they have with the
train service employees.
Fifth: Seniority and pension rights.
etc. The labor leaders insist that all
men who have struck shall be taken
back with the same seniority, pension
and other rights and privileges which
they had before they struck. Most
Of the railways individually have pub
lished advertisements and posted
notices to the effect that strikers who
did not return to work within desig-
mated periods would lose all these
rights and privileges and have to re-
turn, If they returned at all, as new
men.
"The men who have stayed at work
DR. gone to work during the strike,'
says the Age. "have prior claims upon
the companies. the establishment and
of which are based upon
working rules which the striking
unions themselves have got adopted
For the railways to let the strikers
come back with all their old rights
and privileges would be to encourage
still more men to strike when there is
another controversy"