The Snowflake herald. [volume] (Snowflake, Ariz.) 1913-1969, 1922-08-11
NOT A MATTER OF CHOICE
Faithful Employees Have Both Legal
and Moral Rights to Seniority
and Other Benefits.

and other rights unlmpalfoO, lies III
the last paragraph from their reply to
the President as follows:
TT is submitted that the striking
former employees cannot be given
preference to employees at present
in the service without doing vio-
leS1ce to every principle of right
and justice involved in this mat
ter, and without the grossest
breach Of faith on the part Of the
railroads to the men at present in
their service. "
Under these circumstances. II
becomes apparent that the railroads
cannot consider any settlement of
the present strike which does not
provide protection In their present
employment both to the loyal en-
ployes who remained in the serv-
ice and to the new employees en-
tering it,
The executives had accepted the
first two conditions proposed by the
President. namely, that both employers
and employees accept the decisions Of
the Labor Board, and that all law suits
growing out Of the strike be with
drawn; and in relation to the third
condition spoke not only as quoted
above, but also as follows
Agree With the President.
'rhe railroad executives and ma7-
ayers agree entirely with the Presi-
dents statement in his letter that 1t Is
wholly unthinkable that the Railroad
Labor Board can be made a useful
agency Of the government In maintain
ing industrial peace In the railway
service unless employers and workers
are both prompt and unquestioning in
their acceptance of its decisions.
MANY men in the service refused to
Join the strike, and In so doing were
assured of the seniority rights accruing
TO them and Of the permanence Of
their positions. On some important
lines 80 per cent or more refused to
Join the strike To these old loyal en-
plOy6s have been added thousands OF
new men who We're employed and could
he secured only upon definite prom
Use that their services would be re-
tanned regardless of the settlement of
the strike, with all the rights apper-
taining to such employment, including
that Of seniority under the working
rules and regulations previously APP
proved by the Railroad Labor Board.
aust the Opposite Effect"
1--WE especially point out that re-
fusal to the old men who remained in
the service and to the new men who
accepted service Of the rights of senior
lty incident to their employment would
have just the opposite effect to that de-
sired by the President, and would most
seriously discredit the Labor Board.
1.-THE board itself prescribed the
Jules OF seniority under which the men
referred to have secured their senior
lty rights, and the railroad companies
have neither the legal or moral right
to deprive these men OF those rights.
BY public utterances since the strike
began the board has recognized and
emphasized these rights, and to deny
them now would instead Of unfolding
the authority of the labor board. over
throw it's rules and discredlt It's au-
thority.
1.-THE chairman Of the labor board at
the time the strike was called made
the following public statement
Upon one question the striking
employees should not be deceived.
Their leader has said that the
strikers are no longer employees of
the railways. and they have thus
automatically abandoned all the
rights they possess under their
OF the board. including their Sc
niority. This Is not the boards ac-
ton. II is their own.
Many carriers are giving their
former employees the opportunity to
re~enter the service within a lin
tied time. 1t must be understood
now that men who remained In the
service and those who are now en-
tering, 1t will have rights Of senior
ity that the board could not ig-
nore."
WI at the Proposed Plan Means.
but 1t must be understood that any
proposal that employees now on strike
shall be permitted to return to the
service, without impairment Of their
seniority, Is merely another way OF
suge estlng that those men who took
employ ment in the crisis in good faith,
relying on the promises Of the rail-
roads to protect them in their posi-
tons. these promises being justified
by the authoritative utterances of the
labor board, and thus have made DOS
sible the continued operation Of the
railroads, shall now be sacrificed in
favor OF men now on strike, who NOT
only brought about the crisis. but BY
their own action and declaration. are
no longer employees of the railways
under the Jurisdiction of the U. S. Rail
ROAD Labor Board. or subject to the
pplication of the transportation act
In addition to the necessity of IN
folding the labor board, and maintain
ng the pledges made by the railroads
10 the men now at work, there is the
practical effect on the supervisory of
Ulcers or violation of the pledges
hey were authorized to make. Their
encouragement and decentralization
would be far more disastrous than