The Connecticut labor news., 1922-05-26
CHAIRMEN OF SYSTEM FED ERATIONS GET INSTRUC- TIONS ON PLANS TO FOL LOW IN CONFERENCE WITH ARRANGEMENTS.

tions of shop crafts on those railroads which have farmed out shops and tools to dummy contractors on cost plus and pieCeWork basis will at once ask for conferences with manage ment oficails to ascertain their attl- tude toward compliance with the law and rulings of the Railroad Labor Board in the light of the decision ln the Indiana Harbor Belt case and the general principles set forth thereln. It is the purpose of the shop crafts to force the issue to a focus with out unnecessary delay.
 A letter of instructions to general chairmen of the 30 system rederations shop crafts are involved was pla-ed in the mails here, drafted by the Ex- ecutive Council, Mechanical Section, Railway Employees Department, which has just closed a two weeks session. Conferences are to be re- quested at once with the proper railroad officials, and results are to be reported to President B. M. Jewell of the Railway Employees Depart ment not later than May %.
 Another letter from the council IS addressed to the general chairmen of Federated Shop Crafts on all rail- roads in the United States giving in formation as to the proposed strike ballots directed by the recent bien- nial convention to be spread within % days unless certain conditions were complied with.
 This letter recites the instructions given to federations on contracting roads and the proposed conferences, to be followed on May 2o by con- ference of the executive council and department officials with the Railroad Labor Board with the information thus made available flor the purpose of urging that they take such action as may be necessary to direct the railroads to resume control and op- eration of their shops, and to restore proper working conditions and rates of pay with the retroactive features thereof as of date prior to which these conditions were improperly in stalled by the railroads.'
 This letter then concludes Wlth the following instructions regarding the strike ballots which have been pre- pared and are readp to be spread:
 Upon the conclusion of this con ference with the Railroad Labor Board, and as soon thereafter as con ditions will permit, the results ot the conferences between the respective railroad officials and system fedora tions will be given to the member ship, and depending upon the results obtained by the above suggested pro gram, the two strike ballots provided for by the sixth biennial convention will be promptly released.".
 In the letter to the general chair men of system federations where roads involve shop employees in out side contracts, the Labor Boards de- cision as interpreted by the Execu tive Council, with a copy of the de- cision IS enclosed, and instructions for conferences given as follows:
 "We have carefully examined this decision and 1t IS our understanding that the question of whether or not a carrier has the right to actually make a contract with a contractor for the purpose of operating it's shops is States Railroad Labor Board. The fact is clearly established, however, that the making of such a contract does not remove the employees from the provisions of the Transportation act or the decisions of the United States Railroad Labor Board, and the carrier can not construe the con- tents of such a contract to mean the removal of any employees from the application of the Transportation act or the wages and working rules of such employees that are agreed upon or handed down by the United States Railroad Labor Board.
 Paragraph one of the boards de cision specifically provides that the contract between the Indiana liar bor Belt Railroad Co. and the Burn ham Car Repair Co.,. is in violation of cision 2, IIo and I47 of the Labor Board.
 "In this case the carrier is directed totake up with any employe the mat ter of his reinstatement upon appli- cation of either the interested em- ploye or his representative.
 Under this part of the decision, all men discriminated against are entitled to reinstatement with pay and all the ments or Labor Board decisions. We further understand that the federated committees can at enc and the same time handle all mems cases.
 "The decision further states that this particular decision is made upon the facts in this particular case and that the decision in each of the other contract cases pending before the board will rest upon its own facts and the general principles declared in this decision.
 We therefore take it that the same general line will be followed in all future decisoins in cases of this char acter.
 "It is our interpretation of this de cision as a whole that 1t is a viola ton of the Transportation act and the decisions of the board for carrlers to do the things under these contracts that they have done and further that the carrier is now directed to rein state the proper wages and working rules that should have been in effect on each railroad as per the decisions of the United States Railroad Labor Board.
 Each System Federated Commit
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