The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-05-31
RAIL
STRIKE VOTES
FOR WORKERS
Officials of United Brother
hood of Maintenance of
Way and Railway Shop Lab
orers Busy.
WILL VOTE ON CUTS
(Rx Associated PressN


DETROIT, May 31.-Ohicials of the
United Brotherhood of Maintenance of
Way Employees and Railway Shop La
bOrers today began preparation of
strike ballots to be sent within the
next few days to the 47S,0O0 members
of the organization throughout the
country and to the approximately 49,
600 non-union men of the crafts who
would be affected by a strike
The brotherhood members. with the
non-union men, will be asked to vote
on the question of accepting the wage
cuts of from one to five cents an hour
recently ordered by the United States
Railway Labor Board in Chicago. If
majority of the Brotherhood votes
in favor of a rejection of the decreases,
+. F. Cradle, grand president of the
brotherhood, with headquarters here,
is empowered to issue a strike call i'm
mediately setting the date for the walk
out
A resolution calling for the strike
vote and ordering Mr.. Cradle to take
the strike step in the event it is sane
toned by the membership, was passed
late yesterday at a meeting of the
brotherhood executive council, COM
posed of all of the officers of the union.
To Mail Ballots
A strike ballot will be mailed to
each person affected by the reductions.
it being desired to give non-union men
work beside those holding union cards
an opportunity to express their choice
between continuing work at the re-
duced figure or suspending their eff
nf~tG prne aX h. I, -
printing plant here were set in motion
early in the day turning out the bal
lots, 1t being necessary to print more
than $4,000 of the slips
1t is expected by union officials that
| the last of the number will have been
mailed by the end of the present week
| or the first of the next All the re-
plies are looked for by the end OF
June. If strike is desired by the
membership such a call probably will
go out during the first week in July
Mr.. Cradle said. The wage reduc
tions ordered by the labor board be-
come effective July l. -- =
The resolution calling for strike
vote and was adopted unanimously II
was confined to the mere request fol
such vote and the empowering of the
president to call such a strike if il
was ordered by the membership.
Denounced Cuts.
| The executive council, in a previous
statement to newspaper men, had de
nounced the wage cuts ordered by the
! board as unfair and unwarranted al
| this time, holding they represented {
| pay slash of 1872 percent for the aver
age maintenance of way worker They
| asserted further that the cost of Iiv
| ing had not declined more than three
! percent in most instances Throughout
| the country.
! If a strike should result all me
| chantcs and maintenance of way EN-
ployes on all the leading railroads O
| the country would be affected. The
only exception according to Mr.
| Cradle, would be employees of shor
! line railroads that do not come undeI
! the rulings of the labor board. Those
/ crafts comprising the brotherhood >:
membership included mechanics, sec
| tion men and fOremen, track men ant
| their foremen, bridge builders, paint
ers, coal chute men, cinder pit men
all common laborers in shops, and al
! carpenters.