The Connecticut labor news., 1922-08-25
Formal Protest Made By M en to Labor Board and They May
 Y ct Strike Unless Company Is Prevent ed From Further CajOlery - Trainmen Also On Verge of Taking Drastic Ac- ton.

tiOn.
 The strike situation on the New Haven Road instead of getting better is rapidly growing worse and instead of the main tenance of way men being satis- fled with the five cents an hour raise the road offered in an effort to head off their strike, they are very much dissatisfied inasmuch as the road m offering the raise tied a string to it that the men must join a company union
 and renage their own organiza- tion- In fact large number of men were fooled into signing up in the company organization and a formal protest has, been made to Chairman Ben Hooper of the Railroad Labor Board and that is now pending. On its settlement depends sshethers or not the men will strike. ''
 The maintenancei men held a mass frieeting Wednesday night in Music Hall, New Haven, and generally dis cussed the movement of the road. According to their story when the five cent raise was offered supervis- ors of the road went over the lines in gasoline propelled cars and stop ped at each track gang and announced the raise and asked the men to sign a certain form of card. The men be- leived 1t to be a new form of pay card and readily signed until some of the more educated looked 1t over and found out what the men were signing was an application for mem bership in a company union. The signing stopped right then and there and a protest was made to the union officers. This was followed by a for mai protest at the meeting Wednes- day and that was immediately sent on to Chairman Hooper and a prompt decision asked
 As far as the shop strike is con- cerned, the officers of the strikers de clare that none of the men are desert ing and asking their old jobs back despite what the road is giving out in it's daily bulletins to deceive the public. The daily roll calls at the strike headquarters bears out this statement and meantime the rolling stock of the road is rapidly falling to pieces and all the efforts of the road and it's strikebreakers to keep it in condition are becoming futile. The men" back again but these are pen sioners of which are told in another column.
 The failure of the Big Four" brotherhoods to reach a general set clement with the railroad executives at the conferences in New York this week adds another thorn in the rail road side and may lead to the re- fusal of the trolling force" of the road refusing to further endanger their own lives and the lives of the public by operating the run down stock The scheduled mass meeting last Sunday night in New Haven of all the trainmen was postponed be- cause of the pending negotiations and not because as stated in the daily press the notices had not been sent out in time This meeting will now and determined stand taken, a pro- test made to President Pearson who already has the facts presented to him by the men, and if he does not take some steps to remedy conditions the men will in all likelihood decline to operate the locomotives and cars.
 The injunction is having very little effect on the shopmen's strike. Pick eting is going on as usual and daily men who have been secured by the road to fill the strikers places are be- ing induced to quit the jobs. That the crew the road has secured in get ting is not capable of performing the work is evident by the fact that the road is compelled to send the engines outside for even minor repairs, even using the trolley company shops,> or which is also told elsewhere in this issue. While the road officials are keeping up their bluff before the pub lie, persons close to them know they are heartily sick of the situation and are hoping that the financial inter ests which are continuing the strike will soon see the futility of it and