New-York tribune., 1922-08-07
By w. w. Atterbury
Vice. president, Pennsylvania Rail
road


tical means by which the management
and men get together in an effort to
settle directly and amicably matters
that mutually concern them.
More than year ago the Pennsyl-
vania System undertook to find cut
who the employees in the various
classes really desired to represent them
in the negotiations with the manage
ment concerning wages, working con-
ditions and other matters OF mutual
on the Pennsylvania System have given
rnmistakable and practical proof that
the spokeBmen elected TO represent
them by secret ballot actually repre-
sented them in the negotiations that
resulted in the schedule of wages and
working rules now in effect.
This is what happened:
Wages nave been fixed by mutual
agreement without recourse to the
| Labor Board Rules covering working
conditions have been fixed in like man
nor and have been in operation for a
year.
All the shopmen throughout the
country were called on strike on July
! / against wages fixed by the Labor
Board, against rules fixed by the Labor
| Eoard and against certain forms of out
side contract work let by few rail
roads.
! Since the strike began mon who re-
maincd at work have been subject to
! intimidation Of all sorts and they and
their families have been subject to un-
speakable indignities and threatened
violence.
Ordinary common sense would seem
to indicate that II the employees on the
! Pennsylvania system were dissatisfied
with the wages mutually agreed upon
| by their representatives and the rep
resentatives Of the management
they We're dissatisfied with the rules
negotiated in like manner If the elect
ed employee representatives did not
really represent them, if System Fed
ration No. 9 actually represented the
Pennsylvania shopmen, then certainly
strike on the Pennsylvania system,
with a national shipments strike TAX
ing place at the same time, ought to
have been an unqualified success.
Certainly, the union officials ex-
erted their utmost efforts to persuade
the Pennsylvania shopmen to strike.
They have used every means familiar
to them TO get men out. They have
multiplied their alleged grievances
and presented them with most per-
suasive appeal.
And with what result7 At the out
set Of the strike sixty-fve per cent
of the total shop forces remained on
the job The proportion of men work
ing to the total force has increased to
about eighty per cent. Out OF a nor
NAL weekday working force of $4,000
men, more than $4,000 were working
yesterday.
Furthermore, since July 16 these
fxed by their elected representatives
and the representatives. Of the man
agement and under rules similarly
negotiated without referring the ques-
tion to the Labor Board for decision.
| IF oil that the strike leaders allege
were true, why has the Pennsylvania
system been SO little affected by the
strike? Why has it been able to
operate without any interruption to
freight or passenger schedules? Why
has it been able to handle more bust
ness than before the strike? In short,
why are the Pennsylvania shopmen
not on strike2
On July 10 the answer was sup
piled by a newspaper editor who is in
a position to know what he is talking
about, and who published the following
editorial paragraph:
"The Pennsylvania Railroad, chief
malefactor. according to some agita-
tors Of railroad workers, still seems to
be on pretty good terms with its men"
Says Strike Has Been
A Failure On Pennsy
1t is almost inconceivable that Sys-
tenn Federation No. 80 could have had
hat f{n,. n.4,1 IL.
represents the Pennsylvania shop
forces than this strike.
| And yet the strike has been q failure
on the Pennsylvania system from the
outset and the public has suffered no
inconvenience whatsoever so far as this
railroad is concerned. Investigation of
the Pennsylvania's operations since the
strike began affords ample proof on
this point. To claim that the strike Is
effective on the Pennsylvania is simply
to blind ones self to obvious facts.
A brief resume of what has taken
place in the last year in the shop forces
on the Pennsylvania follows:
When the Labor Board abrogated the
| national agreements and directed the
railroads and their employees to get
| together to formulate new rules cover
ing working conditions the Pennsyl-
vania system undertook to carry out
those instructions.
During the war the American Feder-
alton of Labor had been permitted and
encouraged by the Railroad Admins
tration to organize the shop crafts.
This resulted in the organization on
the Pennsylvania of System Fedora
ton 90 Of the Railway Employees De-
partment Of the American Federation
| of Labor.
The management was not convinced
that System Federation 80 actually
represented the Pennsylvania shop
forces. The Pennsylvania inaugurated
! a policy of giving the employees an op-
portunity to have voice in deciding
matters affecting their welfare through
| employee representatives of their own
selection, whether union or non-union
men.
A secret ballot was provided for the
employees to elect fellow employees to
represent them. No names were print
ed on the ballot. Employees were free
to name their own employee candidates
without interference by the manage
ment.
4 System Federation No. 80 refused to
participate in this method of deter
mining the employees choice Of rep
4 resentation. Officers of the union
claimed to be the representatives OF
4 the pennsylvania shopmen. AS mat.
ter of fact, officers of the union who
were employees could have nominated