Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1922-06-23
NEW s26,OO0,O0O
GUT FOR RAIL MEN
'White Collar" Employees Latest
to Be Hit by Board.
$4,000 CLERKS AFFECTED
Slash Is Regarded as the Final "Wal-
lop" by the Labor Body Before
the Unions Perfect Their
Strike Plans.

Chicago, June 17.-MOre than &c.
600 railroad employees are affected by
a S26,OO0,O00 wage slash announced by
the railroad labor board.
The classes of employees affected
are the clerical and station forces,
which are heaviest hit by the decision,
the signal department employees and
stationary engine and boiler room en-
ployees. The new wage scales will
take effect July l.
This cut is the third in recent
series made by the board and makes
a grand total of wage cuts on railroad
pay rolls of $134,9SS, 921.33.
1t is regarded as practically the final
cut in the present review of wages by
the board, as the only class of en-
ployees not acted on is that of the rail-
way telegraphers.
The telegraphers, it is learned, do
not expect decision in their wage
question for some months. This is be-
cause the principal matters OF cOnten-
ton they have before the board re-
gard the alleged inequality of their
pay on different railroads.
The boards latest decision is not
complete, as a rejoinder to the dissent
filed by minority members is being pre-
pared for record by the majority The
main portion of the decision is re-
leased for publication.
In filing the decision the board has
departed from the lines adopted in it's
two previous decisions by submitting
figures tending to show that under
the new scale, as compared with the
before government control period,
the employees, although cut in wages,
are actually receiving a higher scale
of pay and receive wages having
higher per cent Of purchase power
than in 1917.
100000 Men Get Cut.
More than million railroad work
ers have now been reduced in pay by
the three decisions, this final cut COM
ing fast on the heels of the announce
ment by laborleaders, meeting in con-
ventiOn at Cincinnati, that answers to
ballots recently mailed out are unani-
mously in favor Of nationwide rail
way strike.
The 'white collar" class Of rail en-
ployees contributed the largest part Of
the wage slash. More than 10000
clerks are cut and cents an hour,
the smaller rate applying to clerks
with experience of two or more years
in their line Of work. These same en-
ployees were cut cents an hour in
the wage reduction of last July.
Certain employees IN the classes
considered in the latest decision are
| not affected.
Those whose rate of pay is I'M
changed are: Train dispatchers. din
sented by the Marine Culinary Work
ers' Association of California and
floating equipment employees, whose
wage disputes are remanded.
In explanation of it's action, the
board states that utterances Of par.
tisan bias, made against the board
since other recent decisions, "evince
merely a spasmodic relapse into the
old system of bluff and buster that
entered so largely into the adjustment
of railway labor disputes before adj
judication supplanted force"
Says Cut Is Lightest.
The board also calls attention to
the fact that the reductions made for
clerical employees are lighter than for
some other classes.
''This class suffered considerable
loss as a result of certain changes in
their rules and because they have
never been highly paid compared with
other classes. 1t will be noted that
greater reduction has been fixed by
the board for clerks with experience
Of one year and less than two, than for
clerks with experience of two years or
more.
The reason for this is that the ma
jority of junior clerks are beginners
and apprentices and have not as yet
assumed family responsibilities, and
many of them are still living with
their parents" the decision continues.
The board takes exception to state
ments of the railway employees de-
partment that the sum of $2,636 is
necessary for the minimum comfort
hudoet of the average family