Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-07-21
WHAT THE STRIKE HAS PRODUCED

According to tatements which have been made,
and which remain uncontradicted substantial agree
ment has been reached by the railroad companies
and the striking shopmen on all points in controver-
sy except one. MI
The farming out Of railway work to private com
panies has not been a, serious element in the contro-
vessy. for the practice was condemned by the labor
board some time before the strike, and all but a few
roads had discontinued it. 1t was but a matter of
weeks until these others would have fallen into line,
so that without any strike that element of controver-
[sy would have been eliminated.
No definite scale of wages has been agreed on
as final, but the strike leaders are now apparently
willing to accept for their men the facilities offered
by the labor board and under the transportation act
for re-hearings in cases in which the decisions are
unsatisfactory. These re-hearings, or offers to hold
them, have not been produced by the strike. Neither
the law nor the regulations under which the labor
board operates have been changed at all. Persons
feeling themselves aggrieved by the decisions of the
board have not, as they had before, opportunity to
present their pleas, and the arbitra1 arrangements
which the men are now reported to be willing to ac-
cept have at any time been theirs for the asking.
The single feature on which there is at present
no sign of agreement is that of seniority rights. The
workmen demand that when they return to work
they shall occupy exactly the position in relation to
pensions, and to preference in employment as if they
had remained continuously at work. The railroad
refuse this, their position being that the
HIGH VIII have USClllC themselves alter que nOt1Cc
was given have forfeited all the rights which con-
tinuous service gives. They maintain, further, that
it would be unfair to the new men who have taken
employment with them in this emergency to dis
charge them to make room for those who made their
engagement necessary, or to give the returning
strikers precedence over them in any way.
1t will be noted that if there had been no strike
there would have been no question Of seniority.
With that single exception the situation is left just
where it was before, that is, the farming out Of re,
pair work is to be entirely discontinued, as it would
have been in any case, and the worknen are willing
to submit questions of wages and working conditions
to rehearing, review and adjudication, which they
could have had at any time on application. .
The strikers, therefore, stand where they stood
before the strike, except that the strike itself has
created a new problem, the greatest and most diff
cult of all. Without a strike the men could have
had all they are now willing to accept. With the
strike they have obtained and are likely to obtain no
more. and the effort of their leaders is now devoted
to obtaining for them permission to return to work
under conditions as favorable as those under which
they stood before, namely, with all their seniority
rights intact.
AS the situation now stands the strikers have
lost the wages which they would have earned dur
ing these weeks of idleness they have hazarded and
perhaps lost their seniority rights; and they have
gained nothing that they could not have had with
out striking.