Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1937-09-03
BROTHERHOOD WINS MILLION
AND A QUARTER WAGE IN
CREASE FOR PORTERS!

man Building in Chicago, Wednes-
day afternoon, August 25, the Pull
man Company signed a wage
agreement with the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters. The
agreement involves a wage in
crease of A MILLION, TWO HUN
DRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOL
LARS, or fat raise of twelve
dollars a month to some eight thou
sand or more porters and maids.
Other financial improvements
consist in time and a half for
overtime, ten cent increase per car
cleaning, and fifteen cents increase
per hour for station duty.
A complete and new schedule of
working rules is embodied in the
agreement. The work month has
been changed to two hundred and
forty hours. This gives the porters
a clear and simple method for COM
putting their time. Under the old
Company Union agreement which
is superseded by the present bona
fide union agreement, porters were
greatly confused in computing
their work time since they were
paid on an hourage, mileage and
day basis.
The general working rules are
some of the best that are possessed
by any trade union in the country,
for in compiling the agreement
most of the outstanding agree
ments of other railroad and nom
railroad unions were consulted, and
the best features appropriated for
incorporation in the porters' union
contract.
1t is interesting to note that eff
forts to effect agreement between
the Pullman Company and the
Brotherhood have been going on
for well nigh two years, following
closely upon the termination of the
nationwide representation cleo
ton among Pullman porters, con-
Quoted by the National Mediation
Board, in which the Brotherhood
won the right to represent the
porters as their sole collective bar
gaining agent in the making and
maintaining of agreements and the
adjustment of grievances with the
Company. After the Brotherhood
was certified by the Board as a re-
suit of the victory over the Com
pany Union by a vote of six thou
sand to fourteen hundred, the
Brotherhood wrote the Company
for a conference which the Com
pany favorably acknowledged, in
accordance with the provisions of
the railway labor act.
Direct negotiations under the su-
pervision of the National Media
ton Board, with Robert F.. Cole,
mediator, have been going on for
the last four months in Chicago,
according to A. Philip Randolph,
International President. During
this time the international officers,
M. P. Webster, First Information
al Vice President, Bonnie Smith,
Second international Vice Presi-
dent, E. ]. Bradley, Third Interna-
tional Vice President, C. L. Del
lums, Fourth International Vice
President, and Ashley L. Totten,
international Secretary Treasurer,
together with T. T. Patterson, Vice
President of the New York local,
and L. o. Manson, Vice President
of the Chicago local, with the In
ternational President have been
working on the details of this
agreement.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters was organized in 1925 in
New York City by half dozen or
more porters, and rapidly spread
throughout the country until it
embraced a majority of the men
and women employed as porters
and maids in the Pullman service.
Following its successful organiza-
ton drive, the Brotherhood pre-
sented its case to the Old Media
ton Board, and failing to secure a
settlement, went to the Interstate
Commerce Commission, which
handed a decision that the ques-
tons involved were beyond its ju-
risdiction. Shortly thereafter, the
Brotherhood secured Federal char
tiers from the American Fedora
ton of Labor, and held monster
mass meetings in Chicago and New
York with William Green, presi-
dent of the American Federation