Evening star., 1941-11-08

Trains All Over Nation
To Stop Unless Roosevelt
Averts Strike
BY the Associated Press.
Threat of a Nationwide stoppag,
OF freight and passenger trair
movements in the pre-Christma.
season prevailed today as the leade
of the big Brotherhood Of Railroad
Trainmen said $4,000 men woulc
desert the rolling stock of the vita
transportation system December 5.
While A. F. Whitney, trainmen'
president, forecast Walkout OF al
the operating union members or
that date, the heads of the othel
four unions agreed that strike wal
inevitable, but would not immedl
ately set a date.
30 Per Cent Increase Sought.
The five unions have demanded
80 per cent increase in wages fol
the trainmen, engineers, sWltcnmen
firemen and enginemen. The low
est paid get $5.06 daily, and Presl'
dent Roosevelt's fact-findlng boaro
in the carrier -employe dispute has
recommended a temporary increase
of 71z per cent, with reconsldera'
tion of wage needs at the END ol
next year.
A table in the Fact-Flnding Board
report to the President showed al
average salary-wage of employees o.
Glass / railroads in 1910 to be 81 ,9l3
The board said the full-tlme aV'
erage annual earnings OF employees
of steam railroads throughout the
period 1929-1940 exceeded the cor
responding average for all indus
tries bv an amount never less thar
1915. For 1910, the board SAID, the
excess was over $3.50.
Railways to Accept.
AS all of the operating groups nat
" rejected the boards recommends
tions, the railroads themselves, ex-
pressing disappointment, neverthe-
less have said they would accept
them.
The fact-fnding boards chair
man. Wayne Lyman Morse, said the
railway case now rests entirely IN
the hands of the President"
Mr.. Whitney said the strike would
be called at LAS pm. December D
EXACTLY 80 days to the minute from
the time the board handed its re-
port to the President"
It remained to be seen whether MT
Roosevelt would take any steps fur-
ther than those provided under the
Railway Mediation Act. Under this
lav-vhile recommendations OF the
fact finding board are not binding
on either side-a strike may not be
out into effect for 80 days after the
President receives the boards report
Spokesmen for the IA non-o -operat-
ing brotherhoods, the workers who
don't run the trains-for the most
part. have not decided what to do,
but their officials will meet Wednes-
dsv. The decision will affect 900,-
900 more workers.
While the railway strike threat
loomed large, other labor disputes
attracted wide attention.
Express Workers to Return.
President Roosevelt received as
s,lrances that striking members Of
the International Teamsters' Unlor
would return to their jobs for the
Railway Express Agency in Detroit
pending recommendations for set
Element of the labor dispute by
special presidential emergency board
simultaneously the President
named to the board DR.. Royal A
stone, professor of law at St. Pau
college: Matthew Page Andrews Of
baltimore. editor and author, ano
Mai. Gen. William H. Tschappat
r. s. A., retired, of Falls Church' va
The assurances came from Danlel
] Tobin, president of the teamsters
and we're in compliance with a re-
Quest telegraphed to Mr.. Tobin from
fhe White House last night. The
president at that time informed the
union official he was invoking the
Railway Labor Act in the dispute
and was appointing an emergency
board. Consequently, he requested
AFR. Tobin to direct the striking
workers to return to service within
q hours and await the orderly
processes of the Labor Act.
Jurisdictional Dispute.
The dispute is primarily Jur1s-
dictional one between the teamsters
and the Brotherhood Of Railway
Clerks. The clerks have returned
to their duties for the express
agency. but about so members OF
the teamsters persisted IN their
strike. According to information at
the White House, the express agency
Is prevented from carrying on It's
operations while the teamsters re-
main off duty.
Actually. the finding of the Ma
tional Mediation Board was that the
action of the teamsters' union
threatened substantially to inter-
rupt interstate commerce affecting
Cleveland. Cincinnati, st. Louis,
Newark, New York, Philadelphia.
San Francisco. Chicago and 20 ad-
Joining suburban communities.
Sabotage Charged.
Harry Bennett, Ford Motor Co.
personnel director, charged last
night that officials of the c. I. o.
United Automobile Workers failed to
discipline union members who, he
said, caused illegal work stoppages.
He also said Is machines were sabo-
tagged during a shutdown, caused by
wage disputes, in two plants at River
Rouge. near Detroit. The disputes
threw $4,000 workers into idleness.
A shutdown of a pressed steel di-
vision and an assembly line affected
most of those Ford workers. while an
axle department closing affected the
others. Wage demands and current
rates of pay were not disclosed.
Welders, in what their union lead
ers called an unauthorized strike,
caused the pressed steel closing. The
axle department dispute, and the
walkout of only $50 workers there,
l.