Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

at Buffalo, and immediately spread to outlying districts. Involved in the dispute were ten railroad companies and 731 other railroad employes besides those employed by the New York Central. This strike was not brought on hastily. The switchmen particularly were disposed to be fair and patient. They gave the railroads ample time to weigh carefully and to adjust the grievances of the employes. But instead of trying to produce harmony the companies' officials refused to deal with the men, who finally struck, hoping thereby to secure recognition and consequent betterment of working conditions. The purpose of the strike was to enforce a State law and to reduce hours. The previous session of the New York State Legislature had passed an act limiting the hours of service on railroads, which was to become effective on May 20, 1892. Sections 2 and 3 of that act provided that:

"Ten hours labor performed within twelve consecutive hours shall constitute a day's labor in the operation of all steam service and elevated railroads owned and operated within this State, providing that this provision shall not affect the mileage system now in operation or that may hereafter be placed in operation or trips of regular scheduled trains when compelled to work within a less number of hours, and it is further provided that the provisions of this act shall not apply to extra hours of labor performed by any conductor, engineer, fireman or trainman in cases of unavoidable accident or delay caused by such accident. For every hour in excess of said ten hours labor that any conductor, engineer, fireman or any trainman of any railroad company or corporation owned or operated within this State, who works under the direction of a superior or at the request of such company or corporation, shall be required or permitted to work, he shall receive comparative compensation for said extra service in addition to his daily compensation."

Before the enactment of this law switchmen worked eleven hours per day and were paid by the month. When the above tenhour statute went into effect the railroads posted notices that in order to comply with its provisions the men would be paid by the hour instead of by the month. Switchmen claimed that such a change would cause a reduction in their wages, for instead of computing their pay on the eleven-hour rate per day the company figured the former wages of the men on a twelve-hour basis, consequently the proposed change made a loss of $5.66 per month in the wages of the switchmen. The local branch of the

Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association of North America presented to the several companies a new schedule of wages and each superintendent was served with the following notice:

“BUFFALO, N. Y., June 15, 1892. "The undersigned committee, representing the switchmen employed by your company, beg leave to present the following for your consideration: "We respectfully request the following rate of wages, namely:

"First: Day foremen, $65 per month; day helpers, $60 per month; night foremen, $70 per month; night helpers, $65 per month. Actual working days (in a month) to constitute a month's work.

"Second: Ten hours to constitute day or night work. Overtime to be paid as above rates and computed as follows: Day foremen, 25 cents per hour; day helpers, 23 cents per hour; night foremen, 27 cents per hour; night helpers, 25 cents per hour. Crews working thirty minutes of any hour to receive one hour extra pay, less than thirty minutes not to be counted.

"Third: When crews commence to work either day or night they are not to be laid off for any cause other than their own acts, and will work wherever the yardmaster may direct in yard service.

"Fourth: All switchmen suspended or discharged will be given a fair and impartial hearing within five days after date of suspension or dismissal, before his immediate superior, subject to an appeal to higher official authority, and it he be found innocent, he shall be reinstated at full pay. "We respectfully request a definite answer to the foregoing."

This request was a very reasonable one. They asked that all the railroad yards in the city should be placed upon the same basis as the three largest yards in the vicinity, namely: The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western; the Nickel Plate; and the West Shore Railroads. Every means possible was tried to adjust the difficulty, but nothing could be done, even though the committees went to the highest officers of the railroads. The attitude of the companies is epitomized in the following statement made by one of the railroad presidents: “I personally investigated the matter, and decided that we could not grant the advance without raising the wages of our mein everywhere else on our system, which, under the circumstances, was unwarranted. To have done so would have been unjust to the rest of our people."

Early in the morning of August 14, some freight cars in the yards at East Buffalo, two passenger coaches and two watchhouses were burned. A train of coal cars which had been standing on trestles was turned loose and started down the track;

it crashed into a water tank, wrecking it and a locomotive which was there taking water. No definite evidence of how the fire started or how the other mishaps occurred was ever secured. The switchmen's union denied having any hand in the lawless acts, and claimed that the damage had been caused by others for whom they were not responsible.

As the strike spread and the situation became more difficult to handle, the Sheriff of Erie County asked for military assistance. A brigade was immediately ordered into active service. Practically every track was patrolled by the military, every entrance to the railroad yards was guarded, and every train was protected by an attachment.

On August 17, the New York State Board of Mediation and Arbitration arrived on the scene and conferred with the leaders of the switchmen and the railroad officers. The switchmen were willing to submit the whole matter to arbitration, but the railroad officials maintained that the relations existing between those who were formerly in the employ of the companies were severed when they quit work, their wages paid to date and accepted by them, consequently there were no differences to be adjusted by arbitration.

By August 20, Buffalo and vicinity were completely under martial law. The military lines were immediately extended over the yards. Many citizens protested against the retention of the troops, and importuned the sheriff to ask for their withdrawal. Mr. Chas. F. Peck, Commissioner of the New York Bureau of Statistics, in the second volume of his Tenth Annual Report, said:

"The idea that the strikers were the perpetrators of the offenses against law and order, or that they had knowledge as to who were the guilty parties was never seriously entertained by the public at large. Of course, a few partisans of the railroads attributed this unlawfulness to the men who took part in the strike, but the vast majority of the people held otherwise, and their opinions coincided with the views of the Governor, and the Sheriff of Erie County. The Governor gave expression to this sentiment while the strike was at its height:

""The strikers are not the ones from whom serious trouble is feared; that comes from the lawless element, the hangers-on who invariably gather at such places and find pleasure and profit in stirring up strife and causing wreck and ruin.''"

The chief officer of the switchmen's union said:

"The switchmen are not only not to blame for the acts of disorder that have been committed, but

they have not sanctioned them in any way. The best proof is that none of them have been arrested on any such charges. How long do you suppose our men would be out of jail if they had been concerned in these deeds? And how long do you suppose it would take the railroad detectives who swarm in these yards to gobble them up? Not an hour or two."

Ineffectual conferences with the leaders of the organizations of the trainmen, conductors, and firemen were held, requesting that they engage in a sympathetic movement in behalf of the switchmen's organization. When this effort failed, the official representatives of the switchmen's union decided to give up the struggle and declare the strike off. Applications for reinstatement followed this announcement. Four hundred and sixty-three of the original strikers were re-employed, but the companies refused to employ the remainder of the men who had taken part in the strike. Within a few days quiet was restored and the troops were withdrawn from Buffalo and surrounding towns. The State Board of Mediation and Arbitration concluded to investigate the strike, its causes, and the circumstances leading up to it. The investigation substantiated the statement that the switchmen had struck, first, for the purpose of enforcing the State ten-hour law, and, second, to prevent a reduction in their monthly wages.

On the New York Central and the other roads involved, 1,640 men undertook the strike in behalf of 10,000 employes. The companies computed their loss at $717,000.

In the investigation conducted by the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, one of the general managers testified that, "the men were working by the month. We paid them at the monthly rate for working eleven hours a day; if they worked over eleven hours we paid them pro rata. We were paying by the month for eleven hours." This general manager stated, in answer to a question by one of the mediators, that the company did not attempt to evade the ten-hour law, but complied with the law as soon as it learned that it had been passed.

Strike of the Railroad Employes on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 1893.

In 1893 a strike of railroad employes in road service took place on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which extended over its lines in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. = It began November 18, 1893, and terminated December 6, 1893. The strike was sanctioned by the officials of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers: Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen; Order of Railway Conductors; Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, and the Order of Railroad Telegraph: ers. The strike was to secure the reinstate=ment of three discharged employes, who - had been members of a committee that had secured an agreement with Mr. Rollin Wilbur, General Superintendent of the - eastern division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, on August 7, 1893. That agreement dealt chiefly with the right of a hearing after discharge and with the pay of locomotive engineers on the eastern division, which schedule called for a rate of $2.75 per day for the first six months of promotion; $3 - per day for the second six months, and $3.25 per day after the first year. Engineers in yard service $3 per day. The rules clearly - stipulated that "no employe shall be suspended or discharged without a hearing and investigation, and may have the privi- lege of calling in and having present during the investigation any actual witness of the offense. Pending investigation, if the employe so desires he may also be represented by any disinterested employe of his choice. Being investigated and found blameless he shall be allowed full pay for time lost. Suspension shall be definite; time for suspension to be computed from the time the employe was originally taken off.''

Other essential clauses were contained in the rules, of which the sixteenth clause read: "No employe shall be required to fill out or sign any blank or circular renouncing his allegiance to any labor organization; nor may be compelled to join the Railroad Relief Association without his own free will or voluntary consent. This to apply to any employe who may now apply - to the Relief Association.”

A committee of the employes of the Lehigh Valley Railroad applied to Mr. Rollin Wilbur, the General Superintendent, for an opportunity to discuss with him the reasons for the discharge of three men who had been members of the committee that negotiated the rules referred Mr. Wilbur refused to meet them. The committee then appealed to Theodore Voorhees, Acting General Manager of the Lehigh

to.

Valley Railroad. He also declined to give them a hearing. An effort was made to meet the President of the railroad, Mr. E. P. Wilbur, who refused to meet either the committee of employes or the grand officers of the engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen, and telegraphers.

The New Jersey State Board of Arbitration and the New York State Board of Arbitration attempted to bring about a settlement of the strike, and on November 26 called upon the representatives of the workmen and the officers of the company. The officials of the employes met with the Joint Arbitration Board and gave testimony. The officials of the several labor organizations involved then reported to the men: "This is the result of our application for an audience with the officers of the company in your behalf. We were refused an audience and the matter now rests with you to see what the next step will be. It is for you to decide by your votes whether this matter is to be dropped where it is, or whether you desire to resort to extremes in an effort to assert your right to be represented by a committee of your choice taken from your own ranks among the employes of the company."

The men then took a vote and out of 1,800 members of the organizations on the system, over 1,700 voted to strike, in order to assert their right to be represented by a committee and their right to expect the company to abide by the agreement which it had made with them, or to fulfill its promises to them.

On November 28, 1893, the State Boards of Arbitration met in Bethlehem, Pa., and addressed the following communication to the President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company:

“BETHLEHEM, PA., November 28, 1893. "In view of the fact that the interests of the people of the States of New York and New Jersey are industrially affected by the interruption of traffic on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Boards of Mediation and Arbitration of those two States

respectfully ask for an interview with you in reference to the questions involved in the strike on your road. Even if these questions can not be submitted to arbitration, the undersigned members of said boards hope that the proposed interview may result in benefit to the people as well as to the party directly concerned. Please send reply by bearer and appoint a time and place for such interview as early as convenient."

President Wilbur replied to this request as foliows:

"BETHLEHEM, PA., November 28, 1893.

"I am in receipt of your favor of this day. I will be very glad, indeed, to meet the gentlemen composing the several boards you represent, tomorrow at my office if that will be agreeable to them. I can not conveniently, owing to other engagements, meet them before 12 o'clock, which hour I trust will meet their convenience."

At the appointed time the members of the two boards met President Wilbur and other officials of the railroad. Mr. Wilbur stated that his company had always been willing to receive committees composed of the employes in any department of the service, but they declined to treat with committees composed of employes in several branches of the service, because engineers could not represent telegraphers, nor could firemen represent trainmen; and he explained that this applied only to men in the employ of the company and not to those who had left its employ. Officers of the company stated that they were willing to take back as many of its old employes as it had places for without any prejudice on account of the fact that they struck or that they were members of any labor organization, and that committees from the various classes of employes would be received and their grievances considered and justly treated; in the employment of men in the future the company would give its prefer

ence to former employes after the strike was declared off.

The negotiations continued from day to day, but no better terms could be obtained from President E. P. Wilbur other than a statement by him on December 5, 1893, that in the event of the strike being declared off the company would abide by its rules that had been negotiated with a committee of the employes and Mr. Rollin H. Wilbur, General Superintendent, on August 7, 1893, President E. P. Wilbur saying: "We, of course, confirm the rules posted August 7 last. The rules in question have not been rescinded."

Three thousand two hundred and ninety employes undertook the strike in the interest of three men. The outcome of this strike was successful. It established a precedent upon this railroad and its affiliations for the more honorable observance of rules and agreements reached by direct negotiations between accredited representatives of the organizations of the employes and the company officials.

It should also be remembered that the Lehigh Valley Railroad was a large integral part of the Philadelphia and Reading system and that a period of only five years had elapsed since the upheaval had occurred among the employes on that system in 1887-1888 as recorded in Part III.

It is estimated that the company suffered a loss of $600,000.

[blocks in formation]

MESSAGES FROM LABOR'S FIELD MARSHALS.

ORGANIZED LABOR'S TRIUMPH.

By JOHN R. ALPINE, President, United Association of Plumbers, Gasfitters, Steamfitters, and Steamfitters' Helpers of United States and Canada,

The bulletins issued by the American Federation *of Labor, indicating such a splendid gain in membership, and general conditions of the American - Federation of Labor and its affiliated national and international unions, can but impress the thinking people of the ever-growing importance of our great movement. These advancements are especially impressive when one reflects upon the many disadvantages we have been compelled to encounter during all the passing years. Slanderers and vilifiers in the past have ever been in evidence, but it would seem as though the forces of these enemies have been augmented during the last two years. Yet, despite all the attacks of those who would destroy by oral, written, financial, judicial or other means, the seed of unionism continues to thrive and prosper, giving forth to the world a harvest of beneficent results as the improved living conditions of the worker and his dependents will attest.

A net gain of 149,045 in membership to the American Federation of Labor through its affiliated bodies during the period of one year is, indeed, a most gratifying showing, but not to this fact alone is our triumph confined. With our increased membership there is a consequent betterment of conditions; wages have been increased; hours of labor decreased. We have successfully repulsed many attacks of our enemies who have attempted to make the courts their weapon of destruction; we should be encouraged and gratified to note the marked advancement made with regard to the enactment of legislation calculated to afford the worker equitable consideration, and for which, despite the unequal opposition, we have so persistently contended for so many years.

These advancements, gratifying as they are, and thoroughly indicative of the confidence and loyalty of our members, should and must serve as the incentive for renewed exertion to the end that still greater advancements may be achieved.

A few words with regard to the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers, Gasfitters, Steamfitters, and Steamfitters' Helpers of the United States and Canada will not be amiss, since our association is one of those international unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, which has made marked advancement. We have made a distinct gain of slightly over 6,000 in membership during the past two years, and we are now close to the 30,000 mark in total membership. We have made most flattering advancements generally, since the Atlanta Convention, and the prospects for one general organization representing the pipefitting industry are now assured. I have no hesitation in saying, and believe it to be undeniably true, as well as generally admitted, that the Atlanta Convention in directing that all steamfitters and

plumbers, as well as those men working at pipefitting generally, must join the United Association was the best move that could have been made for the betterment of the men who earn their living at any branch of the pipefitting industry.

We have had many strikes or lockouts during the past fiscal year, but with our increased membership has come increased victories with regard to gains in securing betterment of working and living conditions. During the past year we have been successful in thirty-five recorded instances of greater or lesser importance where strikes or lockouts prevailed. While there are six strikes that have been in existence for a considerable period, we have no question as to the ultimate result.

In regard to Denver, Colo., where our plumbers and steamfitters have been on a strike for three years, resisting the attempt to institute "open shop" plan, it affords us much pleasure to record that negotiations are progressing whereby there will undoubtedly result a return to union shop conditions. It having been clearly demonstrated that the union shop is the real “open shop” since it opens the door to increased prosperity for employer and employe alike and permits the latter the right to bargain collectively. This has been proven only after a contest of years and the expenditure of many thousands of dollars by all concerned. The proof of the stability and courage of our members has also been shown in this and other contests of an equally aggravating nature, and indicates the spirit which has made it possible to perpetuate the successes of our great American labor movement. Our successes have been duplicated by the other trades of the American Federation of Labor and the splendid advancements reported by President Gompers and Secretary Morrison, are but evidences of the never failing but ever increasing loyalty and interest of the work-a-day men and women of the North American Continent, to the American Federation of Labor, its principles and teachings, the recognition of the great good accomplished at the day's closing and the vast opportunities for good presented by the rising sun of the new day.

or

The injustices and slanders heaped upon our honored leaders, the misconception, witting otherwise, as concerns our principles, the attempts to discredit us generally, the misapplication of laws directed against us, our comparatively few frailties magnified a thousandfold, our vast influences for good minimized even to a greater extent or not recognized at all, the indifferent or hostile attitude of the press in many instances, and the thousand and one obstacles that have been placed in our path by those who opposed and who would destroy, have but served to intensify our earnestness and determination to persevere. Lack of interest or carelessness on the part of our members with regard to the affairs of our organizations, will work more damage to the cause of labor than will the efforts of our enemies; hence

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »