1921. 1922 1923. 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 Year Revenue freight ton-miles per hour of employee service Average straight-time hourly earnings, all employees, class I line-haul railways, 2 Includes switching and terminal companies. Source: 1921--43, Statistics of Railways in the United States; 1944, M-300, ICC. Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity of coming here and saying these few words in behalf of the people I live and work with. Mr. KELLEY. Did you say you had no prepared statement? Mr. DOYLE. That is right. Mr. KELLEY. Do you think you could have done better if you had had a formally prepared statement? Mr. DOYLE. Thank you sir. I made some notes to remind me of some of the points I wanted to touch upon. I thought I owed you an apology for not being prepared, but I received notice so late to come here. Mr. KELLEY. You made a very good presentation. What is the membership of the maintenance-of-way employees? Mr. DOYLE. About 136,000. Mr. KELLEY. And they receive $1,368 a year? Mr. DOYLE. If they work the full number of hours that I mentioned. Mr. KELLEY. Somewhere someone has said that $1,600 is a bare minimum wage on which to raise a family. Mr. DOYLE. Yes. Some of the other budgets go even higher. The Heller committee budget went up to $2,964, but a section man would be pretty old before he reached that kind of a minimum. However, the figure that I gave you on the membership does not cover all of the employees. There are many others in other departments and many who are not in any organization. There are perhaps, roughly speaking, 250,000 who come under 65 cents. Mr. KELLEY. These maintenance-of-way employees, if they are averaging $1,368 a year, and the minimum wage required to keep a family is $1,668, then they are earning $300 less than a minimum wage ought to be. That is $25 a month less than they should have to live on. Mr. DOYLE. Which they must make up in some other way, or by putting more water in the soup. Mr. KELLEY. If there are no other questions, thank you, Mr. Doyle. Mr. DOYLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. KELLEY. Mr. Barber, legislative representative of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees, wishes to submit a statement, I believe, to the committee. Mr. BARBER. Yes, sir. This statement, Mr. Chairman, largely supplements the testimony submitted by the two witnesses who have appeared this morning. . Mr. KELLEY. It will be made a part of the record. (The statement referred to is as follows:) STATEMENT OF HARTMAN BARBER, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND STATION EMPLOYEES, TO THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN REGARD TO BILLS BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON LABOR TO AMEND THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OF 1938, NOVEMBER 14, 1945 Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, this statement is intended to supplement the testimony of a representative of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, and Mr. A. E. Lyon, executive secretary of the Railway Labor Executives' Association, who have appeared before your committee this morning in behalf of increasing the present minimum rate of 40 cents per hour to 65 cents per hour for the first year after the effective date, 70 cents during the second year, and 75 cents after the expiration of 2 years by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Our organization, the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees, concurs in the testimony presented by the witnesses who have appeared today. We are also in favor of the amendment presented to this committee several weeks ago by Mr. George E. Brown, vice president of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance. The effect of this amendment would be to prevent railroad companies from deducting the cost of meals and lodging from the pay of dining-car employees while en route or laying over at points away from home terminals. You have before you the very able and detailed presentations of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees and the Railway Labor Executives' Association covering the various features of bills before your committee, and particularly the justification for increase in the minimum rates of pay to 65 cents and progressively within a 2-year period to 70 and then to 75 cents. I would like to place our brotherhood on record as in favor of the proposed increase in minimum rates fixed by Congress. We believe that wage rates above the minimum can best be established through the process of collective bargaining. Neither are we in favor of those provisions contained in bill H. R. 3719, which would extend the coverage of section 7 of the present law to cover railroad employees. Railroad employees were excluded from section VII of the present act (the hours section), and our class and craft of employees do not wish to be affected by any statutory change in hours at this time. It is considered that changes in hours can best be handled at present through the process of collective bargaining. Your attention is now directed to some facts covering the low-rated employees represented by this brotherhood, which represents approximately a membership of 300,000, composed of clerks, freight handlers, express and station employees on the class I railroads of this country, as well as those employed by switching and terminal companies. The minimum rate of pay applying to one craft and class of employees is 57 cents per hour and is generally paid in the southeast and southwest_areas to freight, baggage, mail, and material handlers, janitors, and porters. In all sections this rate prevails for elevator operators, messengers, and office boys and other nonclerical office workers, such as assorters and duplicating and binder operators. There are approximately seven to ten thousand employees now receiving this minimum rate of 57 cents per hour. There are probably ten to fifteen thousand employees in our class of service who get a minimum of 65 cents per hour. Our national straight-time average hourly compensation is 72 cents per hour for freight handlers and 70 cents per hour for common laborers in the stores, departments, stations, warehouses, and grain elevators. An increase in minimum rates to 65 cents per hour and to 75 cents within a 2-year period will not be very costly to the railroads. The witness for the railroads, Dr. Parmalee, told your committee that the increase in the minimum rate from 57 to 65 cents would involve an increased expenditure by the carriers of $34,000,000 per year; that an increase to 70 cents would cost $75,000,000; and the 75-cents minimum, an increase in the pay rolls of $127,000,000. Dr. Parmalee also stated that the 65-cent minimum would cover 255,000 railroad employees, the 70-cent minimum to 426,000, and the 75-cent minimum to 475,000. He did not tell you, however, that the pay rolls of class I railroads amounted to $3,883,245,000 in the year 1944 and that the increase in the minimum rates would only amount to an increase of less than 1 percent in the yearly pay rolls at the 65-cent level, less than 2 percent at the 70-cent level, and slightly more than 3 percent at the 75-cent minimum. The representative of the railroads told the Senate committee that railroad employees in train and engine service and in the railroad shops throughout the country were paid on a uniform national basis. It was also indicated there were regional differences in the wage levels of some classes of employees represented by this brotherhood and the maintenance-of-way employees. While it is conceded that the rates of pay of train and engine service employees and shopmen have evolved to their present levels through collective bargaining, yet we are firmly of the opinion that higher statutory minimum rates would be very helpful in negotiating higher rates of pay for these low-wage groups. By having these increased minimum rates, the process of negotiating higher rates of pay with the carriers for these low-rated employees would be facilitated and brought more in line with higher rated regions, and eventually a higher national average could be effectuated. We do not believe that an increase in minimum rates would be inflationary. Since VJ-day a marked rise has occurred in unemployment. With the elimination of overtime pay, take-home wages have been considerably reduced. It has been estimated that if corrective measures are not taken to sustain employment and purchasing power that pay rolls in 1946 will decline to the extent of $20,000,000,000, compared with 1945. If our whole economy is to be spared a tailspin into depression, then wage rates must be increased to offset this tremendous loss, and it is equally essential that with higher rates of pay that minimum rates should also be increased. The wage floor should be set at a higher level. A minimum wage of 65 cents per hour on the basis of 2,000 hours per year amounts to $1,300; of 70 cents, $1,400; and of 75 cents, $1,500. None of these yearly incomes are sufficient to sustain a worker and his family at a minimum of health and decency. Surely a rate of pay that does not reach this minimum of living cannot be termed 'inflationary." We are of the opinion that the minimum rates fixed in the bill are not high enough; but we, too, are of the opinion that these minimum rates are an advance in standards which are worthy of our support. A lot has been said about America outproducing the world. How many people realize that we also have outhauled the world. The railroad employees of the United States, with a reduced personnel far below the year 1918, with a half a million fewer cars and locomotives, moved over twice as much freight during World War II than they did in World War I. These low-wage groups of railroad employees represented by this brotherhood and other railway labor organizations worked faithfully and aided in achieving his remarkable performance of human stamina and determination to carry our country to ultimate victory. They now ask your help. As one of the organizations representing railroad employees, the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees urges the committee to favorably consider this request to increase minimum rates of pay as suggested in the several bills before the committee and to recommend to the House of Representatives that such action be taken. Mr. KELLEY. That concludes our hearings for today, and the committee will stand adjourned until 10: 30 tomorrow morning. (Whereupon the committee adjourned until Thursday, November 15, 1945, at 10:30 a. m.) |