Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1908 — GLOOM IN THE SHOPS [ARTICLE]

GLOOM IN THE SHOPS

Canadian Pacific Electricians Re* fuse to Work with Msri Carrying No Card. COMPANY IS GETTING JEW HELP Pickets on Duty to Head Off Men In- | tending to Work. Talk of a Strike That Would Tie Up the Trains—Locomotive Dumped Into a Turntable Pit. - 3» “1 Winnipeg. Man., Aug. 7. —All the Canadian Pacific railway shops are In darkQesa, owing to electricians operating the light plant declining to work with non-union labor. Three coach loads of strike-breakers have reached here from St Paul and Chicago, and these, added to the Japanese used In roundhouses, and Italians and Gallclans at work in other parts of the yards, add somewhat to the activity around the buildings. Porters on- cars are now compelled to dean out their cars, and every extra laborer that can be utilized by the company is being pressed Into service. Several hundred mechanics are expected from Pacific coast states, while the eastern shops will draw their supply from the New England states. Picketing Ha* Been Begun. Sixty union pickets have been placed on duty at the local shops the company not being adverse to passive picketing, wbloh Is not Illegal. At some shops In far western cities armed police are on guard, but this is not considered necessary here. The most striking feature of the situation Is the placing of between, fifty and sixty pickets at the various railroad terminals and in the vidijlty of the shops, to meet all mechanics coming into the city and dissuade them from going to work for the company, if they had any such intention.

Tie-Up Predicted by Sunday. There Is a report that the trainmen will go out tomorrow. This Is denied by J. H. McVey, local chairman of the strikers, but It is affirmed by all the strikers who will talk, and they assert that the whole system will be tied up by Sunday. Tranmen here do not consist of engineers, firemen and conductors, but of switchmen, brakemen, baggagemen, and some of the conductors. It Is pointed out that there Is a federation of conductors, engineers. firemen and telegraphers, all of whom work together In harmony. They form a most conservative organization, which for a number of years has had an iron-bound agreement with the company, anil this agreement has never been broken, which is a matter of pride with both the company and the men. Charged to tpe Strikers. At Kenora. Ont:. a divisional point enst of here, a locomotive was run into a turntable pit. and it is alleged that the act was done by one otf the striking shopmen. The hostler had brought the locomotive out of the shop, and It hail been turned over to the engineer. who had placed it on a siding in readiness to take it out on an eastbournl train. While the engineer was al>sent for a few minutes In the shop getting something he had forgotten someone sneaked up to the engine and opened the throttle. The siding leading up to the turntable was open and the engine ran into the pit. The wrecking crane was ordered out at once. It picked up the disabled engine and placed It back on tbe track, the company maintaining Its train service.