Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1910 — AVERT STRIKE OF THE RAILWAY MEN [ARTICLE]

AVERT STRIKE OF THE RAILWAY MEN

Peace Agreement Is Signed by Both Sides. t Commissioner Charles P. Neill succeeded ih bringing about peace and averting the threatened strike of the engineers on sixty-one railroads. Settlement was reached on the basis of an increase of 10 1-3 per cent in wages. A compromise peace proposition offered by Commissioner Neill as a last resort was accepted by both sides at the final conferences held and Grand Chief Warren S. Stone of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and W. D. Scott, chairman of the general managers' committee, affixed their signatures to the new agreement. The settlement will add a total of $4,000,000 a year to the payroll for engineers on sixty-one western railroads. This is $400,000 more than the railroads offered originally, and represents the amount yielded by the reads to prevent a disastrous strike.

* While far from what the men had demanded, it was regarded as a good settlement. Both sides were competed to yield several points in order to meet Commissioner Neill’s compromise. The men demanded a raise of about If, per cent and the railroads offered an average of 914 per cent. Under the new agreement the engineers on Mallet compound engines will receive a raise "of 75c and $1 a day, depending on the size of the engine. Engineers on passenger, suburban and through freight service, pusher and helper engines, wreck, snow plow, work and mixed trains will receive a raise of 40 cents a day of 100 miles or less.

Engineers.in way freight service will receive an additional differential of 25 cents a day. making their raise 65c a day of 100 milfes or less. On through freight engines the men will get an ad : dltional differential of 15c a day on all engines of 215.000 pounds driving power, making the raise in this class 55e a day of 100 miles or less. The railroads yielded'on the dispute over gasoline motor operators and granted jurisdiction to the eingineers over this class of employes, who also were given a raise of 40c a day of 100 miles or less.

The settlement affects 33,700 engineers employed on railroads covering a territory from Lake Michigan to the Pacific coast and from Fort William, Ont., to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande. Negotiations began on Sept--26 and were broken off the first week in November, when a strike vote was ordered. This resulted in an overwhelming vote to strike. Commissioner Neill’s aid was invoked by the railroads and federal mediation conferences began on Dec, 17, continuing uninterruptedly until peace was assured. Wage negotiations of conductors and trainmen on the same lines of railroads i were postponed until Tuesday of this .week.