Burlington Engineers

By an agreement with employes made in 1927, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad must place two men in the cab of every ordinary locomotive. For modern streamline engines there is no such contract. Hence, when the railroad acquired its fleet of four Diesel Zephyrs and three Diesel switch engines, it hired only one engineer for each. To substitute for the other man, it installed the "dead man's control"--a device which automatically halts the train if the engineer is forced by some emergency to take his hand from the throttle.

Immediately, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen yowled in protest, said the Burlington was endangering its trains, since the "dead man's control" might fail. Denying this, the railroad refused to negotiate, stood pat, though the cost of hiring extra men for Zephyrs would total at present but $88 a day more. Nothing daunted, the Brotherhood polled Burlington's 1,700 engineers and firemen, by last week had more than a two-thirds majority lined up in favor of a strike.

When the railroad asserted employes must give 30 days notice of intended change in agreements, the National Mediation Board in Washington cracked down, forced Burlington to negotiate.

Compromise result: Burlington agreed to add another man to each Zephyr; the Brotherhood withdrew its demand for another man in each switch engine.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.