Stuck Elevator

On May 12, just before the 137 Class I railroads of the U. S. had rolled up a $181,000,000 net deficit for the first half of 1938, they moved to slash their greatest single operating cost. Notification was sent to railway unions that the roads would cut wages 15% effective July 1. Under the Railway Labor Act of 1926, preliminary horse trading thereupon began. Unions and management sat down together in Chicago, soon came to loggerheads. This automatically passed their dispute to the three-man National Mediation Board.

Grim-faced in Chicago last week sat Board Chairman Dr. William Morris Leiserson, his fellow members, Otto Sternoff Beyer and George Cook. Grim also was the Pennsylvania's H. A. Enochs, chairman of the committee of 15 representing the railroads, which maintained, as they had from the first, that a wage reduction was "necessary, justified, and inevitable." Grimmest of all were President George Harrison of the Railway Labor Executives Association (775,000 union men) and President Alexander F. Whitney of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (150,000 members). Labormen Harrison and Whitney, despite a quarrel that had them scowling at each other last week, have maintained ail along that heavy capitalization is to blame (see p. 62) and that Labor should not be forced to pay for Management's mistakes. In any case, they insisted that the roads were not in bad enough shape to warrant a cut that would reduce wages by $250,000,000 a year. Would the disputants, asked perspiring Dr. Leiserson, submit their differences to arbitration? Yes, said Mr. Enochs. No. chorused Messrs. Harrison and Whitney. The National Mediation Board then realized that the dispute needed more sitting on than it had bottom for stopped trying. Labormen Harrison and Whitney promptly prepared to poll their members in a national strike vote.

Said Mr. Enochs: "Collective bargaining in the railroad industry has apparently failed. When employes seek wage increases, the process of collective bargaining works perfectly. When management seeks a wage reduction, the process does not work at all. Or, to state it differently, the elevator only goes up, and now it is stuck at the top."

Retorted Mr. Harrison: '"A cut in the railroad industry would be the beginning of wage slashing in all other industries . . . a national calamity."

How much support Leaders Harrison and Whitney will get in their respective strike votes remains to be seen. The ballots will not be counted much before October 1, when the 15% cut is finally scheduled to go into effect. After that, the National Railway Labor Act still has a long string to its bow. The President may appoint a fact-finding commission to report to him within 30 days. Thereupon both parties must preserve the status quo for another 30 days. Unless Franklin Roosevelt chooses to have the nation's most far-flung industry on strike on Election Day, railroad peace should last until December 1.

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