In this Union Daily Times newspaper article, statements are taken by both sides of a strike in a shop on the Delaware and Hudson, a railroad based in upstate New York. This strike mimics many others that were taking place across the country at different shops on different railroads in the summer of 1922. In the article you can see the path that the higher ups at the company want to take, which is to just fire the strikers and keep strikebreakers. In the statements by the railroad you can see the justification, where the chairman of the company says even with a near forty percent reduction in staff in the shops from the strike, they are still at a very similar output. This paints a picture for the future of labor relations in the US, especially on the railroads, as the unions were eventually unsuccessful in gaining what they wanted in the strikes, and the government would take the side of the railroads, allowing them to keep the strikebreaker non-union employees and ignore union regulations for a while.
STATEMENTS ON RAILROAD STRIKE
New York, July 24.- Asserting that the rail strike has not already been settled “because the die hard group of Eastern road executives want it to go on” shop craft union leaders today submitted that only the roads’ refusal to assure returning strikers reinstatement of seniority rights prevents an immediate [immediate misspelled in original] settlement of the controversy.
“The government now admits that the railroad strike is a grave public issue; the public knew it two weeks ago,” was a statement issued by the central strike committee.
“It is only the die hard group of Eastern executives who deny it. They deny it because they want the strike to go on. They are using this crisis in a vain attempt to install the open shop.
“If the government wants to relieve the transportation crisis it will settle and strike. And the war to settle the strike is to persuade Gen. W. W. Atterbury and his ‘hard boiled’ Wa;; street clique to cease holding up the nation’s business by their private refusal to allow seniority rights to workers. It is inconceivable that a half dozen men can impose their selfish will upon the welfare of a hundred million.”
These charges brought from the Eastern executives; conference in session today a declaration through their chairman, L.F. Loree, president of the Delaware & Hudson, that the “possibility of the strikers typing up the Eastern railroads had passed.”
He announced that the 88,804 men are now employed at full time in Eastern shops, compared with the 145,872 the day before the walkout and declared that the 60.8 per cent force now employed “has an output that compared favorably with the work of the larger force before the strike.”
“This is due,” The statement continued, “to the fact that we formerly employed more men than we needed because there was not enough repair work to keep the shops going at capacity, and partly due to the fact that many union rules designed to restrict output have been eliminated. One willing mechanic now does the work that formerly was taken up in the routine by several, with the consequent delays.”
The conference made plans for inaugurating on additional roads the “company union system” which already has been started on four eastern lines as an outgrowth of the strike. Although it was tacitly admitted that the effect of such organizations would be to weaken the national strength of the mother union of the six shop crafts, the American Federation of Labor, rail presidents refused to comment on the conference program.
The Union daily times. (Union, SC), Jul. 25 1922. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86071063/1922-07-25/ed-1/.
Gregory Kruimer is currently enrolled in his senior year at Ramapo College as a History major.
