Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-11-21 | Page 16 | Strike Action Still Held in Abeyance

STRIKE ACTION STILL j EDjUeElfJWCE j Utah Power & Light and j State Officials and Men in Conference. Following meetings yesterday afternoon and last night of members of the committee commit-tee of electrical workers of the Utah Power Pow-er & Tight company and company employees, em-ployees, no action looking to a strike was taken at . the conferences, according to the statement given out last night, William Wil-liam Knerr, H. F. Jenkins and P. A. Thatcher, members of the public utilities commission, met with the committee and the men. A talit. counseling coolness and deliberation delibera-tion in any decision reached was made by Mr. Knerr and this had considerable effect, ef-fect, according to the statement given last night. The committee still is determined; to negotiate an agieenient whereby the , company will substitute a collective agree- I ineni in dealing with the men instead of i the individual contract, as at present, it ia said. A communication from Sydney R. Inch, Operating manager of the company, was I read and a replv was formulated and will t be forwarded to Mr. Inch. The committee is on record that the individual contracts will be considered void if the company re-j re-j fuses to agree to a collective agieement, I the statement of the committee asserts. The meetings yesterday followed a communication com-munication addressed to the industrial commission in which the committee of twelve employees asked the aid of the commission in order to avoid a strike. The communication claims that !0 per cent of the electrical workers of the company in I'tah and Idaho are represented by the committee. The men are being counseled in their ripmands by Thomas C. Robbins, international organizer of the International Brotherhood of Klcctrical Workers, and J. II. Burch, business agent of Local union No. a". The Orem line is opera Ling 50 per cent of its normal passenger traffic, 90 per cent, of its Magna, traffic and R5 per cent of its general business, following the recent strike according to a statement of the management' yesterday. The settlement of questions pertaining to the strike is In charge of the Salt lake Federation or Labor.