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Show STRIKE VOTE TAKEN BY RAILWAY MEN SHOP CRAFTS PRESIDENT ADVISES ADVIS-ES WAITING UNTIL BOARD RULES ARE PROMULGATED Charge is Openly Made That Road Employers Seek to Crush Organized Organ-ized Labor Among Working Men of Nation Chicago Railroad shopmen belonging belong-ing to the six federated shop crafts unions have voted to strike against the railroad Wage reduction of July 1, but will defer action until promulgation of working rules pending before the railroad rail-road labor board, when another vote will be taken on acceptance or rejection rejec-tion of the rules. This announcement was officially made by B. M. JewelL head of the shop crafts organizations, at a mass meeting of Chicago shop workers Sunday. Belief that a stronger fight could be made, if a strike is called, with preservation preser-vation of the shopmen's working rules as a goal led to the decision to withhold with-hold a strike call for the present, Mr. Jewell said. He and other union speakers speak-ers counselled the men to wait until the entire wage and rules situation was before them, rather Limn rush into a strike which, Mr. Jewell declared, the railroads desired. "We can make a real light on the rules proposition, when w might not have the full support o; ..Uiu-r branches of railway employees on a wage light alone," he haitl. "We must wait until the time is opportune. You men who have been on strike before don't want to rush blindly into this thing. But if the labor board releases all remaining rules to be acted on at one time, then we will have the whole matter before us. We will need only one vote to determine de-termine what will be done." This announcement was greeted with applause. Answering a question, Mr. Jewell asserted shop crafts would have the cooperation of other organizations, including the big four brotherhoods, if a strike were called and urged his audience au-dience to prepare for action. The strike vote, completed August 1, was announced as showing a constitutional constitu-tional majority against the wage reduction reduc-tion which went into ' effect July 1. This was the first official confirmation of the result. Condemnation of the" operations of the labor board and its decisions, was voiced by all speakers. Mr. Jewell charged that the railroads were atempt-Ing atempt-Ing to use the board to take an unfair advantage of the industrial situation. VIr. Jewell said he would demand of .he board that "for once it meet a situation sit-uation in a practical way" and announce an-nounce the remaining rules simultaneously. simultan-eously. "When the board announces the substitute sub-stitute rules our committee will take a ballot," he said. "If the rules are not satisfactory and the ballot says so, we will take the result to the railroads. If they refuse to grant our reasonable demands, de-mands, they will have to stand responsible res-ponsible and answer to the people." General charges that the railroads were opposing demands of the unions as part of a movement which, he said, was backed by "$9,000,000,000 or more" were made. The object, he declared, was "to crush organized labor." |