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Show I $48,000,000 SLASHED FROM PAY OF 400,000 RAILWAY EMPLOYES Labor Board Decreases Averaging Five Cents an Hour Affect Mostly Maintenance of Way Workers, But Other Cuts Expected I DETROIT. Mich. May 29 (By The Associated Pros.) Belief that a strike voto would be ordered by tbo executive council of the United Brotherhood Broth-erhood Of Maintenance of Way Employe! Em-ploye! and railway Shoo Laborers wj expressed today by E. F Crabh grand president of thr organisation, as the council v,ent Into session to consider the u.il-. reduction ordered Sunday by the United States railroad labor board. SLASHES DEI IH BSD. CHICAGO. May 29. Impending decision de-cision governing the wajres of 600,-000 600,-000 railway shopmen, 200,000 clerks, legraphers, station employes ;;nd . . i .inoco r-vnoeled to fol - i MlIlVI lttn , . v .MBfw- low closely upon Sundaj nights order or-der which cut the pay of maintenance mainten-ance of wny workers from one to five I'. Ji cents an hour. While their settlement over work-11 work-11 Ing rules still is pending, tn- ' b,& four" brotherhoods and the switch-men switch-men are not yet Involved in nny wage dispute before the board These classes received a 12 per cent reduction reduc-tion last July, however. . Immediate consideration of Sunday night's ordei by the executive OOUn-.11 OOUn-.11 of the United Brotherhood of Maintenance Main-tenance of Way Employes was In prospect pros-pect today with th. pr. -diction by I!. M. Jewell, head of the railway department depart-ment ot th' American Federation of Labor, that the decision will - refected re-fected and submitted to B vote of the men. ! SOME MECHANICS AFFECTED. Pi ot In- ho, id olfniaN i h.u.o u r..ed 1 the cut as Indefensible, asserting that i ihe caso they presented to the board did not warrant the reductions Wages of maintenance of way em-H- ployes now ranging from 2 to 10 cents an hour, will, after July 1. range from 23 to 35 cents. Common labor suffered Hie biggest cut. This 1 class numbers about 1ST. 000 cm- H ployes who face a reduction of G cents B an 1 Section, track and maintenance foremen Will take a 3-cent reduction. H while mechanics not under the shop H crafts agreement were cut I cents and H s mechanics' help fs 1 enl OPPOSING OPINIONS. m CHICAGO, May 29 (By the Asso- , ciated Press ) More than 5HS.000.OO0 was slashed from the wages of iOO.OOn H railway employes in a decision by the United States railroad labor board mk Sunday Hf The decreases, which averaged five ". v '. rents an hour in the majority of cas.-s. H followed cuts of $40u.00o.o0u mad last July by the board. Sunday's decision, however, affected mostly maintenance of way workers although decisions are pending affecting other - itluns ML EXPECT T) HIRE MORE j.:,-" If the wage cuts made in the latest I decision are extended to other decifl- ions expected soon, it was pointed out in railway circles, that much of the j $000,000,000 increase given by the Hf rd in 1920 would l v. ip.'d out and wages restored to a ICVel which railway rail-way officials had told the board would kail to a new era of development and I lEtoU open the way to the employment of H 200,000 men . , The decision was sign- , l th- thrc- H ' rail wav members of the board and the H' i three members representing the pub-l H lie. a dissenting decision was illed by 1 the three members reprevntlng ih- labor group. The majority opinion, H said that the wage cuts, effective on. July I, were made in accordance with decreases in the cost of living. The minority opinion contended that the, I -wage scale provided in the decision was insufficient to sustain life on thei B .'it basis of American standards. All of the former differentials were' continued In the present decision, It being stated that the wages of thl class of employes have not been standardized stand-ardized and uniform throughout the ountry and will not be made so under the decision The wages of trad . a' -j orers at present rab-s iang from L'S ta 40 cents pir houi Under the de-J H clsion they will range from 23 to 86 ccnta per hour LIVING COSTS CITED The decision asserted tha. under the H new scale, common labor on the roads j still will be receiving a ratio higher than that paid similar labor In most other industries. In a statistical table based on the j figures on wages and the cost of living, j iv the department of labor, which 18 I ill, urporati-ij in tin dc-iMon. the board declared that while the cost of living H In March. 1321. (.last available gov- H ernment figures) was approximately 17.2 per cent oer that of December. J 1917, the hourly rate of pay for main- I tenance Of way employes under the present decision will l- 59.4 i"-r cent above the hourly rates of December I 1917, and the purchasing power of the H ) I iges ot employes affected the J m '-nt decision, will bo 44. j over the purchasing power of their wages in j Labor men. while they were reluc- B lanl to le quoted until they had full j time to study the decision, pointed out that while It applied to the larger class I c.f railroad employes, the total of the ' -maintenance men being more than 70 in r cent of the whole, the amount of wages paid to this group which ranks ii -j.ill a unskilled' labor, was smaller In the total than that paid uny of the other great groups whose wages are also to be passed on by the j bard. If Sunday's decision, it was said, j were applied to all employes, the gen- era level of railroad wages would have declined to the level In effect be-fol be-fol ,- t he ? i.dii uOu.000 Inci ' -1 1 ra nt- sd by the board in 1920. Of this Increase, In-crease, $400,000,000 was wiped out by laSI yen i 'm decision which was followed follow-ed by a strike crisis, a walkout being averted only after long negotiations b Lween union leaders and members of the rail board HEED NOT JUSTIFIED The dissenting opinion was si bv the throe labor members ol the b..ard A W harton. Albert Phillips and W. 1, McMenimen Tb opinion gives extended tables nd testimony on which the labor group bases Its decision de-cision that the wage cut Is not Justine Justi-ne .A ' 1 tie rates ot pay m.u.uuaiit-o uij this decision " the dissenting opinion said, "will merely perpetuate the low level of purchasing power possessed by this large class ot workers In pre-wa pre-wa r j SS rs " 'The rates of pay established under this decision," the dissenting opinion continued, "will mean annual earnings far below anv minimum standard subsistence which has been formulated, formulat-ed, even below those of most SOhserva-tlve SOhserva-tlve employer groups." These rates, the opinion declared, "are not based upon the human needs Of the hundreds Of thousands of families fam-ilies Involved. The) are Insufficient to provide these families with the absolute ab-solute essentials " The ore-WSJ Standard Of wages perpetuated per-petuated by the decislou the labor group said, "was the product of inequitable in-equitable wage bargains." The dissenting dissent-ing opinion also gave figures in an effort ef-fort to show the statistical study of comparative purchasing value for laborers la-borers of the class affected in December. Decem-ber. 1917, and nt present, to be "unfair "un-fair and misleading ' I 1ST OF ORGANIZATIONS Railroad labor organizations listed afl parties to the dispute include besides be-sides the Cnlted Brotherhood of Maintenance Main-tenance of Wav Employes and It.itl-wa It.itl-wa BhOp Laborers, the Railway Employes' Em-ployes' department. American Eedera-tlon Eedera-tlon of Labor. Maintenance of Way Firemen's association. International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen 'and idlers. Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks. Freight Handlers. Hand-lers. Express and SUtlon Employes, and the American Federation of Railroad Rail-road Workers. It was stated, however that practically ftll the men Involved belonged to the maintenance of way organization most of the other organizations organi-zations only having certain groups affected, af-fected, and these on only a few roads |