Show LASOR RULES na BOA BA pa 1 1110 F public D dil ty interested v in eff effort ort to S stop lop drain on carriers income 1 BIG BG SUMS FOR WORK NOT HT DONE railways railway asking la labor bor board to abrogate wasteful agreements made under federal control the entire country its consumers its farmers fan ners its workmen anil and even the i railway employees themselves ore are directly 11 interested with tile the railroads lu in cutting down railway operating expenses this Is the ke keynote k note of the case presented hy by the railroads to the united states railroad labor board now in session in chicago the rall rends have submitted evidence to the board to show bihy why the the national agreements affecting shop labor should be abrogated believing that this thi Is a vitally important step in the process of reducing operating expenses tills this step Is not only necessary to insure adequate earning power to the ilie railroads but will make pos possible sable an am ultimate reduction in rate aratea tho agreements were made b by y the railroad administration just before the end of federal control the sum total of the rules and working conditions provided by the national agreements have increased the operating ex expenses of the railroads by hundreds of millions and have decreased the efficiency and output ot of the employees in other ways resulting in losses which cannot be calculated in dollar dolla r and cents for sever several fail weeks the railroads have been multiplying instances of dt th the absurd and extravagant results of the labor rules fastened upon them by the national agre agreements ments in one case cited before the board a machinist was paid 16 1612 hours wage for work all performed within eight hours this case illustrated the enec of the rule that for each call the lie worker Is to be paid five hours wager even if he works only ten minutes the case of a car repairer on the virginian railway railway who was rec recenia enily r paid over 1000 tor for services whirl were never rendered and to in ad addition dillon the same amount of overtime as will was made allude by his gang was another exam pie in connection with the rolp that nono none hut hilt mechanics or agull do 10 mechanics work the follow ine fall was cited to indicate its unfairness five hours pay for 30 minutes work the el ei paso southwestern railroad recently had an engine set out tit at douglas and about the time it was r ready e lid S to go to leq ts train it developed that a vi window light was broken ito in tile the call cab it was necessary for the fore ninn ato to call a carpenter to do the work that he could have performed p er formed himself in a few minutes the train was del belled dean aed Led one hour rind and 30 minutes and the employee pulled called to do the work was paid five hours for work requiring 30 0 minutes tile the inefficiency created in inflexible of the rules contained il ii in question was illustrated in the following actual ense case recently occurred on tile the balfa mure more ohio railroad an ali engine was placed in the shops for certain repairs Bec because raue of at the lie provisions of the national agreement it was necessary that members of live five crafts perform of this work formerly the entire operation was performed by the members of but two crafts for work not performed ilow how tile die railroads of the country were nere compelled to pay almost TG 6 00 OW in the firt first six months of 1020 1920 for service no not t rendered because of the effects of but one of the rules included in tile the shop crafts national agreement was shown in the testimony this punitive payment for w work rk never performed was required by a clause in the national at lonal agreement which pro ides that when employees are arc required to check in and out on their own time they will be paid one hour extra at the close of each week the rigid classifications of labor when taken in connection with the rule that requires that a man must dust have four years experience before being employed to perform any of the work ork listed in them result to in paying rates applicable to men who bo are supposed to be fully qualified for work which does not require men of four years experience to illustrate how the In Jn ot of many of the rules now enforced operate to mulct the railroads of large sums for services which in the absence of these rules could be obtained for relatively moderate sums evidence was laid before the labor board showing that three men who were em bloyed at a small pumping station in michigan performing unskilled work would when classified under the rules rule receive an excess of pay amounting to more than the value of all the water pumped and current generated at this station tile the chicago testimony contains literally hundreds of instances such as these nil all supporting the contention of the railroads that the labor rules under which they have been forced to work are such ns as to prevent the honest efficient aud economical manage ment demanded by the transports Trans ayse |