Page:Jay Fox - Amalgamation (1923).pdf/25

Rh have seen swept away at one fell swoop all that had taken them a quarter of a century to secure. The Railroad Labor Board, a body created by the Government to do the dirty work of the railroad companies, issued an order breaking down the conditions of toil on the roads and cutting the wages of the men; and the "Peoples" government issued an injunction to help put the dastardly ukase into effect. The Government came out boldly on the side of the railroads and said it would use all the power at its command to break down union conditions on the railroads and establish the "open shop."

The seven shopmen's unions struck against the order of the Board cutting their wages, increasing their hours at the will of the roads, making Sunday work single time, abolishing overtime and establishing piecework. The railroads fully expected the men to strike, but they had no that the strike would become general. They had not so far attacked the conditions of the train and engine men, and they knew the latter would not strike to aid the shopmen. Craft union experience told the companies that it was perfectly safe for them to let the shopmen strike if they wished, that the other unions would stand at their posts, and they did. Nine union stayed on their jobs and helped the companies lick the other seven. That's the sort of unionism we have on the railroads; it's the sort we have all along the line throughout all the industries, and it is the sort we will continue to have till we put over the amalgamation project.

All the trainmen knew the ugly position they were in. These men who took extra chances with their lives by operating defective rolling stock, knew that if they stepped down from their cabs and cabooses and folded their arms the shopmen would win mighty quick; and they knew further that the defeat of the shopmen would reflect upon their own conditions. They knew that they would be the next to be put to the sword. All this was perfectly plain to them but they couldn't do anything about it. They were not prepared for such an emergency. They belonged to nine different craft unions with nine reactionary sets of leaders. Under the conditions it was impossible to act.

Although organized 100 per cent the railroad unions were still powerless to defend the workers. They stand condemned as antiquated implements of war, absolutely powerless in the face of the centralized railroad dictatorship. The 16 railroad unions must be amalgamated into one powerful fighting machine in the near future, or the "open shop" will be established in every department of the service; and