Gordon Haskell Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 20, 15 May 1950, p. 7.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
May 10 – Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen struck four major railroads today to enforce demands which had first been made on the railroads seven years ago. Issues in the strike are: an additional fireman in the engine room of multiple-unit diesel locomotives, and raising the lower wages paid for electric and diesel service to the regular steam-locomotive levels of pay.
The introduction of diesel power on the railroads on a large scale has created a serious problem for railroad workers. Diesels can pull longer trains at faster speeds than steam locomotives, and consume less fuel per ton-mile of operation.
Particularly in mountain territory, hundreds of engine crews have been laid off due to the abolition of helper service. The problem which confronts rail workers is a simple one: how to protect their jobs.
The railroads are screaming “featherbedding.” Yet they have not made a single proposal by which the workers could obtain any benefit from the increased efficiency of their labor brought about through dieselization. They want to hog it all for themselves, as all capitalists hog the proceeds of the greater productivity of their workers.
They claim they have no responsibility for the thousands of men who have spent years of their lives making profits for the railroad corporations. They propose to throw them on the scrapheap as they do with their old steam locomotives. But the price for steel scrajo remains high, while the price of human scrap is zero.
The railroad unions propose fo keep their men at work. They insist that the great four-unit diesels cannot be operated safely if the fireman has to leave his post in the cab from time to time, to adjust machinery in the engine room.
From the union point of view the chief danger in this strike is the fact that there are two enginemen’s unions. Both of them have claimed jurisdiction over the engine-room work. Both have been turned down by presidential fact-finding boards. At the present moment it is not clear whether the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers will back the strike of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, or whether they will take a narrow jurisdictional attitude and try to keep their members working to replace the striking firemen.
If they take the latter attitude the firemen’s strike may be a long and bitter one. But if the men stand solidly together, regardless of narrow organizational interests, the locomotive enginemen should win their fight for a share of the wealth created by dieselization.
Gordon Haskell Archive | Trotskyist Writers’ Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 27 January 2024