African Americans and the Unions
A myriad of unions are involved with the railroad but membership was not available to African Americas until the 1900s. The earliest and most successful organizers were waiters and porters. Initially some porters were also waiters and the titles were interchangeable. Little is heard of early “waiters” union efforts but Labor history has been forever changed by Phillip A Randolph’s (considered to be the father of the labor movement for African Americans) founding of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. It was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation and initially it served only porters but shortly after it’s founding, membership was extended to waiters.
Regional Note. In the beginning, many porters also served food and the titles porters and waiters were interchangeable. Later duties became more distinct and the titles separate. In researching African American railroad workers in Fulton I thought it unusual to find no mention of porters in this major mid 1900s Illinois Central hub. Later I discovered that porters were normally employees of the Pullman Company not IC and they would only be found in Fulton on visits or commutes from their Chicago base. So generally no porters lived in Fulton.
A brief internet history of African Americans and the first major union follows, and then an interview, also from the internet of a dining car waiter that worked for Illinois Central during those critical union years.
African Americans and the Unions
As early as 1900, black railroad men began to organize to improve working conditions; in 1912 Pullman porters from all over the United States presented petitions to the Pullman unfair. A porter was required to log 11,000 miles or work more than 400 hours a month before he would be eligible for overtime pay. Meals, uniforms, and supplies such as shoe polish had to be purchased out of the porter's salary. Porters had to "dead head," or report for work five or six hours ahead of the train's scheduled departure time, without pay, and remain at the station until the car to which they were assigned was full. They were also required to "double out," to come in off one train Company asking for an increase in wages. As a result, monthly wages were raised from $25.00 to $27.50. In 1917 another increase, to $45.00 a month, was secured. The Pullman car lines were placed under the U.S. Railroad Commission at the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War I. The commission only dealt with organized representatives of workers; the Pullman porters had no national organization. In 1918 they were granted the right of collective bargaining, and several organizations were formed to compete for the right to represent them. The Pullman Company took advantage of disunion among the porters, and in 1921 organized the Pullman Porters Benefit Association, using black "stooges" who went along with company policy, to insure that all porters joined the union. Anyone refusing to join was fired.
In 1925 a rival union called the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was organized in New York City. It was considered a radical organization, because it was formed by the porters themselves, and because it addressed specific practices and working conditions it considered and take the next one out without rest, a chance to see their families, or shower and shave. If they appeared at the station tired or dirty, they could be suspended or fired. The porter in charge received only ten dollars a month more than the regular porters. The Pullman Company often replaced white car conductors who were paid $150 per month with black head porters who were paid much less. Black porters were also forced to put up with demeaning practices, to answer to the name "George," and to dance and clown for the passengers.
A. Phillip Randolph, a former newspaper man and one of the founders of the Brotherhood, made extensive trips around the country organizing railroad men. By the end of 1926 local chapters of the Brotherhood were established in a number of cities, including Portland. It was an underground organization, as known membership could cost a man his job. The Brotherhood became the legal representative of the porters in 1935. In 1937 a reduction in work hours was secured, and wages were raised to $72.50 per month. A former railroad man and one of the organizers of the Brotherhood in Portland recalled the changes that the first contract brought.
In all these years there had never been any such thing as a vacation, nor was there any such thing as having control over one's social life. After we got the contract all this was changed. In the years that followed, our salaries started moving up. And we began to have assignments which gave those with seniority the consideration due them. http://gesswhoto.com/paradise-chapter7-pg2.html
THE UNION
From the Internet http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/library/oralhistory/20-Smith.pdf
Interview with Fred Smith, Retired Illinois Central Dining Car Waiter
By Thomas J. Leonard Roosevelt University, Oral History Project in Labor History
Use by researchers Open
November, 1972 1 hour 4230 S. Drexel, Chicago, IL
C O N T E N T S .
Working on the I.C. in the '30's. ………. 1
Early labor organizing. . .. …………….l-3
Obstacles to unionizing. . . . .. ………. 3-4
organization of railroad unions……. . ..4-5
To strike or not to strike. . ………….…. 6
Membership backing of union. . ……... . 1
Changing composition of Local 351. . . 7-8
Wages... , . . . . . . . . . . ………… . . . . .. . 8
Company's attempt to unionize.. ………..9
Would you start with just a brief history of yourself —— where you came from, where you were born, how you came to be employed in the railroad field.
R. I came to Chicago in 1929, hoping to go to school. But I wasn’t able to carry my plans out because I walked into the depression. I finally started to work on the Illinois Central Railroad as a waiter in 1930. The working conditions were very bad at that time although we were in such straits that we didn’t realize how bad they were. At that time we’d take a job under any working conditions because things were just that bad. In later years, 1932 or 33, we began to entertain the thought of trying to organize to better our conditions. But we got into many difficulties over it because a number of men lost their jobs on account of union activities, although the Railway Labor Act was in effect which was passed in 1926. It didn’t have any teeth in it you see, to the extent that the worker was protected.
In later years, in 1934, the Railway Labor Act was amended and then we began to organize. The act was amended where the company would be held liable for the treatment of workers. They no longer would be fired for their union activities. If so, the company was subject to prosecution. And we organized on the Illinois Central in 1936. Our working conditions immediately began to improve. At that time we was working 240 or more hours a month. Bad working conditions. We would work all day long and after serving the last meal for the day we would have to tear the dining car down, put the chairs in the pantry or some other place, and then make the car down into sleeping quarters. The next morning we’d get up and set the car back in shape and be ready to serve breakfast by 6:30 in the morning. Those were not only bad working conditions, it wasn’t very sanitary to eat and sleep in the same place.
In a few years after our contract went into effect, changes. were made. We were furnished with dormitory cars, with sleeping accomodations, toilet facilities, showers. Our hours were shortened and we received wage increases. We got vacations with pay, which was something that wasn’t thought of until our organizing.
I. Mr. Smith, when you first started with the railroad, did you start as a waiter or did you seek some other employment first?
R. I started out as a waiter. At that time, that was about the only job that was available. I started out as a waiter. That was all they had -- just black waiters and black cooks. That was a place
that. they had set up for black people.
I.. So there was no other employment that you could seek other than the waiters job on the railroad?
R. Not in that department. No.
I. What year was this?
R. 1930.
I. And at this time there was no union organizing going on and as you stated the hours that you had to work and the conditions you had to work under weren’t that, that you later received under the union. R. No, it wasn’t. Actually you wasn’t looked upon as being a human being. Because conditions that waiters and cooks worked under was so intolerable that no one else would have done that. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so bad. You see, it was just the condition
of the economy of the country at that time. That was due to the depression in ‘29.
When you were first approached about a union or when you first heard about the union what were your personal feelings toward unionism?
R. Well, I know I had always been interested in labor organizations even before I ever entered the railroad industry, because the previous years I had been in the postal service and we had an organization there and I had been already oriented in the labor movement. I was among some of the first on the Illinois Central that began to talk organization.
Your agitating for organization, how did that affect you in your job status or personal life?
R. Well, we all were kind of dubious. Some of the people didn’t want to take no chances. As a matter of fact they were even afraid to sign an authorization card because they were afraid to lose their jobs, but some of them were more daring than others. We all had to do it in kind of a subtle manner because we didn’t want to lose the j ob.
I. Did people, in fact, lose their jobs because they were doing union organizing or had signed pledges to join the union?
R. Oh yes, there were several on the Illinois Central, not to mention other railroads where the men were fired for union activities.
I. What was the name of the union that you were involved with at this particular time?
K. You mean the one that was organized? I. The one that was organizing at this time.
R . Dining Car Employees Union, Local 351. As you perhaps know, railroad unions divide into crafts -- operators and non-operators. There were 13 non—operating unions and we were one of those. We ran into one handicap when we did organize. Didn’t any other crafts particularly want the dining car worker. And the only way that we got
in was through the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union.
I. So none of the railroad unions would accept your local into its organization?
R. No. Its been so long that some of it has slipped my memory. —The over-all concensus was, at that time, that these white unions didn’t particularly want any black members. We had to establish our own craft.
I. Once the union was established, did you have difficulty in bargaining with the company?
No unusual difficulties. It was always a matter of routine. We didn’t have any real strong leadership. Under our set—up your representatives were also employees. Although it is possible to get strong representation from employees, they, too, are taking a chance. They can’t stick their neck out too far negotiating for me when they’re subject to getting in bad, with the company. I never was closely related with the organizers, our representatives, you see, because I had a different idea than what they had.
I. How was that R. I didn’t believe that we—could successfully have a viable organization if I was represented by another employee.
I. In other words the union, you felt, should have provided for the leadership so that they would not be intimidated by the fact that they were employees —— that that might have some part in their dealing with the company, their level from which they dealt with the company, as opposed to being directly a representative of the union dealing with the company management.
R. Very much. I can give you an illustration. We were trying to organize and the company was fearful of an organization to the extent that they began to try to organize company unions and that didn’t succeed. When we did organize, several of the same people, that I worked with were the -representatives and I just couldn’t separate them from their position as an employee and a representative. To illustrate -- the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, they had a strong organization and they were organized by what they called an outsider, A. Philip Randolph. And they had strong representation. They had a much better contract than we were able to get because our representatives were weak. They may have had some ideas, but they just didn’t get them across.
I. During your tern in the union did your local ever strike or threaten to strike the company in regard to any labor negotiations?
R. Well they always threatened to strike. That’s a part of the negotiating procedure , you know. They’ll set a date to strike
but under the Railway Labor Act that is stretched out over 60 or 90 days. but I had the experience of strikes -- minor.
I. Local initiated or initiated by other crafts in the railway union?
R. National strike. There wasn’t no local strikes. They were national All roads had a wage strike.
I. As far as you can remember the Local never initiated a strike where you actually went off the job?
R. No, because that wasn’t the procedure. That would have been called an unauthorized strike. They always negotiated as a national group which encompassed all non-operators -- the clerks union and many other unions made up of non-operating employees. When they met and negotiated with the company it was always on a national basis. What would affect the workers on one road would also affect the workers on another road. Whenever it reached the point of a strike, they took a strike vote. I never had the opportunity to be able to tally one, but they always voted for a strike. They’d set a date. There were some strikes but they were of short duration.
I. In the first ten years after the union was started, how was the membership’s backing of the union?
R. To be frank with you, unionism among the average dining car worker was something new. He felt that he didn’t need a union. He felt that as long as he could bow and stoop to the steward or other office personnel that he could get some special favors and he didn’t need a union. And some of the men actually opposed the union. We had to put a little pressure on some of them even to get them to join. In later years, the contracts were amended and we had a closed shop and then they had to join. It was a requirement. After working there 90 days or 6 months -- I’ve forgotten which -- they were compelled to join a union.
I. What type of pressure did you have to put on these people to get them to get into line with the others that were in the union?
R. Well, the thing is we’d tell them that its no longer necessary to be an Uncle Tom; you can start to be a man. That was the first time they had ever been given an opportunity to act like men. Then some of them didn’t want that responsibility of acting like a man.
I. Mr. Smith, in Local 351 how many railroads other than the IC were. included?
R. There was the New York Central, the Santa Fe, the—Milwaukee, the Northwestern. But that was back in the more prolific days. Now it’s down. I think just two roads makes up the membership of 351; that’s the Santa Fe and the Illinois Central.
I. During the more vibrant days of railroads did all the railroad employees operating out of Chicago belong to Local 351 —— the dining car workers, or were there other unions? R. There were three or four other local unions. The Pennsylvania Railroad who was a member of our Joint Council, they pulled out and organized an independent union. Then the Milwaukee Railroad -- they had their own local. And the Rock Island pulled out of 351. They had their own local. And the New York Central pulled out of 351 and they had their own local. At one time there was about five local unions here in Chicago.
I. What caused these various pull-outs? R. Well, they were kind of like the convention over in Gary last week. They couldn’t get together. Of course, we got some bum representation. And some of the fellows, rather than stay in there and try to clean it up, why they just petitioned the Joint Council and got a separate charter.
I. When you first started with the Illinois Central, what was the wage scale and how did it progress over the years to your retirement? Arid when did you retire?
R. I retired in 1965 I began working in 1930. I worked 35. years. When I started they was paying about 24 and a quarter cents an hour. We got progressive wage increases over the years. Every time we negotiated a contract we always got increased wages, fringe benefits such as group insurance, shorter working hours. I think when I retired my base pay had gone up to about $3.40 an hour. Over a 30 year period that’s quite a jump you might say.
I. You mentioned that the company attempted to form a union at one time. Was this prior to the organization of Local 351 or around the same time?
R . It was all happening around the same time. The company was fearful of the union so they would try to get their own union in there, you see, to kind of stymie the activity of those who we’re trying to draw the union in.
I. What year was this?
R. 1935.
A myriad of unions are involved with the railroad but membership was not available to African Americas until the 1900s. The earliest and most successful organizers were waiters and porters. Initially some porters were also waiters and the titles were interchangeable. Little is heard of early “waiters” union efforts but Labor history has been forever changed by Phillip A Randolph’s (considered to be the father of the labor movement for African Americans) founding of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. It was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation and initially it served only porters but shortly after it’s founding, membership was extended to waiters.
Regional Note. In the beginning, many porters also served food and the titles porters and waiters were interchangeable. Later duties became more distinct and the titles separate. In researching African American railroad workers in Fulton I thought it unusual to find no mention of porters in this major mid 1900s Illinois Central hub. Later I discovered that porters were normally employees of the Pullman Company not IC and they would only be found in Fulton on visits or commutes from their Chicago base. So generally no porters lived in Fulton.
A brief internet history of African Americans and the first major union follows, and then an interview, also from the internet of a dining car waiter that worked for Illinois Central during those critical union years.
African Americans and the Unions
As early as 1900, black railroad men began to organize to improve working conditions; in 1912 Pullman porters from all over the United States presented petitions to the Pullman unfair. A porter was required to log 11,000 miles or work more than 400 hours a month before he would be eligible for overtime pay. Meals, uniforms, and supplies such as shoe polish had to be purchased out of the porter's salary. Porters had to "dead head," or report for work five or six hours ahead of the train's scheduled departure time, without pay, and remain at the station until the car to which they were assigned was full. They were also required to "double out," to come in off one train Company asking for an increase in wages. As a result, monthly wages were raised from $25.00 to $27.50. In 1917 another increase, to $45.00 a month, was secured. The Pullman car lines were placed under the U.S. Railroad Commission at the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War I. The commission only dealt with organized representatives of workers; the Pullman porters had no national organization. In 1918 they were granted the right of collective bargaining, and several organizations were formed to compete for the right to represent them. The Pullman Company took advantage of disunion among the porters, and in 1921 organized the Pullman Porters Benefit Association, using black "stooges" who went along with company policy, to insure that all porters joined the union. Anyone refusing to join was fired.
In 1925 a rival union called the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was organized in New York City. It was considered a radical organization, because it was formed by the porters themselves, and because it addressed specific practices and working conditions it considered and take the next one out without rest, a chance to see their families, or shower and shave. If they appeared at the station tired or dirty, they could be suspended or fired. The porter in charge received only ten dollars a month more than the regular porters. The Pullman Company often replaced white car conductors who were paid $150 per month with black head porters who were paid much less. Black porters were also forced to put up with demeaning practices, to answer to the name "George," and to dance and clown for the passengers.
A. Phillip Randolph, a former newspaper man and one of the founders of the Brotherhood, made extensive trips around the country organizing railroad men. By the end of 1926 local chapters of the Brotherhood were established in a number of cities, including Portland. It was an underground organization, as known membership could cost a man his job. The Brotherhood became the legal representative of the porters in 1935. In 1937 a reduction in work hours was secured, and wages were raised to $72.50 per month. A former railroad man and one of the organizers of the Brotherhood in Portland recalled the changes that the first contract brought.
In all these years there had never been any such thing as a vacation, nor was there any such thing as having control over one's social life. After we got the contract all this was changed. In the years that followed, our salaries started moving up. And we began to have assignments which gave those with seniority the consideration due them. http://gesswhoto.com/paradise-chapter7-pg2.html
THE UNION
From the Internet http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/library/oralhistory/20-Smith.pdf
Interview with Fred Smith, Retired Illinois Central Dining Car Waiter
By Thomas J. Leonard Roosevelt University, Oral History Project in Labor History
Use by researchers Open
November, 1972 1 hour 4230 S. Drexel, Chicago, IL
C O N T E N T S .
Working on the I.C. in the '30's. ………. 1
Early labor organizing. . .. …………….l-3
Obstacles to unionizing. . . . .. ………. 3-4
organization of railroad unions……. . ..4-5
To strike or not to strike. . ………….…. 6
Membership backing of union. . ……... . 1
Changing composition of Local 351. . . 7-8
Wages... , . . . . . . . . . . ………… . . . . .. . 8
Company's attempt to unionize.. ………..9
Would you start with just a brief history of yourself —— where you came from, where you were born, how you came to be employed in the railroad field.
R. I came to Chicago in 1929, hoping to go to school. But I wasn’t able to carry my plans out because I walked into the depression. I finally started to work on the Illinois Central Railroad as a waiter in 1930. The working conditions were very bad at that time although we were in such straits that we didn’t realize how bad they were. At that time we’d take a job under any working conditions because things were just that bad. In later years, 1932 or 33, we began to entertain the thought of trying to organize to better our conditions. But we got into many difficulties over it because a number of men lost their jobs on account of union activities, although the Railway Labor Act was in effect which was passed in 1926. It didn’t have any teeth in it you see, to the extent that the worker was protected.
In later years, in 1934, the Railway Labor Act was amended and then we began to organize. The act was amended where the company would be held liable for the treatment of workers. They no longer would be fired for their union activities. If so, the company was subject to prosecution. And we organized on the Illinois Central in 1936. Our working conditions immediately began to improve. At that time we was working 240 or more hours a month. Bad working conditions. We would work all day long and after serving the last meal for the day we would have to tear the dining car down, put the chairs in the pantry or some other place, and then make the car down into sleeping quarters. The next morning we’d get up and set the car back in shape and be ready to serve breakfast by 6:30 in the morning. Those were not only bad working conditions, it wasn’t very sanitary to eat and sleep in the same place.
In a few years after our contract went into effect, changes. were made. We were furnished with dormitory cars, with sleeping accomodations, toilet facilities, showers. Our hours were shortened and we received wage increases. We got vacations with pay, which was something that wasn’t thought of until our organizing.
I. Mr. Smith, when you first started with the railroad, did you start as a waiter or did you seek some other employment first?
R. I started out as a waiter. At that time, that was about the only job that was available. I started out as a waiter. That was all they had -- just black waiters and black cooks. That was a place
that. they had set up for black people.
I.. So there was no other employment that you could seek other than the waiters job on the railroad?
R. Not in that department. No.
I. What year was this?
R. 1930.
I. And at this time there was no union organizing going on and as you stated the hours that you had to work and the conditions you had to work under weren’t that, that you later received under the union. R. No, it wasn’t. Actually you wasn’t looked upon as being a human being. Because conditions that waiters and cooks worked under was so intolerable that no one else would have done that. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so bad. You see, it was just the condition
of the economy of the country at that time. That was due to the depression in ‘29.
When you were first approached about a union or when you first heard about the union what were your personal feelings toward unionism?
R. Well, I know I had always been interested in labor organizations even before I ever entered the railroad industry, because the previous years I had been in the postal service and we had an organization there and I had been already oriented in the labor movement. I was among some of the first on the Illinois Central that began to talk organization.
Your agitating for organization, how did that affect you in your job status or personal life?
R. Well, we all were kind of dubious. Some of the people didn’t want to take no chances. As a matter of fact they were even afraid to sign an authorization card because they were afraid to lose their jobs, but some of them were more daring than others. We all had to do it in kind of a subtle manner because we didn’t want to lose the j ob.
I. Did people, in fact, lose their jobs because they were doing union organizing or had signed pledges to join the union?
R. Oh yes, there were several on the Illinois Central, not to mention other railroads where the men were fired for union activities.
I. What was the name of the union that you were involved with at this particular time?
K. You mean the one that was organized? I. The one that was organizing at this time.
R . Dining Car Employees Union, Local 351. As you perhaps know, railroad unions divide into crafts -- operators and non-operators. There were 13 non—operating unions and we were one of those. We ran into one handicap when we did organize. Didn’t any other crafts particularly want the dining car worker. And the only way that we got
in was through the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union.
I. So none of the railroad unions would accept your local into its organization?
R. No. Its been so long that some of it has slipped my memory. —The over-all concensus was, at that time, that these white unions didn’t particularly want any black members. We had to establish our own craft.
I. Once the union was established, did you have difficulty in bargaining with the company?
No unusual difficulties. It was always a matter of routine. We didn’t have any real strong leadership. Under our set—up your representatives were also employees. Although it is possible to get strong representation from employees, they, too, are taking a chance. They can’t stick their neck out too far negotiating for me when they’re subject to getting in bad, with the company. I never was closely related with the organizers, our representatives, you see, because I had a different idea than what they had.
I. How was that R. I didn’t believe that we—could successfully have a viable organization if I was represented by another employee.
I. In other words the union, you felt, should have provided for the leadership so that they would not be intimidated by the fact that they were employees —— that that might have some part in their dealing with the company, their level from which they dealt with the company, as opposed to being directly a representative of the union dealing with the company management.
R. Very much. I can give you an illustration. We were trying to organize and the company was fearful of an organization to the extent that they began to try to organize company unions and that didn’t succeed. When we did organize, several of the same people, that I worked with were the -representatives and I just couldn’t separate them from their position as an employee and a representative. To illustrate -- the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, they had a strong organization and they were organized by what they called an outsider, A. Philip Randolph. And they had strong representation. They had a much better contract than we were able to get because our representatives were weak. They may have had some ideas, but they just didn’t get them across.
I. During your tern in the union did your local ever strike or threaten to strike the company in regard to any labor negotiations?
R. Well they always threatened to strike. That’s a part of the negotiating procedure , you know. They’ll set a date to strike
but under the Railway Labor Act that is stretched out over 60 or 90 days. but I had the experience of strikes -- minor.
I. Local initiated or initiated by other crafts in the railway union?
R. National strike. There wasn’t no local strikes. They were national All roads had a wage strike.
I. As far as you can remember the Local never initiated a strike where you actually went off the job?
R. No, because that wasn’t the procedure. That would have been called an unauthorized strike. They always negotiated as a national group which encompassed all non-operators -- the clerks union and many other unions made up of non-operating employees. When they met and negotiated with the company it was always on a national basis. What would affect the workers on one road would also affect the workers on another road. Whenever it reached the point of a strike, they took a strike vote. I never had the opportunity to be able to tally one, but they always voted for a strike. They’d set a date. There were some strikes but they were of short duration.
I. In the first ten years after the union was started, how was the membership’s backing of the union?
R. To be frank with you, unionism among the average dining car worker was something new. He felt that he didn’t need a union. He felt that as long as he could bow and stoop to the steward or other office personnel that he could get some special favors and he didn’t need a union. And some of the men actually opposed the union. We had to put a little pressure on some of them even to get them to join. In later years, the contracts were amended and we had a closed shop and then they had to join. It was a requirement. After working there 90 days or 6 months -- I’ve forgotten which -- they were compelled to join a union.
I. What type of pressure did you have to put on these people to get them to get into line with the others that were in the union?
R. Well, the thing is we’d tell them that its no longer necessary to be an Uncle Tom; you can start to be a man. That was the first time they had ever been given an opportunity to act like men. Then some of them didn’t want that responsibility of acting like a man.
I. Mr. Smith, in Local 351 how many railroads other than the IC were. included?
R. There was the New York Central, the Santa Fe, the—Milwaukee, the Northwestern. But that was back in the more prolific days. Now it’s down. I think just two roads makes up the membership of 351; that’s the Santa Fe and the Illinois Central.
I. During the more vibrant days of railroads did all the railroad employees operating out of Chicago belong to Local 351 —— the dining car workers, or were there other unions? R. There were three or four other local unions. The Pennsylvania Railroad who was a member of our Joint Council, they pulled out and organized an independent union. Then the Milwaukee Railroad -- they had their own local. And the Rock Island pulled out of 351. They had their own local. And the New York Central pulled out of 351 and they had their own local. At one time there was about five local unions here in Chicago.
I. What caused these various pull-outs? R. Well, they were kind of like the convention over in Gary last week. They couldn’t get together. Of course, we got some bum representation. And some of the fellows, rather than stay in there and try to clean it up, why they just petitioned the Joint Council and got a separate charter.
I. When you first started with the Illinois Central, what was the wage scale and how did it progress over the years to your retirement? Arid when did you retire?
R. I retired in 1965 I began working in 1930. I worked 35. years. When I started they was paying about 24 and a quarter cents an hour. We got progressive wage increases over the years. Every time we negotiated a contract we always got increased wages, fringe benefits such as group insurance, shorter working hours. I think when I retired my base pay had gone up to about $3.40 an hour. Over a 30 year period that’s quite a jump you might say.
I. You mentioned that the company attempted to form a union at one time. Was this prior to the organization of Local 351 or around the same time?
R . It was all happening around the same time. The company was fearful of the union so they would try to get their own union in there, you see, to kind of stymie the activity of those who we’re trying to draw the union in.
I. What year was this?
R. 1935.