Kansas City Southern Railways Company 1933 Strike Miscellany, 1921-1934
Collection Number: 5601
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Kansas City Southern Railways Company 1933 Strike Miscellany, 1921-1934
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5601
Abstract:
Scrapbook titled: "Kansas City Southern Plans for Conductors, Firemen, Yardmen." Contains
documentation of the Kansas City Southern Railways Strike of 1933.
Creator:
Kansas City Southern Railways (KCS)
Quanitities:
0.5 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
The Kansas City Southern Railway [KCS] is a Class 1 railroad operating in the United
States and Mexico. The KCS was founded in 1887 in Kansas City, Missouri by Arthur
E. Stilwell. The KCS expanded their holdings in the following decade through the acquisition
of the Arkansas Western Railway Company and the Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway Company.
The KCS successfully linked Kansas City with the Gulf of Mexico at its terminus in
Port Arthur, Texas, which was named after Arthur Stilwell.
KCS and its employees had been operating under series of contracts between the carrier
and the various crafts and classes that had been in effect since 1924-1925. On January
1, 1932, both the carrier and the unions had entered, with 130 other American railroads
and the unions, into what was called the "Chicago Agreement." The Chicago Agreement
was a measure designed by President Roosevelt and his administration to help lift
America out of the Great Depression in which the wage rates of employees would remain
unchanged, but the railroads could deduct ten percent from each employee's pay check
for a period of one year, provided the railroads did all in their power to maintain
or even increase their number of employees. This wage reduction was part of a broader
trend of wage reductions, in order to try and kickstart the American economy. At the
end of this year, a wage dispute arrose between KCS and its employees.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "An emergency board to investigate
the wage dispute between the Kansas City Southern Railway and its engineers, firemen,
conductors, and trainmen, was appointed on June 12, 1933. The carrier and these employees
were parties to the so-called "Chicago agreement" of January 31, 1932, which provided
for a 10-percent deduction from the wages of the employees during the year beginning
February 1, 1932. On December 31, 1932, the agreement was extended to October 31,
1933, on most of the railroads. The Kansas City Southern Railway Co. was not a party
to the extension agreement, but continued to make the 10 percent deduction under the
terms of a mediation agreement entered into February 23, 1933. On April 5, 1933, the
carrier served notice of cancelation, on May 15, 1933, of all contracts covering rates
of pay, rules, and working conditions. On April 6, 1933, it declared its intention
of placing in effect on May 16, 1933, new rates of pay, rules, and working conditions.
Conferences and mediation were unsuccessful, and on June 6, 1933, the employees voted
overwhelmingly to strike.
On July 12, 1933, the emergency board reported its findings, pointing out the employees'
belief that acceptance of the company's demands would mean 'a complete breakdown of
the many years of efforts of organized railroad labor and would be and become an opening
wedge toward the ultimate breakdown of these conditions upon all the other railroads
in this country.' In deference to the wish of President [Roosevelt] 'for peace between
labor and employer while the country is trying to regain prosperity,' expressed in
a letter to [the KCS] president, the carrier postponed putting into effect the proposed
new schedule until early in 1934, continuing in the meantime under the existing rates
of pay, rules, and working conditions" (Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1936 Edition,
Issue 616, pp. 22-23).
In 1934, the same issues arose between KCS and their employees. President Roosevelt
dispatch Joseph B. Eastman, Federal Coordinator of Transportation, to mediate between
the parties. The strike was once again postponed while the parties submitted themselves
to mediation.
Inclusive date range: 1921-1932
Bulk dates: 1932-1934
This collection contains documentation of a wage dispute between the Kansas City
Southern Railways [KCS] and their employees represented by the "Big Four" railroad
brotherhoods: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers [BLE]; the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen and Enginemen [BLF&E]; the Order of Railway Conductors [ORC]; and the Brotherhood
of Railroad Trainmen [BRT].
The records in this collection document the wages of employees who were members of
one of the Big Four as well as how those wages would be affected by a proposed change
to wage schedules by KCS management. Reactions to these changes from the union representatives,
employees, and various managers are found in both correspondence and in pamphlets
printed by both sides of the dispute to try to influence public opinion. The wage
schedules are heavily annotated to show how the wages for the employees would fall
should the KCS plan be put in place. Newspaper clippings documenting the negotiations
are found in this collection. Of interest are the minutes of the meetings of the unions
where the vast majority of the employees voted in favor of a strike and the correspondence
between the grand chairmen of the Big Four, wherein they establish a series of code
words to be used to verify the authenticity of any correspondence regarding a strike.
Telegrams calling off the strike because of the intervention of the federal government
are also found in the collection.
This collection was bound together in a single scrapbook. The front cover has a table
of contents, and the scrapbook has been unbound and foldered in its original order
using the titles from the table of contents. The newspaper clippings in folder 25
are fragile and should be handled carefully.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference
archivist for access to these materials.
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and
Procedures for Document Use.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Kansas City Southern Railways Company 1933 Strike Miscellany #5601. Kheel Center for
Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Kansas City Southern Railway.
Subjects:
Eastman, Joseph Bartlett
Deramus, William Neal
Railroads--Kansas--Kansas City.
Strikes and lockouts--Railroads--Kansas--Kansas City.
Order of Railway Conductors of America.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen.
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
Arkansas Western Railway Company.
Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway Company.
Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company.
Railway Labor Act.
Wages--Mediation and conciliation, Industrial--United States.
CONTAINER LIST
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 1 |
"Kansas City Southern Plans for Conductors, Firemen, Yardmen" Index
|
1921-1934 |
Scope and Contents
Table of contents on front cover, back cover annotated
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 2 |
Schedule for Trainmen, submitted by C.E. Johnston
|
1921 |
Scope and Contents
June 15, 1921
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 3 |
Schedule for Brakemen, submitted by W. N. Deramus
|
1932 |
Scope and Contents
November 17, 1932
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 4 |
Schedule for Yardmen, submitted by W. N. Deramus
|
1932 |
Scope and Contents
November 17, 1932
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 5 |
Schedule for Firemen, submitted by W. N. Deramus
|
1932 |
Scope and Contents
November 17, 1932
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 6 |
Schedule for Conductors, submitted by W. N. Deramus
|
1932 |
Scope and Contents
November 17, 1932
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 7 |
Delaware and Hudson Railroad Schedule for Trainmen
|
1932 |
Scope and Contents
August 1, 1932; letters attached
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 8 |
Memorandum and letter transmittal W. N. Deramus, and other correspondence
|
1932 |
Scope and Contents
Regarding the Schedules for Brakemen and Yardmen (folders 3 and 4)
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 9 |
Questions About Proposed KCS Plan
|
1932-1933 |
Scope and Contents
(In index, called "Questions TBL 2 and 3 above")
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 10 |
Comparisons Schedule and KCS Plan
|
1932-1933 |
Scope and Contents
By Railway Company and by T. B. Leach
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 11 |
Agreement required of clerks who work on enforced vacation days
|
1932 |
Box 1 | Folder 12 |
Letter from H. E. Hennessey to T. B. Leach
|
1933 |
Box 1 | Folder 13 |
Loree's plan for saving millions, KCS Ry Magazine
|
1933 |
Scope and Contents
January-February-March 1933 issue
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 14 |
Miscellaneous telegrams from A. B. Cranor to T. B. Leach re strike
|
1932-1933 |
Scope and Contents
On index "Misc correspondence self and others, KCS plan"
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 15 |
Tabulation of service of T. B. Leach as brakeman, May 1929 to November 1930, inclusive
|
1929-1930 |
Box 1 | Folder 16 |
Strike ballot, minutes of the "Big Four" Grand Committee Meetings, strike instructions
|
1933 |
Box 1 | Folder 17 |
Minutes of "Big Four" Union meetings, Pittsburgh
|
1933 |
Scope and Contents
June 13, 1933
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 18 |
Postponement of strike
|
1933 |
Scope and Contents
June 13, 1933
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 19 |
KCS Wage Plan Facts, by W. N. Deramus, general manager of KCS
|
|
Box 1 | Folder 20 |
Letter and wage comparisons, from W. N. Deramus, to all ORC and BLE
|
1934 |
Box 1 | Folder 21 |
Answer to KCS propaganda pamphlet
|
1934 |
Box 1 | Folder 22 |
Letter from KCS to T. B. Leach
|
1934 |
Scope and Contents
"Quit if don't advise will work after March 1, 1934"
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 23 |
Circular "Why we are 100% for the KCS," by the 83% Club
|
1934 |
Scope and Contents
Published and paid for, by popular subscription, by members of the KCS 83% Club, a
group representing 83% of Kansas City Southern employees."
|
|||
Box 1 | Folder 24 |
Circular letter to all train, engine, and yard men from the general chairmen of the
"Big Four"
|
1934 |
Box 1 | Folder 25 |
Newspaper clippings re strike, from various newspapers
|
1933-1934 |
Box 1 | Folder 26 |
Correspondence and Alternatives to the KCS Plan furnished to all ORC and BLE by Company
|
1934 |