Kansas City Southern Railways Company 1933 Strike Miscellany
Collection Number: 5601
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
This collection was processed with the help of generous funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).Title:
Kansas City Southern Railways
Company 1933 Strike Miscellany, 1921-1934
Collection Number:
5601
Creator:
Kansas City Southern Railways
(KCS)
Quantity:
0.5 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents).
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Scrapbook titled: "Kansas City Southern Plans for
Conductors, Firemen, Yardmen." Contains documentation of the Kansas City Southern
Railways Strike of 1933.
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.
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.
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a
reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet
and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
Kansas City Southern Railways Company 1933 Strike Miscellany #5601. Kheel Center
for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1921-1934 | |
|
Table of contents on front cover, back cover annotated
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1921 | |
|
June 15, 1921
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1932 | |
|
November 17, 1932
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 4 | 1932 | |
|
November 17, 1932
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 5 | 1932 | |
|
November 17, 1932
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 6 | 1932 | |
|
November 17, 1932
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 7 | 1932 | |
|
August 1, 1932; letters attached
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 8 | 1932 | |
|
Regarding the Schedules for Brakemen and Yardmen (folders 3 and 4)
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 9 | 1932-1933 | |
|
(In index, called "Questions TBL 2 and 3 above")
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 10 | 1932-1933 | |
|
By Railway Company and by T. B. Leach
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 11 | 1932 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 12 | 1933 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 13 | 1933 | |
|
January-February-March 1933 issue
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 14 | 1932-1933 | |
|
On index "Misc correspondence self and others, KCS plan"
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 15 | 1929-1930 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 16 | 1933 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 17 | 1933 | |
|
June 13, 1933
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 18 | 1933 | |
|
June 13, 1933
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 19 | ||
| Box 1 | Folder 20 | 1934 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 21 | 1934 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 22 | 1934 | |
|
"Quit if don't advise will work after March 1, 1934"
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 23 | 1934 | |
|
Published and paid for, by popular subscription, by members of the KCS 83%
Club, a group representing 83% of Kansas City Southern employees."
|
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| Box 1 | Folder 24 | 1934 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 25 | 1933-1934 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 26 | 1934 | |