Northern Pacific Labor Unrest
Railroad employees are alarmed as the company moves to unilaterally cut wages and bypass union bargaining processes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The new schedules of wages for the operating department of the Northern Pacific railroad have been distributed among the employees and provide for reductions of 5 to 10 percent on present rates in most cases. The change is not received with satisfaction among the men, who object to the cuts and the method by which they were delivered. Hitherto, wage schedules have been the subject of friendly arrangement between the management and the organizations of employees, but the receivers have ignored the unions, simply distributing the new schedules to individual workers. This ignoring of their unions is regarded with alarm as indicating that the management will not treat with them hereafter, and if any trouble should result, it is more likely to be due to this cause than to any other.
“This ignoring of their unions is regarded with alarm as indicating that the management will not treat with them hereafter.”
The tension between railroad management and union labor in 1891 mirrors modern battles over contract negotiations, collective bargaining rights, and the 'gigification' of labor where individual agreements are used to undermine collective power.
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