Imperial Valley Press

Trainmen Denied Big Wage Hike

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28. (UP)-The White House announced today that a special railroad emergency board had denied the $3 daily wage increase demanded by more than 300,000 operating railroad employes and recommended instead an increase of 32 cents a day in the basic wages.

The board's recommendation is held to Little Steel formula conditions.

It found that the 32 cents was all that could be allowed under formula, and recommended that this increase be retroactive to April 1, 1943.

The recommendation was submitted to President Roosevelt and is now before Economic Stabilization Director Fred M. Vinson for final determination.

One member of the board, Frank M. Swacker, filed a dissent on grounds that the authority of the board was not limited by the Little Steel formula. His opinion favored an increase of seven and one half per cent, or 54 cents a day.

The unions involved in the wage case, which covered virtually all of the railroads and their operating employes, were the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Order of Railway Conductors, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Switchmen's Union of North America.

The board said it made its recommendations low because of Vinson's action in turning down a wage increase recommended by another board for non-operating railroad employes.

A White House summary of the board's report said that although the trainmen's case for the increase was strong, the board adhered to the Little Steel formula in accordance with "the limitations of the stabilization program."