In the Winter 2007 issue, page 20, there is a quote from DL&W president William White, where he attributed some of the road’s declining financial fortunes to the “establishment of the 40-hour workweek for non-operating railroad employees”. I take it these were yard clerks, repairmen, etc.
Was it really that bad of a financial hit? What happened before the 40-hour rule - were these employees assigned long hours without overtime pay?
I was working as a telegrapher when the railroads went to the 40 hour week. During the 48 hour work week, a tower or station open on a 24/7 schedule had to have a relief man once a week for each shift to provide a day off for each of the three men at that site. One, just one, relief man could cover two towers or stations.
With the advent of the 40 hour week, a tower or station had six relief positions to fill as the railroad had to provide each man at these points two days off. Now the relief man that was ‘swinging’ between two points could work just at one point but he needed two days off; this would require a SECOND relief man to give him his first day off.
So from one relief man covering two places, the railroad was faced with two and 2/5ths relief positions for the two sites. Stations normally manned on Sunday were closed. CTC could be installed when towermen retired. Creating schedules for relief men was a big problem.
I’d say it was quite a hit.
Art
But another thing that happened with the 40 hour work week: so did the rest of American busineses have to cope. Plus, and more to my point, railroads, like the DL&W, were able to cut Saturday commuter services almost to Sunday frequencies. Probably half the Saturay trains were dropped because there were no riders. So crews were lost and equipment became surplus. More important to the commuter railroads at that time was the New Jersey Turnpike. And more important to the freight roads of the east was the St. Lawrence Seaway. There were a lot of other things, and not one single thing, that killed off the railroads’ traffic share in the lat 40’s into the early 50’s.
Just some background information…For many years it was normal for workers in most all jobs / businesses to work 5-1/2 days a week, 8 hrs each on Monday thru Friday, with a half day on Saturday. Our current “weekend” work cycle (work M-F with Sat and Sun off) didn’t become the norm until after WW2.
Stix might be right about the 5 and a half days in city jobs, but railroads and small towns were a different animal. In 1944, Saturdays were the busiest days. We opened the hardware store at the usual time but closed at 9pm instead of 6 because the farmers were in town. We definitely worked longer than 8 hours.
The railroads were a 24/7 business. No half days. Illinois passed their 6-day-week law in 1935. Shortly after, they passed a law that limited women to an 8 hour day.
It took 7 men to cover two 24/7 jobs with a 6 day week. With a five day week, it took 8.2 men to cover two 24/7 positions; that’s a 20 percent increase in labor costs. Of course not all jobs were 24/7 jobs, so the total cost of labor would be less than 20 percent. I never got a 20 percent increase in my pay, ever. Changing jobs was the only way to accomplish an increase like that.
Art
Right, I never said railroaders worked half days. I was responding with a general answer about employment during that time…it’s easy to assume that since a 5-day / 40 hour week has been standard for so long, that it’s always been that way. But if you worked in a bank, or an insurance company, or a factory, or hundreds of other jobs, you probably were working 5-1/2 days a week c.1930 (if you could find a job that is!![:D]).
Speaking of different work laws re men and women, during the Depression it wasn’t unusual for companies to fire married women, unless they could prove their husband was unemployed…the idea being it opened up jobs for men with families to support. [:O]
Right you are styx, I didn’t see where you were heading. In 49 I got married and my father-in-law, an Englishman, was working at Westinghouse during the thirties. Job prospects were dim as Americans were being hired and promoted rather than foreigners. He returned to England, where his daughter was born, but since her mother was an American the daughter had dual nationalities.
My mother said my uncle refused to work for a dollar an hour. During the depression he worked for a dollar a DAY.
My first job on the railroad was at the princely sum of 1.25 an hour with a 48 hour week. I went to work for a computer company 'cause I hated shift work not knowing that they were 24/7 too once I was out of the card machine group. No good deed goes unpunished.
Art
What a lot of people don’t understand is the impact of the the 40 hour/5 day work week, the dollar an hour wage and the retooling of America all between 1945 and 1950! It caused major change in how railroads with commuter services operated and affected the bottom line. Now railroads had excess crews and spare equipment. Then diselization was also hammering away at the steam locomotives sometimes kicke up to three teakettles off the property for every one growler; and more jobs were gone. Usually we only look at the fact that the boys were back from war ready to assume their old jobs when there actually was a lot more going on.