3.—After all single and married men under 31 have been exhausted, the youngest single men between the ages of 31 and 41, and fit for foreign service, should be released, and afterwards the married men between the ages of 31 and 41 with the fewest children.
To facilitate the release of Class "A" men, those of military Classes "B" and "C." or other employees unfitted for military service, may be transferred from one station to another, to act as substitutes for Class "A" men.
This would have enabled the companies to release many Class "A" men from the engines, and to substitute for them Classes "B" and "C" men from any other grade. The Executive therefore objected, and immediately got into touch with the Railway Executive. On May 4th of 1917 the Railway Executive Committee replied that:—
"You may rest assured that no men who are not employed in the Locomotive Department will be put on as enginemen or firemen on railway engines, and the contention that any such departure in locomotive work would be taken as a direct violation of the railway truce is not therefore understood."
This was a very important assurance from the Railway Executive, for it affected not only the going but the returning of footplatemen, and it furnished a striking little example of the importance of direct and exclusive representation of locomotive workers.
Messrs. W. W. Cooke (Vice-President) and Barton Wild had been in Ireland, negotiating a war bonus for Irish locomotivemen, and had been able to sign an agreement for an increase of war bonus by the following amounts:-
Employees, 18 years of age and upwards, 5s. additional; employees under 18 years, except boys engaged since January 1st, 1915, at rates of pay which exceed 6s. or more the rates usually paid to boys occupying similar positions, 2s. weekly. One-sixth of this bonus was to be added to the rates of pay for Sunday duty.
Some very unfair methods were adopted by the
