300 Employees Out: More Pay and Shorter Hours: Police Called to Peking Rd.
Some 300 postmen employed by the Chinese Post Office in Shanghai went out on strike on Monday night. It appears that for some time past they have been dissatisfied with! their conditions of employment, and! on Monday morning they presented a petition to the Acting Postal Commissioner (Mr. Smith), setting forth three demands (1) for an increase in wages to meet the rise in the! cost of living, (2) reduction in the number of hours, and (3) return of deferred pay. It appears to be] the custom to deduct $1 monty from the postman's walges, this amount being placed to his credit and being returnable on completion of service, though subject to confication upon dismissal of a man for any culpable reason. The number of hours put in each day by these men is at present 10.
Ab 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the petitioners demanded a satisfactory reply. They were informed that the matter can only be settled on reference to Peking, and were guaranteed a fair hearing for their grievances, but this did not satisfy them, and the more demonstrative among them at once decided upon a strike. Others were induced to join them and by 9 o'clock the number of strikers had increased we 300, the Central District men being joined by men from the outside districts. There was some attempt interfere with the routine of the office, but the indoor staff remained work and the night mail was Solayed in transit from Shanghai of away. The incoming mail was
North station to the office.
Men Behaving Quietly but No Prospect of Return to Work Wednesday.
Although the postmen employed by the Chinese Post Office appea:- ed yesterday to be in a more r sonable mood for discussion, they declined to return to work. On Monday night, nothing but the concession of their three demands, reduction of hours to eight per day, and increase in salary of 35 per month, and immediate return of their "security cash," would satisfy them, but yesterday morning they seemed willing to waive the question of security cash, and were not so strong on the hours' question. Quite 50 per cent. of the men seem willing to return to work, but, as usually happens in such cases, they came under the; influence of the more determined among them, and the result was that yesterday the office had to work without its 390 postmen, the whole staff in this branch of the service having "downed bicycles." A telegram briefly stating the situation and the demands of the men was despatched to the Ministry of Communications immediately the trouble arose, but no
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.