(The following story by Walt Frank appeared on the Altoona Mirror website on June 27, 2010.)
ALTOONA, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Labor History Society’s plan to commemorate the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 in Altoona has drawn some opposition.
Society members, who will be in Altoona on Sept. 9 for the Blair Bedford Central Labor Council’s 30th annual Person of the Year Awards Dinner, had hoped to place a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker on the property of Norfolk Southern’s Juniata Locomotive Shops the following day.
However, Norfolk Southern doesn’t want the plaque on its property.
Citing years of positive and productive labor-management relations at the Juniata shops, Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said the plaque “serves no useful purpose, especially since the facts surrounding the 1922 strike and the impact on Altoona seem to be in dispute.”
Society President Rosemary Trump is disappointed with the decision.
“We would be very disappointed if they won’t cooperate. We thought it would be a positive labor-management interaction,” Trump said. “In 1922, there was a big conflict between labor and management. We thought about 90 years later, labor and management relations had improved and this would be one way to demonstrate the improvement. The whole purpose was for educational purposes, so that the workers there could learn of the sacrifices to improve wages and conditions for their families.”
Charles McCollester, society past president, called Norfolk Southern’s decision “short-sighted.”
“The strike led to the Railway Labor Act and the organization of the Altoona shops – they should get over it. They should place the marker in front of the gates,” McCollester said. “There is no need to cover up the negative side. We should learn from the past and not try to suppress it.”
Labor council President Robert Kutz said if Norfolk Southern won’t allow the marker on its property, it will be placed outside the labor council hall at East Wopsononock Avenue and Juniata Gap Road.
“We would be happy to have it here. We would be proud to have it. It is a part of our labor history,” Kutz said. “The labor history society would have loved to showcase it at the shops because of its role in labor history.”
Kutz would not go as far as saying he was disappointed with Norfolk Southern’s decision.
“They [Norfolk Southern] are doing a tremendous job of resurrecting a railroad that was on the way out. It would be nice to have a better working relationship with a group like that,” Kutz said. “This is just a stumbling block we will get around and move on.”
What is happening in Altoona is rare as the suggested location in the application usually ends up being the actual location for the marker, commission spokesman Howard Pollman said.
However, the labor hall was included in the application as a possible alternate site for the marker.
“We already knew that a final site hadn’t been selected when the marker committee reviewed and approved the nomination,” Pollman said. “The PHMC is fine with the Labor Hall site, since it is directly related to the strike and the events of 1922.”