Five weeks ago Pittsburgh's Parmalee Transportation Co., owner of all but 18 of the city's taxicabs, changed its system of paying drivers. Instead of receiving $3 on the first $9 collected and 20% of receipts over $11, drivers were to get 37½% of metred receipts. Parmalee's drivers, some 1,500, demanded 40%. Refused, they organized a union, struck. Parmalee hired strikebreakers ("taxi-scabs") to operate their green and yellow cars. The 2½% difference between the company and the union became a mighty issue of principle which even Secretary of Labor James John Davis, right in his home town, could not mediate.
Last week Pittsburgh's...
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