Railroad Labor and It's History |
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Railroad
Labor Organizations, various brotherhoods and trade unions in the United States that
represent about 340,000 workers on the railroads. This figure reflects a
decline of some 40 percent since 1970; over the years since World War II
the decline has been more than 80 percent. Operating
workers, or those engaged in engine, yard, and train service, are
represented by two unions. The United Transportation Union, organized in
1969 by a merger of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Order of Railway
Conductors and Brakemen, and the Switchmen's Union of North America, was
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of
Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) for some 15 years, until its
withdrawal in 1985. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers did not
participate in the merger, although there have been recent efforts to
merge both unions. Non-operating workers—those engaged in clerical and
shop work and in maintenance of way—are also represented by unions,
some of which have members in the nonrailroad sector of the economy.
These unions are affiliated with the Railway Labor Executives'
Association, which is concerned mainly with influencing legislation and
with other government-related issues. In the mid-1980s, several of these
unions showed an interest in merging with the United Transportation
Union. Jurisdictional conflicts reflect the substantial decline in
railroad employment and the curtailment of the political and economic
influence of the unions. History
The operating
labor organizations were established originally as insurance-benefit
societies because the early working conditions of railroad employees
were so hazardous that private insurance companies refused to insure
them. This insurance function still represents a major part of the
unions' activities. The National
Protective Association of Locomotive Engineers, founded in 1855,
survived for only five years. In 1863 the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers, the first union organization of railroad workers, was
organized. The Brotherhood of Conductors was organized in 1869; its name
eventually was changed to the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen.
In 1873 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was established; in 1906
it became the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. An active
leader in this union was the American socialist and labor organizer
Eugene V. Debs, who assumed leadership in the 1880s. The Brotherhood of
Railroad Brakemen, founded in 1883, became the Brotherhood of Railroad
Trainmen in 1899. The Switchmen's Union of North America was organized
in 1894 after an initial start as the the Switchmen's Mutual Aid
Association. During the
late 19th century these railroad labor organizations were involved in
many unsuccessful and violent strikes. The most prominent of these was
the Pullman Strike of 1894, led by Debs under the auspices of the
American Railway Union. This union represented a short-lived attempt to
bring all railroad workers into one organization; it was a precursor of
the industrial union movement of the 1930s. As a result of these
strikes, labor relations in the railroad industry have been subject to
government intervention, which included the nationalization of the
industry during World War I. In 1943-44, 1946, 1948, and 1950-52 the
railroad industry was seized and operated by the federal government in
order to end strikes or to prevent threatened strikes. Under this
intervention the railroad labor organizations retained a uniformity of
work rules that has been the subject of conflict between labor and
management since the post World War II period. See Trade Unions in the United States. The
Organizations Today The conflict
between the railroads and their labor organizations continues today. The
unions have long been faced with declining employment, while management
has confronted financial difficulties reflecting competition from other
means of transportation. Work
Rules Railroad
management over the years has sought elimination or modification of
standing work rules that, it argues, impede full utilization of
workforces. The unions have resisted these changes, viewing them as
threats to individual jobs and to the unions themselves as institutions.
Since the establishment, in 1971, of a quasi-public corporation, the
National Railroad Passenger Corporation, or Amtrak, and the subsequent
elimination of unprofitable passenger operations, the unions also have
sought protection against layoffs. The railroad unions feared that
another quasi-public entity, the Consolidated Rail Corporation, or
Conrail, established in early 1976 to take over six bankrupt railroads
in the northeast, would further reduce employment opportunities. Eleven
years later, however, the government sold its stock in Conrail to the
public. To employees,
the work rules represent job security, which they consider essential
because of the special conditions of their work. Circumstances that gave
rise to the rules include the authoritarian organization of the
railroads to which workers are subject, occupational hazards, variations
in the size of the workforce because of fluctuating traffic, and the
nontransferability of most railroad skills to other industries. Workers
have hence drawn up elaborate rules to protect against arbitrary or
capricious actions by management. They have, however, been unable to
stem the sharp decline in employment, resulting from technological
changes in the industry. Wage
Disputes The wage
disputes over the years reflect the feeling of the workers that their
wage adjustments have not been commensurate with those in other
industries, and that they have been subjected to national guidelines
that tend to be lower than those for industries in which wages are
negotiated on a local level and the workers are not enjoined by law from
striking. Railroad workers, despite guarantees under the Railway Labor
Act of 1926, as amended, have effectively been thwarted from striking by
congressional intervention and because of alleged dangers to the nation
from such a course. Legislation
The basic
legislation under which railroad labor relations are conducted was
enacted in 1926. The Railway Labor Act was supported by both labor and
management. This legislation was substantially revised in 1932, at which
time the law prohibited the union shop (designed to eliminate the
company unions organized by the railroads during the prior six-year
period) and provided for the establishment of a National Railroad
Adjustment Board whose main task was the arbitration of grievance
disputes. In 1950 the law was changed to permit the union shop. Because
the national board was deluged by grievance disputes, the law was
further amended in 1970 to allow the establishment of special boards of
adjustment to handle grievance disputes on individual railroads.
Finally, the Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981 amended the original
legislation to establish more elaborate procedures to resolve labor
disputes on commuter railroads. Labor
Negotiations In 1959 the
railroads proposed significant changes in the work rules of the
operating workers, alleging that most of them supported featherbedding
practices. The problem was considered by a Presidential Railroad
Commission whose report, issued in May 1963, failed to settle the
dispute. After a series of ad hoc, or immediate, procedures failed to
produce a settlement, Congress, in August 1963, approved a joint
resolution that called for the arbitration of the so-called
fireman-and-crew-consist issues. Six other issues were to be subject to
further negotiation. The arbitration board subsequently ruled against
the unions on the two issues, and the six other issues were settled by
presidential intervention in April 1964. The fireman-and-crew-consist
matter, however, has remained a troublesome issue. The
procedures under the Railway Labor Act have failed to provide an
adequate basis for the settlement of disputes reflecting, in part, the
concern of the unions over declining employment and of the railroads
over competition from other forms of transportation. In addition, the
deregulation of the railroad industry in the 1980s has contributed to
the problems of the industry. With declining employment, the railroad
unions—particularly the operating unions—have sought by negotiations
with the railroads to raid each other's membership. This has resulted in
severe interunion rivalry, which contributes further to instability in
railroad labor negotiations.
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