Labor: Walking the Rails

The largest U.S. railway walkout since 1946 (when Harry Truman threatened to draft strikers) last week tied up passenger and freight trains in 38 states.

The strike, called by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen against eight major railroads, immediately stranded 32,000 commuters in Chicago, another 12,000 in Boston. Mail service was disrupted and transport problems forced manufacturers to cut back production. More than 200,000 workers found themselves on short schedules or off the job altogether.

Ostensibly, the brotherhood was demanding an apprenticeship program to train firemen for engineer positions. It was clear, however, that Brotherhood President H. E. (Ed) Gilbert was angling to recoup the power lost by his union in 1963 when Congress, to break a negotiations impasse over featherbedding, enacted the first peacetime compulsory-arbitration law. The arbitration board subsequently approved the elimination from yard and freight crews of nine out of every ten firemen jobs. At least 18,000 jobs have since vanished. Reacting promptly to the walkout, Federal District Judge Alexander Holtzoff held that the union had failed to properly mediate its demands and ordered the strikers back to work. Instead of complying, Gilbert said that he would call off the pickets only if management promised to bring neither damage nor contempt suits. Holtzoff held the brotherhood in contempt of court, as a starter fined it $25,000 a day for the duration of the strike. This week, a court of appeals upheld Holtzoff's decision—and the union ordered its men back to work.