Business: The Week the Trains Stopped

How a little local dispute led to a ruckus on the rails in 42 states

Moving with the force of a runaway freight, a strike by railroad clerks swept the country last week and, before it ended, seriously snarled most of the nation's train traffic and threatened to derail much of the economy. If nothing else, the four-day ruckus showed just how dependent the U.S. still is on its rail system—and how quickly it can be disrupted by a single union.

The walkout by the 235,000-member Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (B.R.A.C.) stemmed from a dispute by just one local against just one line, the Virginia-based Norfolk & Western Railway, which has been struck by the clerks for more than two months. But other B.R.A.C. locals, raising picket signs in sympathy, tied up operations at 74 lines in 42 states, idling up to 350,000 of the nation's half a million rail workers, stranding thousands of commuters and millions of tons of freight. President Carter stepped in after three days of chaos. Acting under the emergency provisions of the Railway Labor Act, he called for mandatory mediation of the dispute, which requires the clerks to return to work for a 60-day cooling-off period.

Snags immediately developed. B.R.A.C. Chief Fred Kroll refused to heed Carter's order until he got a court-backed guarantee that no reprisals would be taken against union members by the railroads. Then a U.S. district court in Washington postponed a decision on a rail industry call for a no-strike injunction against the union; the court questioned whether the Railway Act empowers the White House to halt a strike already in progress.

The atmosphere for an amicable settlement was further soured when N & W raised the possibility of sabotage in the derailment of 55 of its coal cars in Bluefield, W. Va.

Finally, acting on a request from the Justice Department, the court at week's end issued an order restraining the union from striking for ten days and barring the roads from taking retaliatory action against any participants in the walkout. At the end of ten days both sides will again appear before the court to discuss a preliminary injunction that would forbid the union from striking for the remainder of the 60-day cooling-off time. Citing "a victory against tremendous odds," Kroll jubilantly called off the B.R.A.C. pickets; trains across the country began to move again; and the strike was over almost as quickly as it began—at least for the next two months.

Following the provisions of the Railway Act, which was designed to prevent sudden, paralyzing rail shutdowns, the President appointed a fact-finding panel of three arbitrators to recommend terms of a settlement within 30 days. After that the Government will seek to prod both sides into an accord. If at the end of 60 days no agreement is reached, the union would be free to resume its strike. Under such circumstances, past Presidents have sought emergency legislation to avert another walkout. In 1971, for example, Congress imposed a settlement after a strike by railroad signalmen.