Railroad Labor Board
TheRailroad Labor Board(RLB) was an institution established in theUnited States of Americaby theTransportation Act of 1920.This nine-member panel was designed as means of settling wage disputes betweenrailway companiesand their employees. The Board's approval of wage reductions forrailroad shopmenwas instrumental in triggering theGreat Railroad Strike of 1922.The Board was terminated on May 20, 1926 whenPresidentCalvin Coolidgesigned a newRailway Labor Actinto law.
Institutional history
[edit]Background
[edit]Following major expansion of American railways after theAmerican Civil War,labor disputes increasingly became a focus of turmoil between employers and employees, first evidenced at a large, multi-state scale during theGreat Railroad Strike of 1877.[1]: 6 With the continued functioning of the railways seen as a vital public interest,Congresshad attempted to solve wage disputes through legislation as early as 1888, when an initial mechanism for voluntaryarbitrationwas created.[2]Such voluntary arbitration had lacked an enforcement mechanism, however, and labor unrest continued unabated.[1]: 6
Various attempts at stopgap legislation proved largely unfruitful, although theErdman Act of 1898did establish a more precise mechanism for mediating disputes between employers and those workers engaged in train operation.[1]: 6–7 This voluntary mediation was resisted by the railroad companies and very seldom used until 1906. In the subsequent eight years between 1906 and 1913, a total of 61 disputes were settled by mediation or arbitration.[1]: 7
Despite this seeming success, neither the railroad companies nor thevarious unions representing railway employeeswere satisfied with either the process or the decisions rendered.[1]: 7 Calls were made for a substantially-sized permanent board of arbitration, with representatives of the railroad companies rather than the unions taking the lead in calling for such a body.[1]: 8
The result this desire for permanent, professional mediation of railway wage disputes was the passage of theNewlands Labor Actin 1913.[3][1]: 8 This legislation expanded and formalized the mediation and arbitration process, establishing a three-member "Board of Mediation and Conciliation" and increasing the number of professional arbitrators to six. Although still lacking the power to enforce its decisions, the Newlands Act was successful in resolving 58 of the 71 controversies which were managed by the Board, from the time of the Act's passage through 1917.[1]: 9
Establishment
[edit]During the period of American participation inWorld War I,operation of the American railway system was brought under national control to ensure efficient operation. TheUnited States Railroad Administration(USRA) was created to manage the entire system. PresidentWoodrow Wilsonissued an order fornationalizationin 1917, and Congress affirmed the action in 1918 with theRailway Administration Act.[4]The USRA consolidated railroad operations, eliminated redundant services, standardized equipment, and raised wages for railroad workers.
Following the end of the war, Congress passed the Transportation Act of 1920 (also called theEsch-Cummins Act), which returned control to the railroad companies, gave additional regulatory powers to theInterstate Commerce Commission,and established the Railroad Labor Board.[5]
PresidentWarren HardingappointedBen W. Hooperas board chairman in 1921. Hooper was a formerRepublicanGovernor ofTennessee.
Authority and decisions of the board
[edit]The 1920 law gave the board the power to oversee the wages and working conditions of more than 2 million American railway workers.
The RLB soon destroyed whatever moral authority it might have had in a series of decisions. In 1921 railway companies obtained approval from the board for deep reductions in wage rates for workers across the industry.[6]In 1922 the RLB approved another cut in wages, this time a cut of 7 cents an hour targeted to railway repair and maintenance workers—a reduction representing a loss of an average of 12 percent for these workers.[7]: 174–5
Role in the 1922 Shopmen's Strike
[edit]Chairman Hooper found the situation faced by members of the Railroad Labor Board to be virtually untenable, likening the task of conciliating the demands of the "hardboiled railway executive" and the "radical labor leader" armed only with the "gentle, unenforceable admonitions of the Transportation Act" to pacifying a den of lions and tigers with bare hands.[8]In response to the wage cuts, as well as the pressures of theOpen Shop Movement(whereby the railway companies contracted out shop work to non-union subcontractors), seven unions representing the railroad shopmen and maintenance of way workers voted to go on strike. July 1, 1922, was the date set for the launch of a coordinated work stoppage. On that day some 400,000 railway workers walked off the job, in what became known as theGreat Railroad Strike of 1922.
On July 3, Hooper pushed through a so-called "outlaw resolution" which declared that all strikers had forfeited their arbitration rights guaranteed under the Transportation Act of 1920. Railroads were encouraged by the Railway Labor Board to hire replacement workers, who were to be regarded as permanent by the board. Bitter labor discord followed, with violence and sabotage of railway equipment. The RLB attempted to mediate an end to the dispute, bringing together union and railroad representatives on July 14 in a joint conference. The conference was unsuccessful and the board declared that its efforts to resolve the stoppage had reached an end.[7]: 176
Members of President Harding'scabinet,Secretary of CommerceHerbert HooverandSecretary of LaborJohn Davis,sought a negotiated end to the strike. Harding proposed a settlement on July 28, but this compromise was rejected by the railroad companies.United States Attorney GeneralHarry M. Daughertyobtained a court injunction against the strike on September 1, and the strike eventually died out as many shopmen made deals with the railroads on the local level.
Termination
[edit]Negotiations between the major railroad companies and the unions led to the enactment of theRailway Labor Act of 1926(RLA). President Calvin Coolidge signed the law on May 20, 1926, and the Railroad Labor Board was terminated.[9]The RLA repealed Title III of the Transportation Act of 1920 and created a Board of Mediation.[1]: 3
See also
[edit]- History of rail transport in the United States
- American Railway Union
- Railway Labor Executives' Association
Footnotes
[edit]- ^abcdefghiWolf, Harry D. (1927).The Railroad Labor Board.University of Chicago Press.
- ^United States. Arbitration Act of 1888, 25Stat.501,October 1, 1888.
- ^United States.An Act Providing for mediation, conciliation, and arbitration in controversies between certain employers and their employees(Newlands Act). July 15, 1913, ch. 6, 38Stat.103
- ^United States. Railway Administration Act of 1918,Pub. L.65–107,40Stat.451.Approved 1918-03-21.
- ^United States. Esch–Cummins Act,Pub. L.66–152,41Stat.456.Approved 1920-02-28.
- ^"Wages of a Million Railway Workers Will Be Cut July 1"(PDF).New York Times.1921-05-18. p. 1.
- ^abFoner, Philip S. (1991).History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Volume 9: The TUEL to the End of the Gompers Era.New York: International Publishers.ISBN9780717806744.
- ^Hooper, Ben W. (January 1923). "Labor, Railroads and the Public".American Bar Association Journal.9(1): 15–18.JSTOR25711112.
- ^United States. Railway Labor Act, May 20, 1926, ch. 347, 44Stat.577.45 U.S.C.§ 151et seq.
Further reading
[edit]- E.G. Buckland, "Three Years of the Transportation Act,"Yale Law Journal,vol. 32, no. 7 (May 1923), pp. 658–675.In JSTOR.
- A.B. Cummins,The Transportation Act, 1920.n.c.: n.p., October 1922.
- Colin J. Davis,Power at Odds: The 1922 National Railroad Shopmen's Strike.Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
- W.N. Doak, "Labor Policies of the Transportation Act from the Point of View of Railroad Employees,"Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York,vol. 10, no. 1 (July 1922), pp. 39–48.In JSTOR.
- Frank H. Dixon, "Functions and Policies of the Railroad Labor Board,"Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York,vol. 10, no. 1 (July 1922), pp. 19–28.In JSTOR.
- A.R. Ellingwood, "The Railway Labor Act of 1926,"Journal of Political Economy,vol. 36, no. 1 (Feb. 1928), pp. 53–82.In JSTOR.
- Rogers MacVeagh,The Transportation Act, 1920: Its Sources, History, and Text, Together with Its Amendments to the Interstate Commerce Act...New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1923.
- Edgar J. Rich, "The Transportation Act of 1920,"American Economic Review,vol. 10, no. 3 (Sept. 1920), pp. 507–527.In JSTOR.
- Henry R. Seager,"Railroad Labor and the Labor Problem,"Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York,vol. 10, no. 1 (July 1922), pp. 15–18.In JSTOR.
- T. W. van Metre, "Railroad Regulation under the Transportation Act,"Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York,vol. 10, no. 1 (July 1922), pp. 3–12.In JSTOR.
- H.D. Wolf, "Criticisms of the Railroad Labor Board and an Evaluation of Its Work,"University Journal of Business,vol. 5, no. 1 (Jan. 1927), pp. 1–34.In JSTOR.
