Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen

185 F. Supp. 369, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2776, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3921
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedJuly 27, 1960
DocketCiv. No. 6796
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 185 F. Supp. 369 (Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 185 F. Supp. 369, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2776, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3921 (D. Colo. 1960).

Opinion

CHILSON, District Judge.

The essential facts are not controverted.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, in accordance with the Railway Labor Act (44 Stat. 577, 45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.), submitted to the National Adjustment Board certain claims of some of its members for additional pay, growing out of the interpretation or the application of pre-existing contracts of employment entered into between the Brotherhood and The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company.

In December, 1959 and January, 1960, the National Adjustment Board made money awards in favor of the employees, and entered orders for the railroad to pay the first award on or before January 17, 1960 and the second award on or before February 20, 1960.

The railroad refused to make payment.

On May 16, 1960, the employees went on strike to enforce payment of the awards. The railroad brought this action to enjoin the strike. A preliminary injunction was entered and the issue now before the Court is whether or not a permanent injunction should issue.

The Railway Labor Act [45 U.S.C.A. § 153 First (p)] provides in essence that if a carrier does not comply with an order of the Adjustment Board of the kind here involved, the employees may file an action in the District Court of the United States to enforce the award.

The railroad contends that such a court action is the sole means by which an award of the Board may be enforced.

The Brotherhood makes two contentions, first, that the employees’ rights of enforcement are not limited solely to a court action, but that they have the alternative right to enforce the award by strike. Secondly, the Brotherhood contends that the Norris-LaGuardia Act (29 U.S.C.A. §§ 101-115) prohibits this Court from granting injunctive relief to prevent a strike to enforce the awards.

Although the United States Supreme Court has not had occasion to pass upon the first question here involved, namely: whether or not the employees’ sole means of enforcement of such an award is by resort to the court, the United States Supreme Court has on more than one occasion reviewed the purpose and Congressional intent of the Railway Labor Act and the 1934 amendments thereto. [See Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Co. v. Burley, 1945, 325 U.S. 711, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 89 L.Ed. 1886; Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen et al. v. Chicago River and Indiana Railroad Co. et al., 1957, 353 U.S. 30, 77 S.Ct. 635, 1 L.Ed.2d 622; Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Price, 1959, 360 U.S. 601, 79 S.Ct. 1351, 3 L.Ed. 2d 1460.

[371]*371From the Court’s construction of the Railway Labor Act in the foregoing cases, it is clear that the Act recognizes two classes of controversy which are traditionally referred to as the “major” and “minor” disputes of the railway labor world.

“Major” disputes relate to the disputes over the formation of collective agreements or efforts to secure them. They arise where there is no such agreement, or where it is sought to change the terms of one. They look to acquisition of rights for the future, not to assertion of rights claimed to have vested in the past.

“Minor” disputes contemplate the existence of a collective agreement already concluded, and the dispute relates either to the meaning or proper application of a particular provision with reference to a specific situation. In other words, a minor dispute relates to rights accrued and not merely to have new ones created for the future.

The Railway Labor Act as amended in 1934 marks out two distinct routes for settlement of the two classes of disputes.

Major disputes, if not settled by negotiation, go first to mediation under the National Mediation Board; if that fails, then to acceptance or rejection of arbitration, and finally, to possible presidential intervention. But as to major disputes, compulsion goes only to insure that these procedures are exhausted before resort can be had to self-help such as strikes. No authority is empowered to decide the dispute, and no such power is intended unless the parties themselves agree to arbitration.

The course prescribed for the settlement of minor disputes is very different beyond the initial stages of negotiation. Thereafter the Act does not leave the parties wholly free at their own will to agree or not to agree. On the contrary, one of the main purposes of the 1934 amendments to the Railway Labor Act was to provide a more effective process of settlement.

An Adjustment Board was created to remove the settlement of minor disputes from a deadlock resulting from non-agreement of the parties, and to bring them within a general and inclusive plan of decision. The aim was not to dispense with agreement. It was to aid decision where agreement fails, and thus to safeguard the public as well as private interests against the harmful effects of a deadlock.

In this case we have a minor dispute.

The Railway Labor Act provides as to minor disputes that if the negotiations provided for in the Act do not result in an agreement, the dispute may be referred by either party to the National Adjustment Board [45 U.S.C.A. § 153 First (i)].

In accordance with this provision, the employees, through the Brotherhood, did submit the dispute to the Board. The Board made its award consisting of a money award to be paid by the railroad to the employees.

45 U.S.C.A. § 153 First (m) states that the awards of the Board shall be final and binding upon both parties to the dispute, except insofar as they shall contain a money award.

45 U.S.C.A. § 153 First (o) authorizes the Board to make an order directed to the railroad to make the award effective, and if the award includes a requirement for payment of money, the order will require payment to the employee on or before a day named.

Such an order was made in this case.

Title 45 U.S.C.A. § 153 First (p) recognizes the possibility that the railroad might not comply with the Adjustment Board’s order, and provides in effect that if the carrier does not comply with the order of the Board within the time prescribed, the employees may bring an action in the United States District Court for enforcement of the award.

This is the only step provided by the Railway Labor Act which has not been taken by the employees in this particular dispute, and the employees contend that they are not limited to this pre[372]*372scribed procedure to enforce the award, but may employ other means to do so.

As previously noted, the Supreme Court has not decided this precise question, but the Court, in its consideration of the Railway Labor Act, has pointed the way to the answer to the question here involved.

In Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Co. v. Burley, supra, it was contended that the award of the Adjustment Board amounts to nothing more than an advisory opinion, and, therefore, the parties were entirely free to ignore the Board’s decision and seek other means to determine their dispute. The Court said [325 U.S. 711, 65 S.Ct. 1288]:

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185 F. Supp. 369, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2776, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3921, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denver-rio-grande-western-railroad-v-brotherhood-of-railroad-trainmen-cod-1960.