Illinois Central Railroad v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

299 F. Supp. 1278, 71 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2035, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9327
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 24, 1969
DocketNo. 68 C 1382
StatusPublished

This text of 299 F. Supp. 1278 (Illinois Central Railroad v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Illinois Central Railroad v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 299 F. Supp. 1278, 71 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2035, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9327 (N.D. Ill. 1969).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

PERRY, District Judge.

This cause comes on to be heard upon complaint and answer and after a petition for a preliminary injunction was denied to the plaintiff. The Court took testimony both before the denial of a preliminary injunction and afterward and has now considered all of the evidence presented, the pleadings, briefs and arguments of counsel. The Court hereinafter sets forth its opinion concerning the interpretation of the status quo provisions of the Railway Labor Act (45 USC § 151 and following) as applicable to the facts in this cause.

Immediately after filing its complaint for injunction on July 24, 1968, the plaintiff, Illinois Central Railroad Company, sought an order to prevent a strike scheduled by the defendant Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers as the collec[1280]*1280tive bargaining representative under the Railway Labor Act of the craft or class of locomotive engineers in the employ of the Illinois Central.

It appeared that in April, 1968, the Illinois Central stated to the Brotherhood that it was considering inauguration of a so-called Strike Program intended to train its administrative or supervisory personnel as locomotive engineers so as to be able to maintain partial operation of the railroad in the event of a strike by its trainmen employees represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. The Brotherhood replied that if the contemplated Strike Program affected the duties and responsibilities of locomotive engineers in the operation of locomotives in their charge the Brotherhood would object and would take such action as it deemed appropriate.

In late April or early May, 1968, the Brotherhood learned that the Illinois Central had inaugurated its Strike Program. As part of this plan the Illinois Central’s Traveling Engineers or other management personnel would state to the locomotive engineer in charge of a locomotive that he should turn over the throttle of the locomotive to such management personnel, that the locomotive engineer was relieved from responsibility for the locomotive, that the locomotive engineer should place himself elsewhere in the locomotive or, in some instances, in a following diesel locomotive unit, but that if the locomotive engineer left the engine and returned to his home he would be discharged. Locomotive engineers who were thus requested or required to relinquish the controls of their locomotives were paid as though they had performed their duties and responsibilities as locomotive engineers. Prior to this time the Illinois Central did not request or require its locomotive engineers to relinquish the controls of the locomotive in their charge to the Traveling Engineer or other management personnel for the purpose of such training.

The Brotherhood protested against this action of the Illinois Central, but the Illinois Central continued the Strike Program. On June 8, 1968, the Brotherhood served on the Illinois Central a notice under Section 6 of the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. § 156) stating the wish of the engineers “to revise and supplement existing agreements in accordance with proposal attached hereto.” The attached proposal was intended to put an end to the engineers’ required or requested participation in the Strike Program.

Conferences were held on June 28, 1968, between the Illinois Central and the Brotherhood on the Section 6 notice, as required by the Railway Labor Act. No agreement was reached and negotiations were terminated, not later than July 5, 1968. .Neither the Illinois Central nor the Brotherhood requested the assistance of the National Mediation Board.

The Brotherhood scheduled a strike for July 23, 1968, on account of the dispute arising from the Section 6 notice of June 3, 1968. The National Mediation Board at once found that a labor emergency existed, proffered its services pursuant to Section 5 of the Railway Labor Act, requested the parties to maintain the status quo while the dispute was investigated, docketed the case as NMB Case E-342, and requested the Brotherhood to defer strike action pending the Board’s efforts to resolve the dispute. A mediator, who was already on the property, was assigned by the Board to handle the case. The parties accepted without condition the offer of mediation. No settlement has been effected, but the Mediation Board has not notified the parties that its efforts have failed.

The Illinois Central and the Brotherhood agreed that for two days, July 23, and July 24, 1968, the Illinois Central would suspend the training of personnel under the Strike Program and the Brotherhood would postpone the strike. Further the parties stated to the Court that during the period of the hearings the training under the Strike Program would be suspended and the strike would be postponed.

[1281]*1281The Court conducted hearings on the Illinois Central's motion for a temporary-restraining order and preliminary injunction over a period of several days. On August 2, 1968, the Court entered its Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order disposing of motion for preliminary injunction (See 288 F.Supp. 504). The Court concluded that the Illinois Central and the Brotherhood are both bound by the status quo provisions of Section 5 of the Railway Labor Act; that until such time as the National Mediation Board has notified both parties in writing that its mediatory efforts have failed and until the other and further applicable periods of time provided in the Railway Labor Act have expired, no change may be made by either party in the rates of pay, rules, or working conditions or established practices in effect prior to the time the dispute arose; that, as applicable to the Illinois Central, it was not permitted to request or require its locomotive engineers to relinquish the controls of the locomotives in their charge to the Traveling Engineers or other management personnel for the purpose of training administrative or supervisory personnel to operate the locomotives; and that, as applicable to the Brotherhood, the employees might not strike on account of the labor dispute arising from the Section 6 notice. The Illinois Central’s motion for a preliminary injunction was denied, and the Court noted that it would enter further orders as appropriate.

In subsequent pleadings the Illinois Central urged that the Brotherhood’s Section 6 notice of June 3, 1968, raised a jurisdiction or representation dispute involving the training of locomotive enginemen apprentices, as to which the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen were then contending (See Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. National Mediation Board, 284 F.Supp. 344 (United States District Court, District of Columbia, April 26, 1966; reversed in Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen v. National Mediation Board, and National Mediation Board v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 410 F.2d 1025 (United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, March 14, 1969). The Illinois Central suggested that the present case is one for the National Mediation Board.

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299 F. Supp. 1278, 71 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2035, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/illinois-central-railroad-v-brotherhood-of-locomotive-engineers-ilnd-1969.