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The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law that governs labor relations in the railway and airline industries.. The Act, passed in 1926 and amended in 1936 to apply to the airline industry, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration and mediation for strikes as a means of resolving labor disputes. The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal Law of the United States. ...
A Boeing employee speaks at an industrial relations rally The field of labor relations looks at the relationship between management and workers, particularly groups of workers represented by a labor union. ...
A Boeing 747-400 of Virgin Atlantic Airways An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight. ...
1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Arbitration is a final and binding dispute resolution process. ...
// Mediation comprises an act of bringing two states, sides or parties in a dispute closer together toward agreement through alternative dispute resolution (ADR), a dialogue in which a (generally) neutral third party, the mediator, using appropriate techniques, assists two or more parties to help them negotiate an agreement, with concrete...
Historical antecedents to the RLA After the national railroad strike of 1877, which was only put down with the intervention of federal troops, Congress passed the Arbitration Act of 1888, which authorized the creation of arbitration panels with the power to investigate the causes of labor disputes and to issue non-binding arbitration awards. The Act was a complete failure: only one panel was ever convened under the Act, and that one, in the case of the Pullman Strike, only issued its report after the strike had been crushed by a federal court injunction backed by federal troops. This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ...
1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate Dick Cheney, R, since January 20, 2001 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R, since January 6, 1999 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of January 4, 2005 elections) Democratic Party Republican Party...
1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ...
Pullman Strike began on May 11, 1894. ...
Congress attempted to correct these shortcomings in the Erdman Act, passed in 1898. The Act likewise provided for voluntary arbitration, but made any award issued by the panel binding and enforceable in federal court. It also outlawed discrimination against employees for union activities, prohibited "yellow dog" contracts (employee agrees not to join a union while employed), and required both sides to maintain the status quo during any arbitration proceedings and for three months after an award was issued. The arbitration procedures were rarely used. A successor statute, the Newlands Act, passed in 1913 proved more effective, but was largely superseded when the federal government nationalized the railroads in 1917. 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
The word discrimination comes from the Latin discriminare, which means to distinguish between. Discrimination is more than distinction, it is action based on prejudice resulting in unfair treatment of people. ...
A Trade Union (Labour union) ... is a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment. ...
1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...
1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...
The Adamson Act, passed in 1916, provided workers with an eight hour day, at the same daily wage they had received previously for a ten hour day, and required time and a half for overtime. Another law passed in the same year gave President Wilson the power to "take possession of and assume control of any system of transportation" for transportation of troops and war materiel. The Adamson Act was a United States law passed in 1916 that established an eight-hour workday, with additional pay for overtime work, for railroad workers. ...
1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States. ...
Wilson exercised that authority on December 26, 1917. The federal administrator of the railroad system issued an order protecting railroad workers' right to organize, while establishing a number of adjustment boards to settle employment disputes. December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ...
1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...
While Congress considered nationalizing the railroads on a permanent basis after World War I, the Wilson administration announced that it was returning the railroad system to its owners. Congress tried to preserve, on the other hand, the most successful features of the federal wartime administration, the adjustment boards, by creating a Railroad Labor Board with the power to issue non-binding proposals for the resolution of labor disputes, as part of the Transportation Act of 1920. Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul...
1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ...
The RLB soon destroyed whatever moral authority its decisions might have had in a series of decisions. In 1921 it ordered a twelve percent reduction in employees' wages, which the railroads were quick to implement. The following year, when shop employees of the railroads launched a national strike, the RLB issued a declaration that purported to outlaw the strike; the Department of Justice then obtained an injunction that carried out that declaration. From that point forward railway unions refused to have anything to do with the RLB. 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...
DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. Justice Department redirects here. ...
Passage and amendment of the RLA The RLA was the product of negotiations between the major railroad companies and the unions that represented their employees. Like its predecessors, it relied on boards of adjustment, established by the parties, to resolve labor disputes, with a government-appointed Board of Mediation to attempt to resolve those disputes that board of adjustment could not. The RLA promoted voluntary arbitration as the best method for resolving those disputes that the Board of Mediation could not settle.
Congress strengthened these procedures in the 1934 amendments to the Act, which also prohibited "yellow dog" contracts and created a procedure for resolving whether a union had the support of the majority of employees in a particular "craft or class", while turning the Board of Mediation into a permanent agency, the National Mediation Board, with broader powers. 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The National Mediation Board (NMB) was established by the 1934 amendments to the Railway Labor Act of 1926. ...
Congress extended the RLA to cover airline employees in 1936. In 1951 Congress legalized the union shop, which the railway unions had opposed at the time of the original passage of the Act because of the prevalence of employer-dominated company unions at that time. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...
A union shop is a place of employment where the employer may hire either labor union members or nonmembers but where nonmembers must become union members within a specified period of time or lose their jobs. ...
A company union is a union that is located at a single company, organized by that company, and is not affiliated with another union group. ...
Bargaining and strikes under the RLA Unlike the National Labor Relations Act, which adopts a less interventionist approach to the way the parties conduct collective bargaining or resolve their disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements, the RLA specifies both (1) the negotiation and mediation procedures that unions and employers must exhaust before they may change the status quo, and (2) the methods for resolving "minor" disputes over the interpretation or application of collective bargaining agreements. The RLA permits strikes over major disputes only after the union has exhausted the RLA's negotiation and mediation procedures, while barring almost all strikes over minor disputes. The RLA also authorizes the courts to enjoin strikes if the union has not exhausted those procedures. The National Labor Relations Act (or Wagner Act) is a 1935 United States federal law that protects the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of...
On the other hand, the RLA imposes fewer restrictions on the tactics that unions may use when they do have the right to strike. The RLA does not, unlike the NLRA, bar secondary boycotts against other RLA-regulated carriers; it may also permit employees to engage in other types of strikes, such as intermittent strikes, that might be unprotected under the NLRA. Secondary boycotts are a trade maneuver in which a party or alliance of parties refuse to deal with specific parties trading with a third party. ...
"Major" and "Minor" Disputes The RLA categorizes all labor disputes as either "major" disputes, which concern the making or modification of the collective bargaining agreement between the parties, or "minor" disputes, which involve the interpretation or application of collective bargaining agreements. Unions can strike over major disputes only after they have exhausted the RLA's "almost interminable" negotiation and mediation procedures. They cannot, on the other hand, strike over minor disputes, either during the arbitration procedures or after an award is issued.
The federal courts have the power to enjoin a strike over a major dispute if the union has not exhausted the RLA's negotiation and mediation procedures. The Norris-LaGuardia Act dictates the procedures that the court must follow. Once the NMB releases the parties from mediation, however, they retain the power to engage in strikes or lockouts, even if they subsequently resume negotiations or the NMB offers mediation again. An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that either prohibits or compels (restrains or enjoins) a party from continuing a particular activity. ...
The Norris-LaGuardia Act (Sen. ...
The federal courts likewise have the power to enjoin a union from striking over arbitrable disputes. The court may, on the other hand, also require the employer to restore the status quo as a condition of any injunctive relief against a strike.
Discipline and replacement of strikers Carriers can lawfully replace strikers engaged in a lawful strike, but may not, however, discharge them, except for misconduct, or eliminate their jobs to retaliate against them for striking. It is not clear whether the employer can discharge workers for striking before exhausting all of the RLA's bargaining and mediation processes.
The employer must also allow strikers to replace replacements hired on a temporary basis and permanent replacements who have not completed the training required before they can become active employees. The employer may, on the other hand, allow less senior employees who crossed the picket line to keep the jobs they were given after crossing the line, even if the seniority rules in effect before the strike would have required the employer to reassign their jobs to returning strikers.
Representation elections under the RLA The NMB has the responsibility for conducting elections when a union claims to represent a carrier's employees. The NMB defines the craft or class of employees eligible to vote, which almost always extends to all of the employees performing a particular job function throughout the company's operations, rather than just those at a particular site or in a particular region.
A union seeking to represent an unorganized group of employees must produce authorization cards or other proof of support from at least thirty-five percent of the craft or class. A party attempting to oust an incumbent union must produce evidence of support from a majority of the craft of class. The NMB must conduct an election; while an employer can lawfully recognize a union based on a showing of interest, the NMB cannot certify it.
The NMB usually uses mail ballots to conduct elections, unlike the National Labor Relations Board, which has historically preferred walk-in elections under the NLRA. Also in contrast to the NLRA, under the RLA a union must receive a majority of votes from the entire craft or class, rather than merely a majority of those who choose to vote. The NMB can order a rerun election if it determines that either an employer or union has interfered with employees' free choice. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the United States Government charged with conducting elections for union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. ...
Protecting employees' rights Unlike the NLRA, which gives the NLRB nearly exclusive power to enforce the Act, the RLA allows employees to sue in federal court to challenge an employer's violation of the Act. The courts can grant employees reinstatement and backpay, along with other forms of equitable relief.
External links
Further reading - Leslie, Douglas (editor), The Railway Labor Act, Washington, D.C., BNA Books 1995 ISBN 0-87179-815-8.
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