Citation

McCabe DM. Transp. Res. Rec. 1979; 721: 60-65.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Most industries adjust work-force size to technological and economic changes, but the number of brakemen on railroad crews is inflexibly fixed by labor agreements. This paper traces the controversial and still unresolved crew-size dispute from its origins in 1959 through 1978. The dispute was heated between 1959 and 1970 and was punctuated by strikes. The government intervened with a Presidential Railroad Commission, the National Mediation Board, Arbitration Board 282, and Emergency Boards 154 and 172. The federal courts were also involved. The brakemen succeeded in upholding their position and in securing a general rule of two brakemen per crew over management protests that technological changes had made one brakeman sufficient. The research involved in this study was divided into library research and field research. The former consisted of a comprehensive examination of the available literature. The latter consisted of (a) an examination of relevant documentation, including correspondence, and other primary sources of written information in the files of pertinent railroads and their General Committees of Adjustment and (b) interviews with railroad and union officials and with operating and nonoperating employees, as well as informed neutral parties (e.g., mediators and arbitrators). Policy recommendations for labor, management, and the government are also made.