Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/300/515/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 03:08:52+00:00

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1. Concurrent findings of fact by district court and circuit court of appeals are conclusive when not plainly erroneous.
(1) That the duty to "treat" with the representative so certified is mandatory. P. 300 U. S. 547.
(2) The statute does not undertake to compel agreement, and does not preclude the employer from entering into individual contracts directly with individual employees, but it requires the employer to "treat with" the authorized representative of the employees, that is, to meet and confer with their representative, to listen to their complaints, and to make reasonable effort to compose differences. P. 300 U. S. 548.
(3) The duty is to treat with the authorized representative exclusively. P. 300 U. S. 548.
(4) The duty is enforceable by injunction. P. 300 U. S. 549.
3. A court of equity may refuse to act when it cannot give effective relief; but whether a decree should be refused as useless is a matter of judgment addressed to the special circumstances of each case. P. 300 U. S. 550.
4. In determining whether the duty of a carrier to treat with the authorized representative of its employees is enforceable by mandatory injunction, weight is attached to the judgment of Congress that conference between carriers and employees is a powerful aid to industrial peace; and it will not be assumed that such negotiation will not result in agreement or lead to successful mediation or arbitration. P. 300 U. S. 551.
5. The peaceable settlement of labor controversies that may seriously impair the ability of an interstate carrier to perform its service to the public is a matter of public concern. P. 300 U. S. 552.
6. Courts of equity go much farther in furtherance of the public interest than when only private interests are involved. P. 300 U. S. 552.
7. The fact that, by the Railway Labor Act, Congress has indicated its purpose to make negotiation between carrier and employees obligatory in case of industrial controversy is, in itself, a declaration of public interest and policy. P. 300 U. S. 552.
8. The power of Congress over interstate commerce extends to such regulations of the relations of rail carriers to their employees as are reasonably calculated to prevent the interruption of interstate commerce by strikes and their attendant disorders. P. 300 U. S. 553.
9. It was for Congress to choose the means by which its objective of securing the uninterrupted service of interstate railroads was to be secured, and its judgment, expressed in the Railway Labor Act and confirmed by the history of industrial disputes and of railroad labor relations, is not open to review here. P. 300 U. S. 553.
10. The activities of "back shop" employees engaged on heavy repairs on locomotives and cars withdrawn from service for long periods are held to bear such relation to the interstate activities of the carrier as to be regarded as part of them -- (Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U. S. 463 distinguished) -- all subject to the power of Congress over interstate commerce. P. 300 U. S. 554.
11. Although the carrier in this case might have turned over its back shop repair work to independent contractors, its determination to make its own repairs, and the nature of the work done, brought its relations with the back shop employees within the purview of the Railway Labor Act. P. 300 U. S. 557.
12. The provisions of the Railway Labor Act prohibiting company unions and imposing on the railway the duty of "treating with"
the authorized representative of its employees for the purpose of negotiating a labor dispute do not infringe the rights of the carrier under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. P. 300 U. S. 557.
13. In this regard, the Railway could complain only of infringement of its own constitutional immunity, not that of the employees. P. 300 U. S. 558.
14. Under § 2, Fourth, of the Railway Labor Act, at an election participated in by a majority of the employees entitled to vote, the vote of a majority of the participants determines the choice of representative. P. 300 U. S. 559.
15. A certificate of the National Mediation Board, certifying, in conformity with the Railway Labor Act, that, as the result of an election, a specified union has been designated to represent a craft of employees, and showing on its face the total number of votes case in favor of each candidate, is not void because it fails to state the total number of eligible voters in the craft, but is prima facie sufficient, and the omitted fact is open to inquiry by the court asked to enforce the command of the statute, § 2, Ninth. P. 300 U. S. 561.
"every restraining order or injunction granted in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute shall include only a prohibition of such specific act or acts as may be expressly complained of in the bill of complaint or petition filed in such case and as shall be expressly included in . . . findings of fact made and filed by the court"
is not inconsistent with the mandatory injunction in this case. P. 300 U. S. 562.
17. Specific provisions of a later Act cannot be rendered nugatory by more general provisions of an earlier Act. P. 300 U. S. 563.
84 F.2d 641 affirmed. D.C., 11 F.Supp. 621.
Certiorari, 299 U.S. 529, to review the affirmance of a decree rendered by the District Court against the Railway Company in a suit by the Federation. The decree commanded the Company to treat with the Federation as the duly accredited representative of the Company's shop craft employees in respect of pay, working conditions, etc., and restrained the Company from interfering with, influencing, or coercing such employees in their free choice of their representatives, etc.
This case presents questions as to the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Railway Labor Act of May 20, 1926, c. 347, 44 Stat. 577, as amended by the Act of June 21, 1934, c. 691, 48 Stat. 1185, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-163, and as to the nature and extent of the relief which courts are authorized by the act to give.
Respondents are System Federation No. 40, which will be referred to as the Federation, a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and representing shop craft employees of petitioner railway, and certain individuals who are officers and members of the System Federation. They brought the present suit in equity in the District Court for Eastern Virginia, to compel petitioner, an interstate rail carrier, to recognize and treat with respondent Federation as the duly accredited representative of the mechanical department employees of petitioner, and to restrain petitioner from in any way interfering with, influencing, or coercing its shop craft employees in their free choice of representatives, for the purpose of contracting with petitioner with respect to rules, rates of pay, and working conditions, and for the purpose of considering and settling disputes between petitioner and such employees.
The history of this controversy goes back to 1922, when, following the failure of a strike by petitioner's shop employees affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, other employees organized a local union known as the "Mechanical Department Association of the Virginian Railway." The Association thereupon entered into an agreement with petitioner providing for rates of pay and working conditions, and for the settlement of disputes with respect to them, but no substantial grievances were ever presented to petitioner by the Association. It maintained its organization and held biennial elections of officers, but the notices of election were sent out by petitioner and all Association expenses were paid by petitioner.
In 1927, the American Federation of Labor formed a local organization which, in 1934, demanded recognition by petitioner of its authority to represent the shop craft employees, and invoked the aid of the National Mediation Board, constituted under the Railway Labor Act, as amended, to establish its authority. The Board, pursuant to agreement between the petitioner, the Federation, and the Association, and in conformity to the statute, held an election by petitioner's shop craft employees to choose representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining with petitioner. As the result of the election, the Board certified that the Federation was the duly accredited representative of petitioner's employees in the six shop crafts.
"exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, rules and working conditions, and to settle all disputes, whether arising out of the application of such agreements or otherwise. . . ."
"relating to rules, rates of pay and working conditions or for the purpose of considering and deciding disputes between the Mechanical Department employees"
and petitioner. The decree further restrained the petitioner from organizing or fostering any union of its mechanical department employees for the purpose of interfering with the Federation as the accredited representative of such employees. 11 F.Supp. 621.
On appeal, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit approved and adopted the findings of the District Court and affirmed its decree. 84 F.2d 641. This Court granted certiorari to review the cause as one of public importance. 299 U.S. 529.
our decision, will be referred to later in the course of this opinion.
The concurrent findings of fact of the two courts below are not shown to be plainly erroneous or unsupported by evidence. We accordingly accept them as the conclusive basis for decision, Texas & N.O. R. Co. v. Brotherhood of Railway & S.S. Clerks, 281 U. S. 548, 281 U. S. 558; Pick Mfg. Co. v. General Motors Corp., 299 U. S. 3, 299 U. S. 4, and address ourselves to the questions of law raised on the record.
"to encourage settlement without strikes, first by conference between the parties, failing that, by reference to adjustment boards of the parties' own choosing and, if this is ineffective, by a full hearing before a national board."
Pennsylvania Federation v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 267 U. S. 203, 267 U. S. 216.
to arbitration before an impartial board, but it supported that policy by the imposition of legal obligations. It provided means for enforcing the award obtained by arbitration between the parties to labor disputes. Section 9. In certain circumstances, it prohibited any change in conditions, by the parties to an unadjusted labor dispute, for a period of thirty days, except by agreement. Section 10. It recognized their right to designate representatives for the purposes of the act "without interference, influence, or coercion exercised by either party over the self-organization or designation of representatives by the other." Section 2, Third. 44 Stat. 577. Under the last-mentioned provision, this Court held, in the Railway Clerks Case, supra, that employees were free to organize and to make choice of their representatives without the "coercive interference" and "pressure" of a company union organized and maintained by the employer, and that the statute protected the freedom of choice of representatives, which was an essential of the statutory scheme, with a legal sanction which it was the duty of courts to enforce by appropriate decree.
decree which enjoins any interference by it with the free choice of representatives by its employees, and the fostering, in the circumstances of this case, of the company union. That contention is not open to it in view of our decision in the Railway Clerks Case, supra, and of the unambiguous language of § 2, Third, and Fourth, of the act, as amended.
"and exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, and working conditions, and to settle all disputes whether arising out of the application of such agreements or otherwise."
"upon receipt of such certification, the carrier shall treat with the representative so certified as the representative of the craft or class for the purposes of this Act. "
and certification by the Mediation Board, and commanded the carrier to treat with the representative so certified. That the command was limited in its application to the case of intervention and certification by the Mediation Board indicates not that its words are precatory, but only that Congress hit at the evil "where experience shows it to be most felt." Keokee Consol. Coke Co. v. Taylor, 234 U. S. 224, 234 U. S. 227.
it was before amendment, and which alone would tend to effect the purpose of the legislation. The statute does not undertake to compel agreement between the employer and employees, but it does command those preliminary steps without which no agreement can be reached. It at least requires the employer to meet and confer with the authorized representative of its employees, to listen to their complaints, to make reasonable effort to compose differences -- in short, to enter into a negotiation for the settlement of labor disputes such as is contemplated by § 2, First.
the injunction against petitioner's entering into any contract concerning rules, rates of pay, and working conditions, except with respondent, is designed only to prevent collective bargaining with any one purporting to represent employees, other than respondent, who has been ascertained to be their true representative. When read in its context, it must be taken to prohibit the negotiation of labor contracts, generally applicable to employees in the mechanical department, with any representative other than respondent, but not as precluding such individual contracts as petitioner may elect to make directly with individual employees. The decree, thus construed, conforms, in both its affirmative and negative aspects, to the requirements of § 2.
compel them to take the preliminary steps which may result in agreement.
There is no want of capacity in the court to direct complete performance of the entire obligation; both the negative duties not to maintain a company union and not to negotiate with any representative of the employees other than respondent and the affirmative duty to treat with respondent. Full performance of both is commanded by the decree in terms which leave in no uncertainty the requisites of performance. In compelling compliance with either duty, it does far less than has been done in compelling the discharge of a contractual or statutory obligation calling for a construction or engineering enterprise, New Orleans, M. & T. Ry. Co. v. Mississippi, 112 U. S. 12; Wheeling Traction Co. v. Board of Commissioners, 248 F. 205; see Gas Securities Co. v. Antero & Lost Park Reservoir Co., 259 F. 423, 433; Board of Commissioners v. A. V. Wills & Sons, 236 F. 362, 380; Jones v. Parker, 163 Mass. 564, 40 N.E. 1044, or in granting specific performance of a contract for the joint use of a railroad bridge and terminals, Joy v. St. Louis, 138 U. S. 1; Union Pacific Ry. Co. v. Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry. Co., 163 U. S. 564; cf. Prospect Park & Coney Island R. Co. v. Coney Island & Brooklyn R. Co., 144 N.Y. 152, 39 N.E. 17, 26 L.R.A. 610. Whether an obligation has been discharged, and whether action taken or omitted is in good faith or reasonable, are everyday subjects of inquiry by courts in framing and enforcing their decrees.
It is true that a court of equity may refuse to give any relief when it is apparent that that which it can give will not be effective or of benefit to the plaintiff. Equity will not decree the execution of a partnership agreement, since it cannot compel the parties to remain partners, see Hyer v. Richmond Traction Co., 168 U. S. 471, 168 U. S. 482, or compel one to enter into performance of a contract of personal service which it cannot adequately control, Rutland Marble Co.
v. Ripley, 10 Wall. 339, 77 U. S. 358; Karrick v. Hannaman, 168 U. S. 328, 168 U. S. 336; Tobey v. Bristol, Fed.Cas. No. 14,065; Weeks v. Pratt, 43 F.2d 53, 57; Railway Labor Act, § 2, Tenth. But the extent to which equity will go to give relief where there is no adequate remedy at law is not a matter of fixed rule. It rests, rather, in the sound discretion of the court. Willard v. Tayloe, 8 Wall. 557, 75 U. S. 565; Joy v. St. Louis, supra, 138 U. S. 47; Morrison v. Work, 266 U. S. 481, 266 U. S. 490; Curran v. Holyoke Water Power Co., 116 Mass. 90, 92. Whether the decree will prove so useless as to lead a court to refuse to give it is a matter of judgment to be exercised with reference to the special circumstances of each case, rather than to general rules, which, at most, are but guides to the exercise of discretion. It is a familiar rule that a court may exercise its equity powers, or equivalent mandamus powers, United States ex rel. Greathouse v. Dern, 289 U. S. 352, 289 U. S. 359, to compel courts, boards, or officers to act in a matter with respect to which they may have jurisdiction or authority, although the court will not assume to control or guide the exercise of their authority, Interstate Commerce Comm'n v. Humboldt S.S. Co., 224 U. S. 474; Louisville Cement Co. v. Interstate Commerce Comm'n, 246 U. S. 638; see Work v. United States ex rel. Rives, 267 U. S. 175, 267 U. S. 184; Wilbur v. United States ex rel. Kadrie, 281 U. S. 206, 281 U. S. 218.
Mediation Board, § 5, First, or the parties may agree to seek the benefits of the arbitration provision of § 7. With the coercive influence of the company union ended, and in view of the interest of both parties in avoiding a strike, we cannot assume that negotiation, as required by the decree, will not result in agreement, or lead to successful mediation or arbitration, or that the attempt to secure one or another through the relief which the district court gave is not worth the effort.
Line v. Atlantic Fruit Co., 264 U. S. 109, 264 U. S. 119, 264 U. S. 121; Marine Transit Corp. v. Dreyfus, 284 U. S. 263, 284 U. S. 278.
The decree is authorized by the statute and was granted in an appropriate exercise of the equity powers of the court.
to the end sought, and hence are within the congressional power. See Railway Clerks case, supra, 281 U. S. 570; Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton R. Co., 295 U. S. 330, 295 U. S. 369.
upon the equipment used by petitioner in its transportation service, 97 percent of which is interstate. At times, a continuous stream of engines and cars passes through the "back shops" for such repairs. When not engaged in repair work, the back shop employees perform "store order work," the manufacture of material such as rivets and repair parts, to be placed in railroad stores for use at the Princeton shop and other points on the line.
The activities in which these employees are engaged have such a relation to the other confessedly interstate activities of the petitioner that they are to be regarded as a part of them. All, taken together, fall within the power of Congress over interstate commerce. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Comm'n, 221 U. S. 612, 221 U. S. 619; cf. Pedersen v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. Co., 229 U. S. 146, 229 U. S. 151. Both courts below have found that interruption by strikes of the back shop employees, if more than temporary, would seriously cripple petitioner's interstate transportation. The relation of the back shop to transportation is such that a strike of petitioner's employees there, quite apart from the likelihood of its spreading to the operating department, would subject petitioner to the danger, substantial, though possibly indefinable in its extent, of interruption of the transportation service. The cause is not remote from the effect. The relation between than is not tenuous. The effect on commerce cannot be regarded as negligible. See United States v. Railway Employees' Department of American Federation of Labor, 290 F. 978, 981, holding participation of back shop employees in the nationwide railroad shopmen's strike of 1922 to constitute an interference with interstate commerce. As the regulation here in question is shown to be an appropriate means of avoiding that danger, it is within the power of Congress.
It is no answer, as petitioner suggests, that it could close its back shops and turn over the repair work to independent contractors. Whether the railroad should do its repair work in its own shops or in those of another is a question of railroad management. It is petitioner's determination to make its own repairs which has brought its relations with shop employees within the purview of the Railway Labor Act. It is the nature of the work done and its relation to interstate transportation which afford adequate basis for the exercise of the regulatory power of Congress.
The Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U. S. 463, 207 U. S. 498, which mentioned railroad repair shops as a subject beyond the power to regulate commerce, are not controlling here. Whatever else may be said of that pronouncement, it is obvious that the commerce power is as much dependent upon the type of regulation as its subject matter. It is enough for present purposes that experience has shown that the failure to settle, by peaceful means, the grievances of railroad employees with respect to rates of pay, rules or working conditions, is far more likely to hinder interstate commerce than the failure to compensate workers who have suffered injury in the course of their employment.
(B) Validity of § 2 of the Railway Labor Act Under the Fifth Amendment. The provisions of the Railway Labor Act applied in this case, as construed by the court below, and as we construe them, do not require petitioner to enter into any agreement with its employees, and they do not prohibit its entering into such contract of employment as it chooses, with its individual employees. They prohibit only such use of the company union as, despite the objections repeated here, was enjoined in the Railway Clerks case, supra, and they impose on petitioner only the affirmative duty of "treating with" the authorized representatives of its employees for the purpose of negotiating a labor dispute.
Even though Congress, in the choice of means to effect a permissible regulation of commerce, must conform to due process, Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton R. Co., supra, 295 U. S. 347; Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry. Co. v. United States, 284 U. S. 80, 284 U. S. 97; see Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford, 295 U. S. 555, 295 U. S. 589, it is evident that where, as here, the means chosen are appropriate to the permissible end, there is little scope for the operation of the due process clause. The railroad can complain only of the infringement of its own constitutional immunity, not that of its employees. Erie R. Co. v. Williams, 233 U. S. 685, 233 U. S. 697; Jeffrey Mfg. Co. v. Blagg, 235 U. S. 571, 235 U. S. 576; Rail & River Coal Co. v. Yaple, 236 U. S. 338, 236 U. S. 349; cf. Hawkins v. Bleakly, 243 U. S. 210, 243 U. S. 214. And the Fifth Amendment, like the Fourteenth, see West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, decided this day, ante, is not a guarantee of untrammeled freedom of action and of contract. In the exercise of its power to regulate commerce, Congress can subject both to restraints not shown to be unreasonable. Such are the restraints of the Safety Appliance Act, Johnson v. Southern Pac. Co., 196 U. S. 1; of the act imposing a wage scale on rail carriers; Wilson v. New, supra; of the Railroad Employers' Liability Act, Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1; of the act fixing maximum hours of service for railroad employees whose duties control or affect the movement of trains, Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, supra; of the act prohibiting the prepayment of seamen's wages, Patterson v. Bark Eudora, 190 U. S. 169.
judged in the light of the conditions which have occasioned the exercise of governmental power. If the compulsory settlement of some differences, by arbitration, may be within the limits of due process, see Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. Glidden Co., 284 U. S. 151, it seems plain that the command of the statute to negotiate for the settlement of labor disputes, given in the appropriate exercise of the commerce power, cannot be said to be so arbitrary or unreasonable as to infringe due process.
Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161, and Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U. S. 1, have no present application. The provisions of the Railway Labor Act invoked here neither compel the employer to enter into any agreement nor preclude it from entering into any contract with individual employees. They do not "interfere with the normal exercise of the right of the carrier to select its employees or to discharge them." See the Railway Clerks case, supra, 281 U. S. 571.
There remains to be considered petitioner's contentions that the certificate of the National Mediation Board is invalid, and that the injunction granted is prohibited by the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, of March 23, 1932, c. 90, 47 Stat. 70, 29 U.S.C. §§ 101-115.
the certification of the Federation as the representative of the blacksmiths because less than a majority of that craft, although a majority of those voting, voted for the Federation.
Petitioner construes this section as requiring that a representative be selected by the votes of a majority of eligible voters. It is to be noted that the words of the section confer the right of determination upon a majority of those eligible to vote, but is silent as to the manner in which that right shall be exercised. Election laws providing for approval of a proposal by a specified majority of an electorate have been generally construed as a requiring only the consent of the specified majority of those participating in the election. Carroll County v. Smith, 111 U. S. 556; Douglass v. Pike County, 101 U. S. 677; Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. County Court of Davidson County, 1 Sneed.(Tenn.) 637; Montgomery County Fiscal Court v. Trimble, 104 Ky. 629, 47 S.W. 773. Those who do not participate "are presumed to assent to the expressed will of the majority of those voting." Cass County v. Johnston, 95 U. S. 360, 95 U. S. 369, and see Carroll County v. Smith, supra.
Mediation Board scheduled an election to be determined by a majority of the eligible voters, but that the Federation's subsequent protest that the Railway was influencing the men not to vote caused the Board to hold a new election to be decided by the ballots of a majority of those voting.
It is significant of the congressional intent that the language of § 2, Fourth, was taken from a rule announced by the United States Railroad Labor Board, acting under the labor provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920, Decision No. 119, International Association of Machinists v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. 2 Dec.U.S.Railroad Labor Board, 87, 96, par. 15. Prior to the adoption of the Railway Labor Act, this rule was interpreted by the Board, in Decision No. 1971, Brotherhood of Railway & S.S. Clerks v. Southern Pacific Lines, 4 Dec.U.S.Railroad Labor Board 625, where it appeared that a majority of the craft participated in the election. The Board ruled, p. 639, that a majority of the votes cast was sufficient to designate a representative. A like interpretation of § 2, Fourth, was sustained in Association of Clerical Employees v. Brother of Railway & S.S. Clerks, 85 F.2d 152.
set out. See Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U. S. 388; United States v. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & P.R. Co., 294 U. S. 499; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. United States, 295 U. S. 193.
The practice contended for is undoubtedly desirable, but it is not required by the present statute or by the authorities upon which petitioner relies. The National Mediation Board makes no order. The command which the decree of the court enforces is that of the statute, not of the Board. Its certificate that the Federation is the authorized representative of the employees is the ultimate finding of fact prerequisite to enforcement by the courts of the command of the statute. There is no contention that this finding is conclusive in the absence of a finding of the basic facts on which it rests -- that is to say, the number of eligible voters, the number participating in the election, and the choice of the majority of those who participate. Whether the certification, if made as to those facts, is conclusive it is unnecessary now to determine. But we think it plain that, if the Board omits to certify any of them, the omitted fact is open to inquiry by the court asked to enforce the command of the statute. See Dismuke v. United States, 297 U. S. 167, 297 U. S. 171-173. Such inquiry was made by the trial court which found the number of eligible voters, and thus established the correctness of the Board's ultimate conclusion. The certificate which conformed to the statutory requirement, was prima facie sufficient, and was not shown to be invalid for want of the requisite supporting facts.
or acts as may be expressly complained of in the bill of complaint or petition filed in such case and as shall be expressly included in . . . findings of fact made and filed by the court."
"shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection."
It suffices to say that the Norris-LaGuardia Act can affect the present decree only so far as its provisions are found not to conflict with those of § 2, Ninth, of the Railway Labor Act, authorizing the relief which has been granted. Such provisions cannot be rendered nugatory by the earlier and more general provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. See the Railway Clerks case, supra, 281 U. S. 571; cf. Callahan v. United States, 285 U. S. 515, 285 U. S. 518; Walla Walla v. Walla Walla Water Co., 172 U. S. 1, 172 U. S. 22; International Alliance v. Rex Theatre Corp., 73 F.2d 92, 93.
"the defendant, by and through its officers, agents and servants, undertook by means of the circulation of a petition or petitions addressed to the National Mediation Board to have the certification of the National Mediation Board aforesaid altered, changed, or revoked so as to deprive its Mechanical Department employes of the right to representation by said System Federation No. 40, Railway Employes Department of the American Federation of Labor, so designated as aforesaid, and thereafter did cause to be organized the Independent Shop Crafts Association by individual Mechanical Department employes by circulating or causing to be circulated applications for membership in said Independent Shop Crafts Association notwithstanding the certification as aforesaid by the National Mediation Board of said System Federation No. 40, Railway Employes Department of the American Federation of Labor, as the authorized representative of its Mechanical Department employes, . . ."
"(2) to forbid any limitation upon freedom of association among employees or any denial, as a condition of employment or otherwise, of the right of employees to join a labor organization"
"(3) to provide for the complete independence of carriers and of employees in the matter of self-organization to carry out the purposes of this Act (chapter)."
"it shall be unlawful for any carrier to interfere in any way with the organization of its employees, or to use the funds of the carrier in maintaining or assisting or contributing to any labor organization . . . or to influence or coerce employees in an effort to induce them to join or remain or not to join or remain members of any labor organization,"
The 1934 amendment imposed various other obligations upon the carrier, to which criminal penalties were attached, e.g., prohibitions against helping unions, by contributions of funds, or assistance in the collection of dues, § 2, Fourth; against requiring employees to promise to join or not to join a labor union, § 2, Fifth; against changing rates of pay, etc., without specifying a conference upon thirty days' notice, § 2, Seventh; and see the requirement that the carrier post notices that all disputes will be determined in accordance with the act, § 2, Eighth.
"For every dispute submitted to . . . these Boards, there were many others considered and settled in conferences between representatives of carriers and of the employees as required by § 2, second, of the Act."
"If we have a threat of a strike now [on the railroads] it might be on a big fundamental question, like wages and hours, and we usually find we can settle those by arbitration or otherwise. . . . But if the issues involved were discrimination or discharge of men because they had joined the organization, or the question would be the right of the organization to represent them, we could not have settled those strikes."
See Governmental Protection of Labor's Right to Organize, National Labor Relations Board, Division of Economic Research, Bull. No. 1, August, 1936, pp. 17-18.
"The purpose of the bill is . . . [inter alia] to outlaw the attempt that has been made in numerous instances by employers who control alleged labor unions, and thereby to use a slang phrase, to 'gum up the works'. . . . We have had 8 years of operation of this act, and we have prevented any strikes. But strikes have been threatened because of the defects which have been found in this bill."
"The Government interprets the negative obligations imposed by the statute and decree as having the following effect:"
"When the majority of a craft or class has (either by secret ballot or otherwise) selected a representative, the carrier cannot make with anyone other than the representative a collective contract (i.e., a contract which sets rates of pay, rules, or working conditions), whether the contract covers the class as a whole or a part thereof. Neither the statute nor the decree prevents the carrier from refusing to make a collective contract and hiring individuals on whatever terms the carrier may by unilateral action determine. In hirings of that sort, the individual does not deal in a representative capacity with the carrier, and the hiring does not set general rates of pay, rules, or working conditions. Of course, as a matter of voluntary action, not as a result of the statute or the decree, the carrier may contract with the duly designated representative to hire individuals only on the terms of a collective understanding between the carrier and the representative; but any such agreement would be entirely voluntary on the carrier's part, and would in no sense be compelled."
"If the majority of a craft or class has not selected a representative, the carrier is free to make with anyone it pleases and for any group it pleases contracts establishing rates of pay, rules, or working conditions."
There was evidence available to Congress that the labor policy embodied in the Railway Labor Act had been successful in curbing strikes. In the eight years subsequent to the passage of the 1926 Act, there were only two small railroad strikes. Since the 1934 amendment, there has been but one. See National Mediation Board, First Annual Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1935, p. 8; Second Annual Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1936, p. 1.
Yet there were many disputes between rail carriers and their employees. Apart from the more trivial grievances and differences of opinion in the interpretation of agreements, 876 disputes, principally over changes in rates of pay, rules or working conditions, were referred to the United States Board of Mediation between 1926 and 1934. The following table, derived from its Eighth Annual Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1934, pp. 4-5, indicates the success of the mediation and arbitration machinery set up by the Railway Labor Act.
But statistics show that many more labor disputes were settled by direct negotiation, supra, footnote 4 and Congress might reasonably have feared that the action of certain railroads in negotiating only with unions dominated by them would prevent such settlements and lead to strikes. See supra, footnote 5 That there were many disputes, apparent and latent, for which the 1926 Act had not provided adequate machinery is shown by the large number of representation disputes (more than 230) referred to the National Mediation Board in the first two years of its existence, see First Annual Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1935, p. 9; Second Annual Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1936, pp. 5, 7.
"The absence of strikes in the railroad industry, particularly during the last two years when widespread strikes, the usual accompaniment of business recovery, prevailed throughout the country, is to be explained primarily not by the mediation machinery of the Railway Labor Act, but by the existence of these collective labor contracts. For, while they are in existence, these contracts provide orderly, legal processes of settling all disputes as a substitute for strikes and industrial warfare."

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