Opinion ID: 3066125
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: History of the RLA

Text: Congress did not intend to leave a regulatory vacuum in place of judicial intervention in labor relations. Rather, it sought to replace ad hoc “government by injunction” with a means by which carriers and organized labor could amicably settle their disputes without government intervention, and without disrupting rail service and the national economy. After a number of legislative false starts, representatives of both the railway carriers and labor unions met to draft a bill that would be mutually satisfactory.6 The product of their cooperation was the RLA. See Int’l Ass’n of Machinists v. Street, 367 U.S. 740, 758 (1961) (“It is accurate to say that the railroads and the railroad unions between them wrote the Railway Labor Act of 1926 and Congress formally enacted their agreement.”).7 This history reveals two principles that cut against the majority’s construction of the RLA. First, courts should be wary of involving themselves in labor disputes in light of Congress’s goal of “taking the federal courts out of the labor injunction business.” Marine Cooks, 362 U.S. at 369. 6 Unions had gained increased prominence while the railroads were under federal control due to World War I. See Chris Hollinger, The Railway Labor Act, ABA Section of Labor and Employment, 49 (2012). Due in part to unions’ increased prominence, by the time the federal government returned the railways to private control in 1920 “about 90% of the train and engine service employees were organized and about three-quarters of those in the other classes.” Lloyd K. Garrison, The National Railroad Adjustment Board: A Unique Administrative Agency, 46 Yale L.J. 567, 570 (1937). 7 The RLA was extended to cover the airline industry in 1936. RLA § 201; 45 U.S.C. § 181. ASI V. IBT 31 Second, the RLA represents a compromise between labor and management, in which each group sacrificed some avenues of self help in exchange for certain protections. The majority’s opinion violates both principles.