Nostalgia & History > Maroon Monday - The Human Toll

Lest we forget the human toll of the Rock Island shutdown as this week we mark 35 years since the final day.

Here are the last two pages of the 10 page March 1976 Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks Illinois Divn.
District 35 Seniority Roster.  This covered the clerks, tower and depot agents jobs between Chicago
and Joliet.  It did not include the office workers at LaSalle St. Station.

259 men and women on the roster of just one craft. The result of the 1975 bankruptcy can be seen on page 10 which
is mostly furloughed employees.

"GBB" indicates a Guaranteed Extra Board position.
"Rule 30" indicates the person is currently on an "exempt" or management position.
"Rule 35" indicates leave of absence.

It was down hill from here until 1980.  Some of us were lucky and got out before the end. Others were single and could
ride the crisis out until they found new jobs elsewhere.   A very few had enough seniority to continue working while the C&NW and
later the RTA operated the Suburban Service.  Many went to the ICG where they were laid off in 1983.
Others faced a long period of unemployment, with families to feed and mortgages pay.

Multiply the 259 on this list by the other crafts and Rock Island locations and you can begin to see the human toll
of the shutdown.

Tragically, many other railroads and industries have ended the same way over the past 35 years



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/15 06:00 by Englewood.

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The March 1985 Northern Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation, Rock Island District BRAC Roster.
These are all that survived from the 259 in 1976. Those with the 04-04-80 NIRCRC date never missed a days work.

Just to show how time goes by, the man that was 253 on the 1976 list and the last man on the 1986 list, is today, the first man on the list.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/15 06:02 by Englewood.

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Some of the names on the 1976 list may be familiar to some of you rails.

J (Joe) Riddle went to the UP in Omaha as a crew caller.

Paul E Taillon (PET), went to the SP in Houston as a train dispatcher.
When the AT&SF consolidated in Schaumburg he went there as a train dispatcher.
As I recall he worked the Newton job quite a bit.  He passed away, way too early about 1996.

Kim Norris was able to come back as a Metra crew caller.

R.E. Peacock ended up as a Metra engineer.

As I would encounter former Rock Islanders during the rest of my railroad career, I would half jokingly remark
that the Rock had to go under so that the rest of the industry could survive, being rejuvenated by the vast pool of talent that
became available.

Thanks for posting these. When I worked on the Rock for my brief career I did become friends with one listed here. Al Hardwich was a dear friend and was working as a towerman at Gresham Tower during my years there from 1972-76.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

I knew a few of the names on the Metra list.  Had you gone back a page or 2 more on the 76 list,
my name would have been there.  RI clerks could hold seniority on 2 districts.  My home  was 35 and my
away from home was 36 (Joliet to Eldon, Iowa). I was working at Silvis at shutdown.
zr190

zr190 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I knew a few of the names on the Metra list.  Had
> you gone back a page or 2 more on the 76 list,
> my name would have been there.  RI clerks could
> hold seniority on 2 districts.  My home  was 35
> and my
> away from home was 36 (Joliet to Eldon, Iowa). I
> was working at Silvis at shutdown.
> zr190

Far enough back ??

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Was Fred Kroll the head of the BRAC who refused to accept the emergency board recommendations on back pay?
IIRC all the other unions accepted the new pay rates without any back pay (knowing the bankruptcy trustees had no cash to pay it), however Kroll and the BRAC walked out.
The trustees response was to shut it down, then the ICC arranged for some lines to continue under directed service, but the Rock was dead.
How many of these BRAC members voted for Kroll?

(In all fairness, if the BRAC had not percipitated a shut-down something else would have, a bad storm, loss of more traffic, or something else.  The Rock had exhausted their physical plant and simply could not deliver freight on what was left very far into the future.)

We saw it a little different.  The unions that signed before BRAC and the Switchmen all gave away the back pay on the condition that if any
other union got back pay, they would then get theirs.  All they did was kick the can down the road and make BRAC and the Switchmen the fall
guys when they held out for the back pay.  The company's refusal to agree to the back pay led to the strike.  It has been a long time but I
believe the back pay owed the men was substantial and it was traditional that when a new contract was signed the parties would agree on the back pay. 

For those of you not familiar with the back pay issue.  Both parties know when the contract is due to expire.  Quite often there is no agreement
on the particulars of a new contract when the previous one expires. Federal law prohibits railroad workers from striking until a long list of
conditions are met.  So as contract negotiations drag on the employees are deprived of the wage increases of the new contract until it is finally
agreed to.  If there was no back pay provision, the company would drag out negotiations for years with the net result being very little effective wage increase.  That is the union viewpoint.

The general feeling in the Chicago terminal was that the company had spent plenty of money on blue paint.  There should be some for our back pay.
In addition the federal government had thrown millions down the Penn Central rathole and all the Rock was looking for was 100 million dollars to
get back on its feet.  Something had to give and it did.  

I recommend two books, "Rock Island Requim" and "Visionary Railroader - Jervis Langdon" for those interested in the sad recent history of the Rock. 

Not quite far enough...got to get to '66.
zr190