Western Railroad Discussion > When did "national" railroad contracts come about?

I was reading about the wreck of the express 733 on the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1951, when the train entered a 25 mph shoofly at 80 mph near Rahway NJ.  85 people killed. The train was packed due to the Christmas holidays, and a strike on the nearby Jersey Central.  PRR and JCL shared operations farther west on the North Jersey Coast Line.

Which raises the question: when did strikes and bargaining become national events, with all the class 1 lines and the national units of the many employee bargaining units duking it out?  It would seem that having local railroads (DL&W, D&RGW, etc) negotiating with their own employees makes more sense for everyone.

The first national negotiation that I remember was in either 1982 or 1986. President Reagan was going to allow a strike if only a few railroads went on strike. When the Union Pacific was named as one of the railroads President Reagan canceled the agreement and established a PEB that allowed the railroads to go to 2 man crews. That is the first national agreement that I remember.

Probably about the time it came down to the big six (BNSF, UP, NS, CSX, CP and CN).

I hired out on the Rock Island in 1966.  National negotiations were going on before then.
I was a RI Clerk and yes I voted to strike. There were other factors involved, but sometimes it is better to
NOT get whatr you wish for!
zr190

Wasn't it way back in 1926 with the Railway Labor Act ?

Nationwide contracts go way back into steam days.  One of my uncles lost his job in the 1920's Shopmen's Strike.  He wound up being a boomer fireman until he got back in the motive power department.  Over the years, a lot of railroads chose to do "on-property" negotiations rather than give their power of attorney over to the AAR negotiating attorneys.  Southern Railway went "on-property" for some crafts in the 1960's, and they did again in 1996 with the Southern Engineers under NS which continued until this round of negotiations.  NS and the BLE felt they could best tailor a working agreement "on-property".  As one of the involved local chairmen I felt so too.  We broke away from "pattern agreements" and negotiating impasses.  Other railroads followed after that, but they remained national in Health and Welfare negotiations.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/22 06:18 by Notch7.

Interesting diversity of history.

The angle about Reagan at the dawn of the mega merger era makes sense. Guilford and Conrail had just taken a lot of competitors off the table.

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