System Federation No. 91 v. Wright

• Decision Date: 05 December 1959
• Docket Number: No. 13768.,13768.
• Citation: 272 F.2d 56
• Parties: SYSTEM FEDERATION NO. 91, Railway Employees Department, AFL-CIO, et al., Appellants, v. O. V. WRIGHT et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

272 F.2d 56 (1959)

SYSTEM FEDERATION NO. 91, Railway Employees Department, AFL-CIO, et al., Appellants, v. O. V. WRIGHT et al., Appellees.

No. 13768.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

December 5, 1959.

Richard R. Lyman, Toledo, Ohio (Robert E. Hogan, Louisville, Ky., Richard R. Lyman of Mulholland, Robie & Hickey, Toledo, Ohio, Shoene & Kramer, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellants.

John P. Sandidge, Louisville, Ky. (John P. Sandidge of Woodward, Hobson & Fulton, Louisville, Ky., H. G. Breetz, Louisville, Ky., L. & N. RR. Co., on the brief), for L. & N. RR. Co.

Marshall P. Eldred of Brown & Eldred, Louisville, Ky., for O. V. Wright, et al.

Before McALLISTER, Chief Judge, and MARTIN and CECIL, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from an order denying a motion to modify an injunction. The controversy has its roots in bitter disagreements between groups of union and nonunion railroad employees, which originated in disputes arising many years ago; and it also stems from a strike, accompanied by much violence, in 1955, in which a railroad bridge was burned, and certain employees were sentenced to prison terms, for violation of, and conspiracy to violate, the Federal Train Wreck Act, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1992. See Stanley v. United States, 6 Cir., 245 F.2d 427. During the strike, many union and nonunion employees continued to work, the union employees being expelled as a result, and the nonunion employees being threatened with reprisals.

Long prior to the strike, twenty-eight nonunion employees in July, 1945, for themselves and as representatives of all nonunion employees of the Louisville and Nashville System, including approximately twenty-five hundred such employees, brought an action against the railroad and certain shop craft unions seeking a declaration of rights, and an injunction. On December 7, 1945, the District Court, by consent and agreement of all parties to the action, entered an injunction restraining the lodges and locals of defendant unions from discriminating against the other employees, because of their failure or refusal to join the unions and further enjoining the unions from requiring that the plaintiffs and classes, represented by them, join or retain their membership in the unions as a condition of receiving promotion, leaves of absence, proper protection of seniority rights, overtime work, and any other rights or benefits which might arise out of, or be in accordance with, the regularly adopted bargaining agreements in effect between the railroad and the defendant unions. The unions were also enjoined from denying such employees promotions, pay increases, leaves of absence, seniority protection and the like, because of their failure to join or retain membership in the union. It was further...