Shipley v. Pittsburgh & LER Co.
| Decision Date | 08 March 1949 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 5586. |
| Citation | 83 F. Supp. 722 |
| Parties | SHIPLEY et al. v. PITTSBURGH & L. E. R. CO. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
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A. E. Kountz, and Alexander Unkovic (of Kountz, Fry, Staley & Meyer), both of Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiffs.
James R. Orr and Donald B. Heard (of Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay), both of Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendant.
Willard H. McEwen (of Mulholland, Robie, & McEwen), of Toledo, Ohio, for Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n.
Kenneth F. Burgess, Douglas F. Smith, Howard Neitzert and Martin M. Lucente (of Sidley, Austin, Burgess & Harper), all of Chicago, Ill., for Railroad Committees.
This is an action on collective bargaining agreements negotiated and executed by the employees' representatives of The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company with said Company. It presents for decision novel and important questions arising out of said contracts which were negotiated and executed in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, June 7, 1934, c. 426, 48 Stat. 926, June 21, 1934, c. 691, § 1, 48 Stat. 1185, June 25, 1936, c. 804, 49 Stat. 1921, Aug. 13, 1940, c. 664, §§ 2, 3, 54 Stat. 785, 786, 45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.
The contracts or bargaining agreements which are involved in this proceeding were negotiated and executed on January 12, 1928 and November 17, 1936. The plaintiff employees were represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT), and the Order of Railway Conductors (ORC) in the 1928 Contract, and the Order of Railway Conductors in the 1936 Contract.
Under the Railway Labor Act which sets up the procedure and method by which an employee of a carrier, who is aggrieved concerning his labor relations, may submit the grievance to the Railroad Adjustment Board, the remedy afforded is not exclusive and the employee may bring suit at law to settle a dispute without first submitting the controversy to the Board. 45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. There is nothing in the Act which purports to take away from the courts the jurisdiction to determine a controversy or to make an administrative finding of the Board a prerequisite to filing a suit in court. Kelly v. Nashville C. & St. L. R., D. C., 75 F.Supp. 737; Adams et al. v. New York C. & St. L. R. Co., 7 Cir., 121 F.2d 808, 810; Moore v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 312 U.S. 630, 61 S.Ct. 754, 85 L.Ed. 1089; Beeler v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 10 Cir., 169 F.2d 557; Union Pacific R. Co. v. Olive, 9 Cir., 156 F.2d 737.
The ultimate issues relate to:
(a) The interpretation and construction of the 1928 and 1936 Contracts.
(b) The authority of the collective bargaining representative (BRT) to compromise or settle accrued claims of the plaintiffs who —
(1) were members of the collective bargaining representative and
(2) were not members of the collective bargaining representative.
The plaintiffs are 133 conductors (also known as yard foremen) and brakemen (also known as helpers) who are and for a long time have been employees of The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company, defendant. They are called, generally in railroad parlance, "trainmen."
The major question involved relates to whether the plaintiffs were or were not entitled to extra pay from defendant at the rate of an additional day for each day in which the plaintiffs coupled air hose at points where air or car inspectors were available. The rights of action of the plaintiffs are based upon either, or both, of two certain written collective bargaining or employment contracts which contain the same provisions as to the basic claims of the plaintiffs.
(a) Claims of three of the plaintiffs are based exclusively upon a contract executed in 1936 by the defendant railroad with the Order of Railway Conductors, the certified bargaining agent of the conductors during the entire period covered by this suit.
(b) Claims of eighty-seven of the plaintiffs are based upon a contract made in 1928 by the defendant corporation with the Order of Railway Conductors and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
(c) Twenty of the plaintiffs were conductors who were engaged partly in road work and partly in yard work, and thus their claims are in part under one of the said contracts and in part under the other.
(d) Twenty-three of the plaintiffs were conductors who were engaged partly in yard work and partly on work trains (that being a class of road work), so that those twenty-three plaintiffs — as do the twenty plaintiffs last above mentioned — claim in part under one of said contracts and in part under the other.
A summary of the numbers of the foregoing groups is as follows:
Number
of
Group Plaintiffs
Road service exclusively, all
claims under the 1936 contract 3
Yard service exclusively, all
claims under the 1928 contract 87
Both road and yard service
claims under both contracts 20
Yard service and work train
(type of road service), claims
under both contracts 23
Total number of plfs. 133
Historical Background of Defendant
Since 1879 The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company has owned, operated and maintained a railroad system, having one western terminus and two eastern terminii. Throughout the length of the railroad there are no considerable stretches of territory where there are no sidings or spurs required to effectively serve the industries and businesses adjacent to the track. The main line is approximately one hundred sixty-eight (168) miles in length.
The railroad system has been divided into three divisions, to wit, The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, Monongahela, and Youghiogheny divisions.
The defendant railroad cannot be classified with the other two railroads supplying passenger and freight service to the Pittsburgh area, viz.: Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio railroads which extend over a much greater territory. The tracks of both the Pennsylvania and The Baltimore and Ohio run for great stretches through territory where there is no industry of any kind abutting the tracks, nor to which there are any sidings.
Prior to 1915 it was decided that for the efficient operation of the railroad and better service for its customers, the main line of the railroad should be divided into nine general yards. The limits of these yards were largely determined by the various concentrations of the mines, mills and factories that were served. In addition, the division of the railroad into general yards permitted the more effective assignment of yard crews to take care of certain blocks of work. Defendant railroad is unique among the trunk line railroads in the United States in being the only one whose main line trackage is divided into a series of nine contiguous general yards.
From 1940 through 1944 each of the general yards was under the jurisdiction of a separate general yardmaster. A general yardmaster has jurisdiction over all the train and engine yard forces, the breaking up and making up of trains, and the performance of the industrial work within the general yard limits. He is the highest operating officer in the general yard.
Each general yard contains smaller yards. The smaller yards within the general yards are under the immediate direction and control of trick or turn yardmasters, who are subordinate to the general yardmasters and who have jurisdiction over one or several of the smaller yards. A general yard is a section of yards from one point to another on the railroad, while a yard is one or more tracks or succession of tracks used for the make up and classification of trains and storage of cars.
"Coupling Air Hose"
The process of coupling air hose normally takes less than half a minute. The act of coupling air hose consists of joining the ends of two air hoses, the other ends being attached to an airline on each respective car, by putting the face of each hose against the other and giving them a twist so that they are locked together. The function of the air hose is to provide a continuous airline from the source of air supply (locomotive or stationary) to the car or cars for the operation of the air brake mechanism which is standard equipment on each car.
Before the air hoses are joined, each car must be coupled to the next one by means of couplers which protrude from the end of each car and fit together like bent fingers of one hand uniting with the bent fingers of the other. After the couplers are together, they are locked by a coupler pin which should automatically drop into place but frequently does not, requiring manual adjustment. When a car or cars are to be coupled it is sometimes necessary for the trainman to properly adjust the position of the couplers in order that the coupling be made.
All of the plaintiffs, who were employed by defendant prior to 1928, coupled air hose almost daily. This occurrence existed from the first day they worked as trainmen. New trainmen were given a three day training period with experienced crews and learned from the older crew members how to couple air hose, open knuckles and set brakes. In addition, the trainmen received compulsory instructions on the air brake system, and rules and regulations concerning it.
Classification of Employees Who Couple Air Hose "Trainmen"
The crews operating the freight trains over the yard territories described are divided into road crews and yard crews. Generally, if a trainman works on a train which takes him out of the switching limits of the general yard where he begins his work and into one or more other general yards, he is engaged in road service. A trainman is in yard service when he is engaged in the movement of a car or cars entirely within the switching limits of a single general yard. The...
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