RAILWAY EMPLOYEES'CO-OP. ASS'N v. Atlanta, B. & CR Co.

• Decision Date: 06 January 1938
• Docket Number: No. 840.,840.
• Citation: 22 F. Supp. 510
• Parties: RAILWAY EMPLOYEES' CO-OP. ASS'N et al. v. ATLANTA B. & C. R. CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia

22 F. Supp. 510

RAILWAY EMPLOYEES' CO-OP. ASS'N et al. v. ATLANTA B. & C. R. CO. et al.

No. 840.

District Court, D. Georgia.

January 6, 1938.

J. C. Savage and Bond Almand, both of Atlanta, Ga., and Frank A. Wilkinson, of Birmingham, Ala., for complainants.

Brandon, Hynds & Tindall, of Atlanta, Ga., for defendant.

UNDERWOOD, District Judge.

This cause came on to be heard upon complainants' motion for an interlocutory injunction, and, after the introduction of evidence, was argued by counsel; and thereupon, upon consideration thereof, the court makes the following findings:

Findings of Fact.

1. The Railway Employees' Co-operative Association of Georgia, hereinafter called the "Co-operative Association," is a lawfully incorporated labor organization, and Scott White is the general chairman of the Engineers' Committee of said Co-operative Association and was authorized to handle all matters with the management of defendant referred to him by said committee and to represent said committee and the engineer members of said Co-operative Association in the negotiation and execution of the working agreements between said association and the management of defendant hereinafter referred to.

2. C. E. Brower, general superintendent, and A. W. Kirkland, superintendent of motive power, were the duly authorized officers of defendant, who negotiated and executed the said hereinafter mentioned agreements with the Co-operative Association.

3. The General Committee of Adjustment of the Co-operative Association, composed of the general chairmen of all committees of crafts represented by the Co-operative Association, was authorized to negotiate and did negotiate and execute two working agreements with defendant, the first executed on April 2, 1934, and the second on September 30, 1935. The latter agreement superseded the first and was observed by the parties until November 1, 1937. Defendant, after recognizing the "Engineers Organization of the Atlanta Birmingham & Coast Railroad Company," hereinafter called "Engineers Organization," entered into an agreement with it, effective as of November 1, 1937, covering the same matters as the agreement with the Co-operative Association, which the defendant undertook, without the Co-operative Association's consent, to abrogate.

4. The agreement of September 30, 1935, included schedules of wages, rules, and regulations for engineers and certain other employees of defendant, and provided that: "This agreement shall become effective as of September 1st, 1935. Either party desiring to cancel same, or any part thereof, shall give the other party thirty days written notice." This notice was not given.

5. The Co-operative Association complained to defendant that the Engineers Organization was not a bona fide organization but a company union and maintained that defendant should deal only with the Co-operative Association.

6. Defendant replied on September 18, 1937, that a vote of the employees involved, which vote it had checked, showed that a majority favored representation by the Engineers Organization, and that it would recognize that organization. Thereupon, on September 19, 1937, the Co-operative Association notified defendant that it was invoking the jurisdiction of the Mediation Board under section 2 (ninth) of the Railway Labor Act, as amended by Act June 21, 1934, § 2, 45 U.S.C.A. § 152(9), to investigate the dispute and certify the organization which was authorized and designated to represent the employees involved in the dispute. Such jurisdiction of the Mediation Board was formally invoked on September 27, 1937, and the board duly accepted jurisdiction of the dispute, notifying complainants and defendant of same.

7. Prior to defendant's letter of September 18, 1937, advising complainants of its recognition of the Engineers Organization, defendant had considered complainants' protest of the manner in which engineers' signatures to the petition requesting recognition of the Engineers Organization were obtained, and defendant thereupon sent sealed letters direct to the engineers asking confirmation of their signatures. These confirmations showed thirty-nine actual signers of the petition, out of a total of seventy-six eligible to vote. Subsequently, between October 15th and the end of the month, upon a poll of the engineers by the Co-operative Association, fifty-three engineers out of seventy-six eligible to vote, seventeen of whom had signed the Engineers Organization petition, signed written certificates of their designation of the Co-operative Association as their representative.

8. The evidence shows that certain individuals employed by defendant took considerable interest in the organization of the Engineers Organization, but of them only two were shown to have been executive officers of defendant, to wit: A. W. Kirkland, superintendent of motive power, and C. E. Perry, master mechanic. The others were not executive officers of defendant and were not authorized by defendant or any of its executive officers to take any part in the organization of said group. There was no evidence of any such action on the part of General Superintendent Brower or President Bugg, or any executive other than Kirkland and Perry, nor of any contribution or other financial aid given to the Engineers Organization by defendant or any of its executive officers, but on the contrary the employees circulating the petition seeking recognition of the Engineers Organization among the engineers did so on their own time and received no pay therefor from defendant. There was evidence tending to show that Kirkland and Perry spoke to certain engineers about the petition and advised them to sign it and get in line with the new organization and go along with the old and conservative employees, but a finding as to these alleged acts of Kirkland and Perry is deemed unnecessary at this time. There is no evidence of any threats by defendant or its officers to influence or coerce in the future any of the engineers in the exercise of their right to select the representative of their own free choice or to interfere in any way with the handling of the dispute by the Mediation Board, and I find that there is not sufficient evidence in the present record to show an existing or imminent danger that defendant will be guilty of such conduct.

9. Defendant abrogated the agreement of September 30, 1935, with the Co-operative Association, and entered into a new agreement with the Engineers Organization, changing the rates of pay, rules, and working conditions without giving the Co-operative Association the thirty days' notice required by said agreement or the thirty days' written notice of an intended change in such agreement as required by section 6 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended by Act June 21, 1934, § 6, 45 U.S. C.A. § 156. The new agreement with the Engineers Organization was entered into on October 20, 1937, after defendant had been advised on September 18, 1937, of the submission to the Mediation Board of the dispute as to representation.

Conclusions of Law.

Complainants ask for a temporary injunction, first, restraining defendant from interfering with the employees involved in the...