Williams v. Central of Georgia Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 04 August 1954
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 1080.
• Parties: WILLIAMS et al. v. CENTRAL OF GEORGIA RY. CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

124 F. Supp. 164

WILLIAMS et al. v. CENTRAL OF GEORGIA RY. CO. et al.

Civ. A. No. 1080.

United States District Court M. D. Georgia, Macon Division.

August 4, 1954.

E.S. Sell, Jr., Macon, Ga., for plaintiffs.

Benning M. Grice, Macon, Ga., A. R. Lawton and John B. Miller, Savannah, Ga., for defendants.

BOOTLE, District Judge.

The plaintiffs are thirteen white employees of the Central of Georgia Railway Company. The defendants are Central of Georgia Railway Company, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, hereinafter referred to as the Brotherhood, a national unincorporated association whose membership consists in chief part of the locomotive firemen and enginemen employed on various railroads engaged in interstate commerce, including the defendant Railway Company, and also three members of the Executive Committee of said Brotherhood as representatives of the entire membership as a class under Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A.

Plaintiffs allege that the Brotherhood members constitute the majority of the craft or class of locomotive firemen on the defendant Railway Company and that the Brotherhood has acted as sole bargaining agent and representative of the entire class of locomotive firemen, including those in the category to which plaintiffs claim to belong; that as such agent the Brotherhood negotiated with defendant Railway Company an agreement effective December 1, 1944, as to rates of pay, rules and conditions of employment for all members of said class or craft, a portion of said agreement, Article 26 thereof, dealing with "seniority, mileage and promotion" being attached to the petition as Exhibit A; that said Brotherhood together with Defendant Railway Company jointly procured the decree of this Court in Civil Action No. 711, that being a complaint somewhat similar to this one, the plaintiffs there being Curtis H. Washington et al. and the defendants being the same Railway Company and the same Brotherhood named as defendants in this case and some individual members of the Brotherhood named as representatives of the membership of all the subordinate lodges and of the Brotherhood itself as a class under said Rule 23(a) (The particular contractual provisions under fire in the Washington case were Sections 1 and 2 of an agreement effective February 22, 1941, reading as follows: "(1) On each railroad party hereto the proportion of nonpromotable firemen, and helpers on other than steam power, shall not exceed 50 per cent in each class of service established as such on each individual carrier. This agreement does not sanction the employment of nonpromotable men on any seniority district on which nonpromotable men are not now employed. (2) The above percentage shall be reached as follows: (a) Until such percentage is reached on any seniority district only promotable men will be hired. (b) Until such percentage is reached on any seniority district all new runs and all vacancies created by death, dismissal, resignation or disqualification shall be filled by promotable men. A change in the starting time of the same run or job will not be considered as constituting a new run." These provisions were carried forward in substance into the agreement effective December 1, 1944.); that the Brotherhood did not fairly and equitably bargain or act for (or) in behalf of all members of the class or craft affected by such negotiations and in so dealing with the defendant railroad and other railroads the Brotherhood did not perform and failed to discharge its lawful duty, obligation, and trust to protect equally the interest of all persons affected by its negotiations; that instead and in violation of the law the Brotherhood acted exclusively for the benefit of and in the interest of its members and discriminated against these plaintiffs and deprived them of their right to work on fair and equal terms with negro locomotive firemen and with members of the Brotherhood. The complaint nowhere alleges specifically whether or not the plaintiffs are or ever were members of the Brotherhood. The above mentioned allegations rather indicate that at the time of the matters complained of, plaintiffs did not so belong.

The complaint alleges further that by a consent decree in said Civil Action No. 711, the Defendant Railway Company and the defendant Brotherhood were permanently enjoined from enforcing practices or agreements in so far as they discriminated against negro firemen in their employment as firemen on steam locomotives or from denying to the negro firemen, plaintiffs in said case, or to other members of their class their respective rights to assignments as firemen on steam locomotives or as helpers on diesel locomotives based upon seniority and qualifications because they are negroes or because they have not been permitted or required to take or pass examinations to qualify as engineers and that said decree further restrained the Brotherhood and Railway Company from requiring negro firemen to take or pass examinations to qualify as engineers as a condition of their continued employment or continued enjoyment of their seniority rights as firemen on steam locomotives or as helpers on diesel locomotives. The complaint prayed reference to the proceedings in said Civil Action No. 711, and reference thereto shows that the pertinent portion of said consent decree is as follows:

"That the Defendant Central of Georgia Railway Company and the Defendant Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen as representative of the negro firemen on said Railway Company, their officers, agents and employees and all persons in active concert or participation with them are hereby permanently restrained and enjoined

"(a) from enforcing the Southeastern Carriers Conference agreement of February 18, 1941, or any other written or oral agreements, or carrying on any practices under such agreements, in so far as said agreements or practices discriminate, on the ground of their race or color, against negro firemen in their employment or occupation as firemen on steam locomotives or as helpers on diesel locomotives, or

"(b) from denying to Plaintiffs or other members of their class their respective rights to assignments as firemen on steam locomotives or as helpers on diesel locomotives based upon seniority and qualifications because they are negroes or because they have not been permitted or required to take or pass examinations to qualify as engineers, or

"(c) from requiring or compelling them to take or pass examinations to qualify as engineers as a condition of their continued employment or continued enjoyment of their seniority rights as firemen on steam locomotives or as helpers on diesel locomotives."

The most pertinent portions of the contract effective December 1, 1944, and the portions against which the complaint is particularly directed are Sections 10 (a), 10(b), and 10(c) which provide as follows:

"Section 10. (a) Firemen will be required to take examinations testing their qualifications for promotion as follows: All persons hereafter hired as firemen shall be required, in addition to showing, in the opinion of the Management, reasonable proficiency, to take within stated periods to be fixed by Management, but in no event to extend over a period of more than three years, two examinations to be prepared by Management and to be applied to all alike to test their qualifications as firemen. A fireman failing to pass either examination shall have a second trial within three months.

"(b) Firemen hereafter hired declining to take or failing to pass either of the examinations provided for in the proceeding paragraph shall be dropped from the service.

"(c) Promotable firemen who pass the two examinations above referred to shall be required to take an examination for promotion to the position of engineer when they have had three and not more than four years of actual service. Upon passing such promotional examination and meeting all the requirements established by the carrier for the position of engineer, they shall when there is need for additional engineers, be promoted to such position, and will establish a seniority date as engineer in accordance with the rules contained in the agreement. It being understood that firemen who hold road and yard rights and pass yard engineers examination and fail the road engineers examination as provided herein shall lose all road rights and will thereafter be a yard man only."

Plaintiffs allege that the word "promotable" as used in the contract means "white" and that the word "nonpromotable" as used in the contract means negro, and they complain that the white firemen who passed the two examinations to test their proficiency as firemen are required to take an examination for promotion to the position of engineer and that by subsection (c) above quoted "firemen who hold road and yard rights and pass yard engineers examination and fail the road engineers examination as provided herein shall lose all road rights and will thereafter be a yard man only." They point out that the negro firemen are not permitted nor required to take the examination for promotion under the agreement and allege that said agreement was incorporated in the decree in Civil Action No. 711. They then allege that all of the plaintiffs have taken the examination to determine their fitness as firemen and have passed the same, that all of them have taken examinations to qualify as yard engineers and have passed the same, that all plaintiffs except Taylor and Franklin have taken the examination to serve as road engineer and that all plaintiffs who took it have failed said examination. They say that in consequence all of the plaintiffs are restricted to yard service only and are not permitted to exercise their seniority rights as road firemen, that when there are insufficient places for plaintiffs as yard engineers, they are reduced to yard firemen and are serving as yard firemen accordingly. They...