Discrimination - Fireman Maddox in re increase in Rate of Pay for African-American firemen, 1929

This series is arranged alphabetically by subject (see folder list for all topics included). The records in this series consist of correspondence; transcripts of proceeding before arbitration and mediation boards; minutes of meetings; death records; documentation of disciplinary matters; employee claims forms; financial records, including extensive documentation of rates of pay, wage schedules, timekeeping, and vacation pay; newspaper and magazine clippings; government publications such as the Railway Labor Act and its subsequent amendments and other federal legislation impacting the ICRR; reproduced journal articles; pamphlets; decisions and circulars from the National Mediation Board; ICRR employee bulletins; results of union committee elections; railroad passes for employees; Red Scare Era propaganda publications; draft deferment forms; criminal trial proceedings; and records documenting the operations of the ICRR and its relations with the railroad labor organizations.

In this series, there are records documenting ICRR's apprenticeship programs, including financial records, courses of study, correspondence with other carriers regarding their apprenticeship programs, and rosters of the names of the apprentices. There is also a sample apprenticeship certificate from 1955.

This series includes extensive claims filings by ICRR employees. The claims, dating from 1935-1960, are arranged chronologically. They include the initial claim, correspondence, awards, decisions, transcripts, memoranda, and minutes of meetings regarding claims and grievances filed against the ICRR by its employees. The most prevalent issues include: seniority; safety; job description; facilities for training; lunch break; leaves of absence; overtime pay; assignments asking employees to work seven day in a row; work assignments; travelling expenses; starting time; pensions; physical examinations; theft of company property; wage discrepancies; and vacation time.

The records of employee deaths, injuries, and illnesses from 1941-1946 are found in this series. In addition to the reports on the actual events, this file also includes correspondence regarding the nature of the incident as well as correspondence expressing well wishes from the ICRR to the injured employees and condolences to the surviving families of those employees who died. Disciplinary records, including investigations of alleged infractions, employee violations of the rules, and correspondence regarding the ways in which the infractions were documented in the employees' files are found in this series. Also of note is the extensive correspondence between the ICRR and other carriers regarding various disciplinary systems and the adoption of the Brown System, which uses a discipline by record approach.

Of particular note are the discrimination files. They document the discrimination faced by the African-American employees of the ICRR. The discrimination files record the various efforts made by African-American employees to preserve their job security and seniority rights, particularly in the aftermath of the closed shop amendment to the Railway Labor Act. While the closed shop amendment was in theory designed to protect workers' rights, it had a staggeringly negative effect on African-American railroad men. The major railroad unions and brotherhoods only allowed white members, and once the closed shop amendment came into force, African-American employees were left unrepresented in all labor negotiations. In practice, this created a situation where the unions would use a form of "sharp practice," in which they would manipulate seniority rosters and local rules to keep African-Americans off the crew rosters so that initially they would lose jobs to white employees, and after six months they would lose their seniority and their jobs. The ICRR management was aware of the practice, and in internal communications recognized it as targeted discrimination, but declined to put a halt to it because the "sharp practice" was technically a legal application of the seniority rules. (See also Series 4 for lawsuits regarding seniority rules.) In response to these pressures, African-American railroad men attempted to organize themselves so that their interests would be protected. The correspondence between these early organizers and ICRR management are found in these files. Of note is the file dedicated to Thomas D. Redd, one of the co-founders of the Association of Colored Railway Trainmen and Locomotive Firemen (ACRT). The ACRT was founded in 1918, although the ICRR never recognized it and would only meet with Redd and the other representatives "as individuals." In 1934, the ACRT with other local chapters of African-American railroad men formed the International Association of Railway Employees (IARE). The ACRT/IARE and other local unions representing African-American employees also filed petitions before the Railroad Adjustment Board and when the Board refused, filed a Writ of Mandamus in an attempt to compel the Board to hear their grievances. The IARE joined the UTU in 1970. During its years of operation, the IARE fought to protect its members' seniority rights, protest discriminatory contracts, and protest the racialized violence that its members suffered at the hands of their white co-workers and the general public.

Extensive documentation of the racialized violence African-American ICRR employees were subjected to are also found in these files. There were three periods of especially heightened racial violence in 1916, 1921-1922, and 1932-1933 when African-American trainmen were targeted by white gunman while doing their jobs. The discrimination files contain both an internal report from the ICRR detailing these atrocities. For the attacks in 1921-1922 and 1932-1933, the ICRR documented the names of all the men who were attacked, although they did not do so for the men who were attacked in 1916. The attackers in 1921-1922 are identified as members of the Klu Klux Klan, although no arrests were ever made. The attacks in 1933-1934 were carried out by four white ICRR employees and one other man not affiliated with the ICRR. These men were tried for their crimes. Three were convicted, and served minimal jail time. Two others, who were the first two arrested, and who identified their co-conspirators in sworn testimony, were both found not guilty by a jury. These two men then sued the ICRR for back pay, wrongful termination, and slander. The case file regarding these suits contains their confessions and portions of their criminal trials. The discrimination files also contain the reports of an ICRR Special Agent who summarized the events and the trial for ICRR management. Also found in these files are an internal report by the ICRR gathering data on these events and the report and notes the ICRR created for a federal investigation into workplace discrimination in 1934.

The discrimination files are arranged alphabetically, however, due to outdated and offensive language, the folder titles have been updated to more suitable language (see processing note for further details).

Files on jurisdictional disputes between non-operating shop crafts on specific task and the determinations by labor boards are found in this series. For additional information on the rules and interpretations that governed the work of non-operating shop craft employees, see series 3.

Matters regarding wages, rates of pay, schedules, vacations and retirement funds determined by the Railroad Retirement Board are all located in this series. The files are organized by employee class and geographic division on the ICRR.

Newspaper clippings documenting various strikes and threatened strikes in the 1960s during the crew consist disagreements between the carriers and unions are found in this file. For more information on this dispute, see Series 4 and the files containing the records regarding the lawsuits and arbitrations that arose from this issue. There are also clippings documenting strikes from other time periods, including the Freight Handlers' strike in 1902, the Clerks' strike of 1912, and the Longshoremen's strike in 1923. In addition to the clippings, there are many records documenting the ICRR management's attempts at union busting through the hiring of day laborers during the strikes of the Freight Handlers and the Clerks.

The ICRR extensively documented the activities of its employees during World War 2. In additional to documenting their manpower concerns and their attempts to obtain draft deferrals for their skilled employees, the ICRR management also documented the service histories of all their employees who joined the armed forces. At the instigation of management, supervisors conducted brief interviews with all returning veterans, compiling brief accounts of each individuals experience in the war. These files contain a rich history of the service of thousands of railroad employees on the ICRR. The World War 2 files also contain information about how the company worked to find employment for returning veterans, to allow for leaves of absence so that veterans could take advantage of the G.I. Bill's various provisions, and what use the skills gained during service might be put to use in employment with the ICRR.

Finally, in the post war period, the ICRR hosted numerous visitors in its various departments. The majority of these visitors were foreign nationals who were studying American railroad practices in order to apply them in their own countries. Representatives from places as diverse as Ghana, Japan, Italy, South Africa, Great Britain, France Australia, and India all spent time with various departments on the ICRR. Their visits are documented both through U.S. State Department records, but also through correspondence between ICRR management and the foreign representatives.