Workmen's Compensation Act, Text of the Bill [folder 1 of 2]

This series consists of the office files of the RLEA which, at the time of their accession, had been marked as "Inactive" and retained as subject files. They are arranged alphabetically by subject as per the RLEA's filing system. In some instances, groups of files are further arranged in record groups such as Government, Law, or Court Cases.

These files contain the founding documents of the RLEA, including its original constitution and by-laws, as well as amendments made to those documents as the organization grew and changed. It also contains financial records, assessments of its member organizations, correspondence files for each of those organizations, correspondence files of various RLEA executives including executive-secretary Arlen E. Lyon, president C.E. Leighty, chairman James A. Phillips., and chairman George Harrison. Also found are correspondence files inviting unaffiliated railway labor union organizations to join the RLEA, records relating to the creation of the Washington DC office and the full-time salaried position of RLEA Executive-Secretary, and files covering the minutiae of running an office and lobbying Congress.

Of particular interest in this series are the files documenting the U.S. railroad industry during World War II. As the lobbying and policy advisory organization for organized railroad labor, the RLEA was intimately involved in many aspects of supply and logistics on the home front during World War II. The records for the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT), the War Assets Administration, the War Department, the War Manpower Commission, and the Office of Defense Manpower Management-Labor Policy Committee all provide an extensive in-depth look at how the railroad industry functioned during war time, and how labor and the RLEA negotiated and lobbied to protect their members even as they sought to serve the national interest. These records also offer a picture of the size and power of the American railroad industry during its height of influence and reach.

Of particular interest in the files from World War II and the immediate postwar period are the records of what was colloquially known as the Bracero Program. This program, managed by the State Department, the Department of Labor, and the War Manpower Commission, imported Mexican nationals to work in the U.S. as guest workers, both in agriculture and on the railroad where there were severe work force shortages. The program was started in 1942 when the United States and Mexico both signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement, and was extended with the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951. This program was not popular with Labor, and the RLEA kept extensive files on the program. Even after the railroad portion of the Bracero Program ended in 1945, they continued to monitor the agricultural portion with representatives from National Farm Labor Union, AFL-CIO, including Ernesto Galarza, until 1959. The Bracero Program officially ended in 1964. The manpower crisis during the war encouraged the carriers to look to other sources of labor. This included proposals from various carriers to make use of interned Japanese-Americans as a source of cheap and ready labor. The RLEA quickly blocked that plan, claiming the risk of sabotage from these citizens (referred to as "Aliens" in the correspondence) was too great. The carriers also suggested employing prisoners of war, but were met with even greater opposition. Neither plan was put into effect. Additionally, in the files on the Bracero Program, there is correspondence in regards to the employment of African-Americans on the railroads, and how the use of Mexican nationals was negatively affecting their wages and chances of employment in an industry in which they were already subject to extensive discrimination from both labor and management. Finally, there are also files regarding the employment of women on the railroads, which include guidelines determining in which crafts women could be employed.

The RLEA was also deeply involved in various postwar activities, both on the home front and abroad. Records in this series document the massive amount of trains and cars needed to move returning veterans from their disembarkation ports to their homes. There is also extensive documentation of the efforts to employee veterans in the railroad industry or to aid veterans in returning to their previous jobs on the railroads without loss of seniority or position.

Abroad, the RLEA played a major role in the implementation of the Marshall Plan. The records of the Economic Cooperation Administration and the Mutual Security Administration located in this series document the rebuilding of European railroads and the intimate relations between the European railroad labor organizations with their American counterparts. On a personal level, the records on European nations in the "Foreign" subject heading contain letters from European railroadmen, writing for help from their American brothers. Some of these files, like the one on Greece, contain photographs of these men and their families. The RLEA and its member organizations spearheaded food and clothing drives and other charitable endeavors to aid people as best they could. On a national level, the records in the files on foreign countries and on the implementation of the Marshall Plan also contain detailed reports on the state of the various nations, the state of the railroad industry, and of labor. In particular, there is extensive reporting on Soviet, communist, and communist suspected influences in the various locations in which the RLEA had contacts and agents working on their behalf. These types of reports are not limited to European nations. The RLEA was also a major component of the United States' foreign policy in Central and South America. Their membership in the Pan-American Railway Congress was by appointment of the president and facilitated through the State Department. Additionally, it was this connection with the State Department that facilitated foreign worker exchange programs, where railroaders from other nations would come to the U.S. to study the American railroad industry. This series also contains records about the activities of communists in America, including select records of the House Un-American Committee.

The beginning of the RLEA's role in international labor as discussed above in the organization history is documented in this series. There are extensive records created by the International Transport Workers' Federation including minutes of committee meetings, constitutions, reports on conference proceedings, and reports on trips to these conferences. There is also extensive correspondence between RLEA Chief Executives and their agents and counterparts in various sovereign nations.

This series also contains documentation of the railroad industry in America. Statistics on all aspects of the industry, recorded by the ICC, are located in this series as are reports from the Department of Labor. Also found are extensive files on proposed legislation and enacted laws that are related to either the railroad industry or to the labor movement in America. (N.B.: For additional records on railroad legislation, see series XI). This series contains decisions by the National Mediation Board (NMB) and the National Railroad Adjustment Board (NRAB) determining which organizations have the legal right under the Railway Labor Act to represent classes of employees on different roads. There are also records on the implementation of the Union Shop provision of the Railway Labor Act and various amendments to that portion of the bill. Other areas documented include State level legislation, the building of pipelines and other means of transporting fuel, transportation of goods on waterways, and the passage of the Workman's Compensation Act. The records of various National Wage Movements may also be found in this series.

Finally, this series contains legal filing by the RLEA in front of U.S. District Courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. Many of these cases established precedents for the implementation and adjudication of the complex and extensive laws and statutes governing the railroad industry and its labor practices. Slocum established that an employee may only seek redress from the NRAB except in the narrow case of common-law wrongful discharge, which was contra to previous interpretations. This decision was affirmed by Southern Railway v. Order of Railway Conductors. This decision remained in force until a public law was passed in 1966 to address the massive backlog of cases at the NRAB. The Supreme Court was also the body that overrode the ICC when it made decisions that failed to punish carriers for violating federal anti-discrimination laws, as was the case in Mitchell v. Rock Island Railroad.