Railway Labor Executives' Association Records

The RLEA was founded in 1926 in response to the passage of the Railway Labor Act. Prior to 1926, there had been an informal association between the railroad labor organizations so that the various chief executives of the different unions could work together to form a unified course of action that would benefit all of their members. This group became more formalized immediately after the end of WW1. The U.S. railroads had been nationalized as part of the war effort, and the railroad labor organizations wanted them to remain under federal management, both because of increased productivity and because of better labor relations with the industry. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful, and the railroads returned to private industry; however, the railroad labor organizations had realized the need to have a united front to counter the carriers and industry groups and lobbyists.



On May 18, 1926, the chief executives of the railroad labor organization met in Washington D.C., formalized their association with By-Laws, and elected officers to serve the newly created RLEA. The original purpose, codified in the original preamble, was co-operative action to obtain and develop consistent interpretations and utilization of the Railway Labor Act. The RLEA was comprised of the chief executives of the 21 railroad labor unions, including the president of the Railway Employees' Department of the AFL, and each member got one vote, regardless of the size of their union. The organization was voluntary, so no member organization was bound by its decisions. Over the course of its existence, various member organizations withdrew and then re-affiliated with the RLEA.



From 1926 to 1938, the RLEA did not maintain an office, but the amount of work and its importance led the RLEA to open an office in Washington DC and employ a full-time Executive Secretary-Treasurer to run it. The RLEA did not engage in collective bargaining itself, but rather lobbied on behalf of its member organizations, securing such achievements as the Railroad Retirement Act and limiting unemployment for its members during the Great Depression. The RLEA's various areas of interest, such as retirement, safety, legal matters, were broken down into committees, each of which reported back to the executive board on the steps being taken in those areas.



Post WW2, the RLEA played a central role in the Marshall Plan, working with non-Communist labor organizations in Western Europe to establish labor policy and also assist in the work of rebuilding the European railroads. The RLEA was also a major factor in international labor union federations, and its decision to affiliate with the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and to encourage the ITF not to join with the Soviet affiliated World Federation of Trade Unions was seen as a major victory for the west.



The RLEA, like its member organizations, did not allow African-American members. As such, it was only representing the interests of white railroad employees; black railroad employees were forced, for the most part, to work without recognized union protection. The exception to this was the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), who in 1948 began a series of successful legal challenges to the jurisdictions over various classes of work. As BSCP's successes in the courts mounted up, and the RLEA's member unions and the RLEA itself were being sued for discriminatory practices, the RLEA finally capitulated in 1950, and accepted the BSCP as a member organization.



In 1950, the RLEA joined with the AFL, CIO, and International Association of Machinists to form the United Labor Policy Committee. This committee oversaw the labor representatives of the Wage Stabilization Board.



In the latter half of the 20th century, the importance of the RLEA declined alongside the decline in the railroad industry itself. As its member unions either merged into single entities or disaffiliated from the RLEA its influence waned, as did the number of its members. The RLEA attempted to counter this decline with the purchase of a railroad at least three different times in the 1970s and 1980s, though they were ultimately unsuccessful in this venture. Ongoing internal battles between the remaining chief executives of the railroad unions further weakened the RLEA until in 1997 it disbanded, handing over its responsibilities to the newly formed AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department.