Scope and Contents
Inclusive dates: 1937 - 1948
Bulk date: 1947
This collection contains transcripts of the proceedings of the Emergency Board no. 52, exhibits and briefs submitted to the Emergency Board by both the Railway Express Agency and the Locals 459 and 808 of the Teamsters Union, the notes, correspondence and memos from the chairman of the Emergency Board, Arthur S. Meyer, and the correspondence file of the Emergency Board. It also contains a final draft of the report submitted to President Harry S. Truman on January 15, 1948.
The transcripts are divided into 20 volumes. The exhibits contain rulebooks, contracts, previous decisions by other emergency boards, summaries of costs of living compared to the current wage structure, the costs of a wage increase to the REA, and comparisons of the national contract to what the Locals were requesting. Arthur S. Meyer's folders contain drafts of the agreement, supplemental exhibits, economic summaries from labor arbitrator Clara H. Friedman (nee Handelman), and drafts of the final report with annotations.
The correspondence file documents the various people and agencies who were involved in the mediation. It also contains a letter signed by President Truman appointing Arthur S. Meyer as chairman and member of the Emergency Board.
Dates
- 1937-1948
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
Emergency Board no. 52 was created by President Harry S. Truman on October 22, 1947 under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act to investigate a dispute between the Railway Express Agency and its 4,700 vehicle and garage employees in the New York City Metropolitan area, specifically the five boroughs of New York and Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City, New Jersey. The dispute, regarding contract negotiations between the Railway Express Agency and the employees' unions, Local 808 and 459 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, A.F.L., resulted in a strike which lasted from September 18 to October 14, 1947. The employees were demanding a reduction in hours to a 40-hour workweek and higher wages. The strike ended when the unions agreed to submit their demands to a Presidential fact finding board.
At the suggestion of Mayor William O'Dwyer, President Harry S. Truman appointed three New Yorkers to the board. The chairman was Arthur S. Meyer; the other two members were Frank M. Swacker and Aaron Horovitz. Mr. Meyer brought on Clara Friedman (nee Handelman), with whom he had worked on arbitration boards overseeing New York City transit disputes, as consultant and secretary. Mrs. Friedman was a member of the National Academy of Mediators.
The Emergency Board conducted 20 days of hearings between October 27 and December 1, 1947, considering union proposals for changes in the title, preamble, and 26 working rules of the Local Agreement, and Railway Express Agency proposals for changes in 17 working rules. The mediation was able to dispose of 62 contested matters, the most important being the voluntary agreement between both sides to create Board of Adjustment procedures for arbitrating future grievances.
The Emergency Board recommended a general wage increase and a reduction of work hours from a six day, 44 hour week to a five day, 40 hour week. The other demands of the union, including vacations and holidays, were denied.
The decision in this case was predicated upon its location in the New York City metropolitan area. It declined to set a precedent for other areas or classes of employees.
Extent
1.5 cubic feet
Abstract
Transcripts, exhibits, and reports of United States Emergency Board no. 52. The dispute concerned a contract dispute between the Railway Express Agency and the New York City Metropolitan area Local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Quantity:
1.5 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents), case files .
General
- Contact Information:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel-center
- Compiled by:
- Elizabeth Parker, September 26, 2013
- EAD encoding:
- Elizabeth Parker, December 09, 2017
- Collective bargaining agreements -- Local transit -- New York (State) > New York.
- Strikes and lockouts -- Transport workers -- New York (State) > New York.
- Transport workers -- Labor unions -- New York (State) -- New York
- Transport workers -- New York (State) -- New York
- Wages -- Transport workers -- New York (State) -- New York
- Title
- Emergency Board no. 52 Files
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by Elizabeth Parker
- Date
- December 09, 2017
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Sponsor
- This collection was processed with the help of generous funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Revision Statements
- 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853