Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, ICC, and Erie Lackawanna Briefs Regarding the Railroad Merger

The merger between the Erie Railroad Company and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad [DLW] was approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission [ICC] on September 15, 1960. The DLW, its properties and franchises, were put under the complete control of the Erie Railroad Company, resulting in the creation of the Erie-Lakawanna Railroad Company [ELRR]. Both the Erie and the DLW had been losing revenue in the post-war period due to a decline in passenger and freight traffic, most notably the decline in use of anthracite coal which had been the mainstay of DLW's freight operations. This was compunded by the rise of the interstate highway system and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which provided direct access to the Great Lakes and further eroded their customer base. The Erie and DLW, long-time rivals and covering similar geographic areas, started to merge operations in 1956 in an attempt to make the company profitable. As a result of this merger, an estimated 4,000 jobs would be abolished or transferred to other locations, resulting in hardship for both the affected employees as well as any employee of lesser seniority who would be displaced, or "bumped," by an employee with greater seniority.



In an attempt to protect their members, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees [BMWE] and the Railroad Labor Executives Association [RLEA], filed suit in U.S. District Court, seeking to halt the merger. The BMWE was the authorized collective bargaining representative for maintenace of way workers on both the Erie and the DLW; the RLEA, an association of 22 railroad union executives, filed as party-intervenor in the proceedings before the ICC. Their efforts ultimately proved fruitless, as the merger was allowed to proceed as planned, and the employees were compensated by the so-called "New Orleans conditions" as originally delineated by the ICC.