Statement on Signing the
Bill Providing for the Settlement of the Maine Central Railroad-Portland
Terminal Company Labor-Management Dispute
I
have today signed S.J. Res. 415, legislation that will provide for the
settlement of the dispute between the Maine Central Railroad-Portland Terminal
Co. and certain of its employees represented by the Brotherhood of Maintenance
of Way Employees. The settlement is consistent with the recommendations of both
the Presidential Emergency Board that I established by Executive Order 12557
and the report of the Congressional Advisory Board established by Public Law 99
- 385.
I
agree with the remarks of the Members in the House and the Senate who, speaking
in favor of passage of this legislation, expressed reluctance to have the
Federal Government inject itself into the collective bargaining process. Those
Members of Congress noted that throughout the 60-year history of the Railway
Labor Act, the Congress has intervened in negotiations between labor and
management only in extraordinary cases where a continued, unresolved dispute
threatened to deprive the Nation of essential transportation services.
Fortunately, such cases have been rare.
Recently,
however, the smooth functioning of the Railway Labor Act has been severely
upset by Federal court decisions permitting secondary picketing of carriers not
directly involved in a particular dispute. The effect of these decisions is to
create the potential for a national strike in every dispute between labor and
management that is governed by the Railway Labor Act. Secondary picketing is
restricted in virtually all other industries under the National Labor Relations
Act. The administration is submitting to the Congress legislation that will
restore to the Railway Labor Act the same reasonable limitations on secondary
activity that apply to workers in other industries under the National Labor
Relations Act.
The
legislation we will propose is designed to ensure that Federal intervention in
the collective bargaining process, as in the measure I have signed today, is
once again limited to extraordinary disputes of national significance as has
been the case throughout the history of the Railway Labor Act. Until enactment
of such legislation, the only alternative to Federal intervention in any number
of regional disputes will be to accept in each case the threat of a shutdown of
the Nation's rail system. I therefore urge the Congress to give the same speedy
and considered attention to that legislation that it so responsibly devoted to
the passage of S.J. Res. 415.
Note:
S.J. Res. 415, approved September 30, was assigned Public Law No. 99 - 431.