The U.S. Presidential Railroad Commission was established by Executive Order No. 10891 of November 1, 1960, to consider a controversy between carriers represented by the Eastern, Western, and Southeastern Carriers' Conference Committees and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Switchmen's Union of North America.
Specifically, the controversy surrounded the assertion by the carriers that firemen were not needed on diesel locomotives and that their positions should be eliminated. The unions, on the other hand, maintained that modern diesel locomotives were much too complex to be operated by one engineer and that firemen were necessary to ensure safety. Seventy-nine witnesses appeared before the Commission and statements were filed on behalf of one hundred and fifty-five additional witnesses.
Consist of the transcript of the hearings, exhibits presented by carriers and unions, and studies prepared by the staff of the Commission.
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United States. Presidential Railroad Commission documents, #5003. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
5526. United States. Presidential Railroad Commission. Arbitration Board 282.
Included are studies, reports, statistical compilations, arbitration awards, work rules, examinations, agreements, photographs and other documentation bearing on manning issues, wages and fringe benefits, safety, and job security in the railroad industry, and special allowances in the airline industry, as well as comparative data with other forms of transportation. Also rebuttal testimony to carrier exhibits and statements. Substantive documents relate to the New York Central System, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, and the Missouri Pacific Lines, among others.
Include studies, awards, statements, statistical data, photographs, and other documentation relating to the firemen manning issue, working conditions on the railroads, accidents, labor costs, the job content of train service employees and engineers, and testimony rebutting union arguments. Substantive documents relate to the New York Central System, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the Netherlands Railways, the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Boston and Maine Railroad Company, the Illinois Central Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, and the Pennsylvania Railroad, among others.