Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Company Offices of Vice-President & General Manager Representative Files
Collection Number: 5550
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
This collection was processed with the help of generous funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).Title:
Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway
Company Offices of Vice-President & General Manager Representative Files,
1931- 1939
Collection Number:
5550
Creator:
Wheeling &;
Lake Erie Railway Company (W&;
LE);
United States. National Mediation Board.
Lake Erie Railway Company (W&;
LE);
United States. National Mediation Board.
Quantity:
1 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents) .
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Files of the Vice President and General Manager of the
Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Company consisting of circulars from the National
Mediation Board regarding employee representation.
Language:
Collection material in English
The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Company [WLE] was a railroad that operated
primarily in Ohio from 1871 to 1988. The railroad was designed to connect the coal fields around Wheeling, West Virginia
with port cities on Lake Erie. In 1948, the WLE was leased to the Nickel Plate Road (New York, Chicago and St. Louis
Railroad). In 1988, the WLE was merged into Norfolk and Western Railway.
Inclusive date range: 1931-1939
Bulk dates: 1934-1938
This collection is comprised of circulars issued by the National Mediation Board [NMB]
regarding the representation of railroad employees by labor unions as per the 1934 amendment
to the Railway Labor Act [RLA]. The NMB was created by Congress in the 1934 amendment to the RLA;
it was the successor agency to the government appointed Board of Mediation which had previously
intervened in those disputes between carriers and organized labor that could not be settled by
boards of adjustment. One of the main thrusts of the 1934 amendment to the RLA was to ensure that
railroad employees were able to join a union voluntarily and without interference from management.
This was intended to both protect the workers and to do away with company unions, which
disproportionately affected employees in non-operating crafts. The company unions, which were
dominated by the company management, limited effective collective bargaining because all the parties
were acting in the interests of the company management. The 1934 amendment to the RLA created an
election system by which all employees designated in a specific class or craft could cast a ballot
for a specific union; the union which gained the support of the majority of those employees was
then certified and designated by the NMB as the representative for those employees.
The circulars in this collection, the majority of which are from the 1324 series, are the
decisions by the NMB regarding the representation of the employees of various carriers in
NMB designated crafts and classes. The circulars are arranged by issue number, with additional
decisions, amendments, court proceedings, and other related records to individual certifications
filed in reverse chronological order.
This collection also contains NMB circulars 1321 through 1321-3 and individual
circulars from other series, as well as a letter to the Wheeling and Lake Erie
Railway Company from the NMB alerting the Vice-President of the Railway and the
president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees to the closing of Case
No. A-127.
Names:
Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Company
Subjects:
United States. National Mediation Board.
Railroads -- United States.
Railroads -- Employees -- Labor unions -- United
States.
Collective bargaining -- Railroads -- United
States.
United States. Railway Labor Act.
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a
reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet
and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Company Offices of Vice-President & General
Manager Representative Files #5550. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1934-1937 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1934-1936 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1935-1937 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 4 | 1935-1938 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 5 | 1936-1937 | |
|
Missing NMB Circulars 1324-77; 1324-78(e); 1324-81; 1324-89
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 6 | 1936-1937 | |
|
Missing NMB Circulars 1324-98; 1324-117; 1324-125
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 7 | 1936-1937 | |
|
Missing NMB Circular 1324- 140
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 8 | 1937-1938 | |
|
Missing NMB Circulars 1324-166; 1324-167; 1324-183; 1324-190 to 1324-200;
1324-202 to 1324-205; 1324-209 to 1324-217.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 9 | 1938-1939 | |
|
Missing NMB Circulars 1324-222 to 1324-226; 1324-229 to 1324-231;
1324-235.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 10 | 1939 | |
|
Missing NMB Circulars 1324-257; 1324-626; 1324-266; 1324- 267; 1324-271.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 11 | 1934-1935 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 12 | 1936 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 13 | 1931-1938 | |