The Newlands Labor Act was a 1913 United States federal law, sponsored by Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and drafted by Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Charles Patrick Neill. It created the Board of Mediation and Conciliation (BMC). The BMC was a precursor to today's National Mediation Board (NMB). [1]
In response to railroad strikes during the 1870s and 1880s, [2] Congress passed the Arbitration Act of 1888, which authorized the creation of arbitration panels with the power to investigate the causes of labor disputes and to issue non-binding arbitration awards. [3] The Act was a complete failure: only one panel was ever convened under the Act, and that one, in the case of the 1894 Pullman Strike, issued its report only after the strike had been crushed by a federal court injunction backed by federal troops.
Congress attempted to correct these shortcomings in the Erdman Act, passed in 1898. [4] This law likewise provided for voluntary arbitration, but made any award issued by the panel binding and enforceable in federal court. It also outlawed discrimination against employees for union activities, prohibited "yellow dog" contracts (employee agrees not to join a union while employed), and required both sides to maintain the status quo during any arbitration proceedings and for three months after an award was issued. The arbitration procedures were rarely used.
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Newlands Act on July 15, 1913. [1] The law created the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, which was administered by U.S. Commerce and District Court Judge Martin Augustine Knapp and assisted by U.S. Alabama District Court Judge and Commissioner William Lea Chambers. The Board adjusted and arbitrated disputes between railroad companies and their operating employees, where those disputes threatened to interrupt operation of the carriers to the "serious detriment of the public interest." Voluntary arbitration was also provided for those disputes that could not be settled by mediation.
The Board was functionally replaced on December 26, 1917, by the creation of the United States Railroad Administration, although it continued to exist with its activities restricted to short-line railroads. In 1920, the Esch–Cummins Act (formally called the Transportation Act) created a new Railroad Labor Board which regulated wages and settled disputes, and permanently replaced the duties of the BMC. [5]
On May 20, 1926, Congress repealed the Newlands Labor Act and Title III of the Esch–Cummins Act (which pertained to labor disputes), with the enactment of the Railway Labor Act. [6]
Arbitration, in the context of the law of the United States, is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Specifically, arbitration is an alternative to litigation through which the parties to a dispute agree to submit their respective evidence and legal arguments to a neutral third party for resolution. In practice arbitration is generally used as a substitute for litigation, particularly when the judicial process is perceived as too slow, expensive or biased. In some contexts, an arbitrator may be described as an umpire.
The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, enacted in 1926 and amended in 1934 and 1936, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration, and mediation for strikes to resolve labor disputes. Its provisions were originally enforced under the Board of Mediation, but they were later enforced under a National Mediation Board.
The Mann–Elkins Act, also called the Railway Rate Act of 1910, was a United States federal law that strengthened the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) over railroad rates. The law also expanded the ICC's jurisdiction to include regulation of telephone, telegraph and wireless companies, and created a commerce court.
The Transportation Act, 1920, commonly known as the Esch–Cummins Act, was a United States federal law that returned railroads to private operation after World War I, with much regulation. It also officially encouraged private consolidation of railroads and mandated that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ensure their profitability. The act was named after Rep. John J. Esch and Sen. Albert B. Cummins.
The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of President Harry S. Truman, becoming law on June 23, 1947.
Adair v. United States, 208 U.S. 161 (1908), was a US labor law case of the United States Supreme Court which declared that bans on "yellow-dog" contracts were unconstitutional. The decision reaffirmed the doctrine of freedom of contract which was first recognized by the Court in Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897). For this reason, Adair is often seen as defining what has come to be known as the Lochner era, a period in American legal history in which the Supreme Court tended to invalidate legislation aimed at regulating business.
Wooden railroads, called wagonways, were built in the United States starting from the 1720s. A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia, in New France in 1720. Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War (1756–1763), a gravity railroad called Montresor's Tramway was built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage in Lewiston, New York.
The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was the name of the nationalized railroad system of the United States between December 28, 1917, and March 1, 1920. It was the largest American experiment with nationalization, and was undertaken against a background of war emergency following American entry into World War I. During its brief existence, the USRA made major investments in the United States railroad system, and introduced standardized locomotive and railroad car classes, known as USRA standard. After the end of World War I, while some in the United States advocated for continuing nationalization, ultimately the railroads were returned to their previous owners in early 1920.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), founded in 1947, is an independent agency of the United States government, and the nation's largest public agency for dispute resolution and conflict management, providing mediation services and related conflict prevention and resolution services in the private, public, and federal sectors. FMCS is tasked with mediating labor disputes around the country; it provides training and relationship development programs for management and unions as part of its role in promoting labor-management peace and cooperation. The Agency also provides mediation, conflict prevention, and conflict management services outside the labor context for federal agencies and the programs they operate. The FMCS headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., with other offices across the country.
The National Mediation Board (NMB) is an independent agency of the United States government that coordinates labor-management relations within the U.S. railroads and airlines industries.
The National Civic Federation (NCF) was an American economic organization founded in 1900 which brought together chosen representatives of big business and organized labor, as well as consumer advocates in an attempt to ameliorate labor disputes. It favored moderate progressive reform and sought to resolve disputes arising between industry and organized labor.
Benjamin Aaron was an American attorney, labor law scholar and civil servant. He is known for his work as an arbitrator and mediator, and for helping to advance the development of the field of comparative labor law in the United States.
The Erdman Act of 1898 was a United States federal law regulating railroad labor disputes. The law provided arbitration for disputes between the interstate railroads and their workers organized into unions.
Charles Patrick Neill was an American civil servant who was raised in Austin, Texas, after his family emigrated from Ireland in 1850. Neill graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1897 with a doctorate in economics and politics. He was appointed the United States Commissioner of Labor in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. As Commissioner of Labor he helped inspect the Meat Packing industries, and reported women and child labor injustices. He also mediated labor disputes between workers and employers in the coal, railroad, and steel corporations.
Martin Augustine Knapp was a United States circuit judge of the United States Commerce Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States Circuit Courts for the Second Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
William Lea Chambers was a United States federal judge.
George Wallace William Hanger was a mediator for the Federal Board of Mediation and Conciliation and held other positions for government agencies involved in the resolution of labor disputes.
The Railroad Labor Board (RLB) was an institution established in the United States of America by the Transportation Act of 1920. This nine-member panel was designed as means of settling wage disputes between railway companies and their employees. The Board's approval of wage reductions for railroad shopmen was instrumental in triggering the Great Railroad Strike of 1922. The Board was terminated on May 20, 1926 when President Calvin Coolidge signed a new Railway Labor Act into law.
The Order of Railroad Telegraphers (ORT) was a United States labor union established in the late nineteenth century to promote the interests of telegraph operators working for the railroads.
The United States Conciliation Service was an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor that existed from 1913 until 1947 whose role was to bring labor disputes to a settlement through mediation.
