Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190490
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The court, by a 7-2 vote, said Congress intended to protect against union interference with rail mergers when it passed the Transportation Act of 1920.
Today's decision overturned a federal appeals court ruling that had in two separate cases restrained the ICC from overriding collective bargaining agreements.
In one case, Norfolk and Western Railway Co. and the Southern Railway Co. announced in 1986 plans to merge operations centers in Roanoke, Va., and Atlanta. The Court limits suits filed by members against unions. A2 consolidation eliminated some supervisory jobs at Roanoke.
The American Train Dispatchers Association said the plans violated the union's contract with Norfolk and Western.
In the other case, the commission approved in 1980 CSX's acquisition of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries.
CSX decided in 1986 to close its freight car repair shop at Waycross, Ga., and to transfer work done there to a Chessie System shop in Raceland, Ky.
The transfer meant eliminating jobs and transferring some Waycross employees to Raceland. Transferred workers were told they no longer could count on lifetime income guaranteed by the contract signed by CSX and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen.
The ICC in both cases said the railroads were exempt from the union contracts, but the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here ruled that the commission lacked such power.
Today's decision reinstated the commission rulings.
The 1920 transportation act, as amended, says railroads that have the Interstate Commerce Commission's permission to merge are exempt "from the antitrust laws and from all other law, including state and municipal law, as necessary to . . . carry out the transaction."
Writing for the court today, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the "all other law" language was meant to include private contracts.
Justices John Paul Stevens and Thurgood Marshall dissented.
"I cannot subscribe to a late-blooming interpretation of a 71-year-old immunity statute that gives the commission a roving power - exercisable years after a merger has been approved and consummated - to impair the obligations of private contracts," Stevens wrote for the two.
by CNB