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GUY L. BROWN SUCCEEDS J. P. SHIELDS
James P. Shields was to have but a short term in office: three years. He was busily engaged in the national wage rules movement in conjunction with the other railroad operating brotherhoods which culminated in an award, made in March, 1953. Three months later Shields succumbed to a heart attack while at his desk at the Grand Office. In July of the same year, at the 12th Triennial Convention, Guy L. Brown was elected grand chief engineer.
Brown, who had been first assistant grand chief engineer, moved up automatically upon the death of J. P. Shields, and was later electe to a threeyear term at the ensuing convention.
During the years 195354, the BLE seeking to restore skill differentials, agreed to arbitration of its wage demands. The award was highly disappointing. But later, in 1957, the carriers did recognize the skill differential principle, and a wage settlement resulted through negotiation with the BLE.
During 1959 the railroads mounted a multimillion dollar advertising and public relations campaign against locomotive engineers, firemenhelpers, and other operating employees, accusing them of "featherbedding" practices. This distortion of fact served to cloud the public image of all railroad workers in general and damaged the reputation of the carriers.
In 1960, the BLE, again accepting arbitration of wage demands, won a four per cent, twostep increase in the face of the railroad's proposal for a 15centanhour cut. The award set a pattern for settlement throughout the rail industry.
On July 31, 1960, Grand Chief Engineer Guy Brown retired from the Brotherhood's number one post for reasons of health, and was succeeded in office by First Assistant Grand Chief Engineer Roy E. Davidson. Davidson, who had been general chairman on the Illinois Division of the Indiana Harbor Belt before he was elected assistant grand chief engineer, was elected unanimously for a continued term at the 14th Triennial Convention in 1962.
As chief executive of the senior organization, he served as spokesman for the five operating organizations when work rules conferences were resumed in April, 1962, following the report of the Presidential Railroad Commission.
100TH ANNIVERSARY OBSERVED
He also was the Centennial Grand Chief. On May 58,1963, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers celebrated its 100th birthday with a fourday meeting in Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. At the same time, the Diamond Jubilee of the Grand International Auxiliary was observed 75 years a helpmate to the BLE. One of the highlights of the celebration was a train trip to Marshall, Michigan to visit the site of the founding of the BLE when a few dissident locomotive engineers gathered, 100 years previously, to see what they could do to better their working conditions and improve the status of their craft.
BLE Centennial caps were worn by G.E. Carpenter, Centennial Committee Chairman, and Grand Chief engineer Roy E. Davidson, right.
One of the spots visited there was the BLE monument commemorating the Brotherhood's founding. This impressive marker is located in the heart of the town.
Davidson's years in office were eventful but short. During this time the merger bid of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen a perennial question on the part of the junior organization was again rejected by the BLE as being not realistic or at all beneficial to the Locomotive Engineers.
Much of Davidson's four years in office were occupied with work rules agreements which had to do with holidays, overtime, awayfromhome expenses, combining road and yard service, wage cuts, shift differentials, and interdivisional service. At the same time the BLE fought the carriers' move to take firemen out of locomotives on the charge that these men were nonessential and were merely "featherbedding."
In connection with this fight over a period of years from 1959 to 1964, the BLE spent $1 million from its general fund to aid the firemen in this prolonged work rules dispute. This sum represented the cost of lawyers, economists, committees, office space, and stenographic help in Washington, D.C., public relations and advertising and preparation and printing of exhibits and reports. This was primarily an effort to defend the firemen. In the end, the Arbitration Board No. 282 Award protected firemen with 10 years or more seniority, provided for separation settlements for firemen who wanted to take a severance pay, and stipulated certain firemen's positions which could not be abolished.
The CAPE program "Calling All Promoted Engineers" to recruit more members for the BLE was launched and a heavy campaign resulted in an appreciable increase of membership for the Engineers.
Lack of progress with work rules on the Illinois Central finally resulted in a twoday strike, ended only after the rail brotherhoods accepted President Lyndon B. Johnson's request for a 15day truce. Before the truce expired an agreement was reached.
A LABOR LEADER MISSED BY MANY
"His wise counsel and statesmanlike approach to our mutual problems will be sorely missed." Those words were spoken by Walter J. Tuohy, chief executive officer of the Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. They were said of Grand Chief Roy Davidson who passed away after a short illness in 1964.
Davidson's untimely death came on July 6 of that year, two days after his 63rd birthday. Moved up to the top post was Perry S. Heath, who had been first assistant grand chief engineer. C. J. Coughlin was elected to succeed him.
Heath, born in Holland, Michigan in 1899, hired out on the Santa Fe at Pueblo, Colorado in 1916, worked a year as a machinist's helper, then went firing, becoming promoted to the righthand side in 1925. He joined BLE Div. 505 at La Junta, Colo. in 1938, and became its local chairman in 1943.
He was elected general chairman of the Santa Fe proper November, 1945, and elected an assistant grand chief engineer in 1953. He headed the BLE National Wage Committee in 195960 and again in 196364, at which time the established railroad wage pattern was broken, with engineers represented by the BLE receiving the largest single wage increase known to the industry.
Coughlin, who had been in charge of the BLE's Chicago office since 1962, came to his new position in Cleveland after having been general chairman on the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway.
"A brother dies but the Brotherhood goes on," said the new grand chief engineer. And so it did. The year 1964 was a busy one for Brotherhood affairs. Nonoperating unions had already tied up the Florida East Coast Railway for 19 months with a strike over a refusal to grant standard wages. And because of that road's refusal to arbitrate work rules, BLE members, too, were forced to declare their strike action. The railroad, dominated by powerful financial interests, continued to be operated by scab labor.
APPRENTICE PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN THE CRAFT
Another noteworthy event for the Brotherhood was the launching of the BLE apprentice engineer program. Grand Chief Heat said, "The BLE program will define the journeymanapprentice relationship, will assure the railroads of a stable supply of locomotive engineers, and eventually will assure stable employment and earnings to apprentices. Nothing in the program will impair the rights and equities of men now working as firemen. This is a longrange program that will benefit the employees, the railroads, and the economy."
Perry S. Heath, grand chief engineer from 1964 to 1969, is shown here in his office holding his book, "Crusade for the 60s."
The same year 1964 saw the introduction of a Health and Welfare Program under which the railroads would pay $23 per month per employee to a large insurance firm selected to finance the group plan. The plan offers hospitalization, surgical, and medical benefits as well as life and accident insurance. This was said to be one of the largest gains ever achieved in one agreement.
The midnight oil burned brightly during the year 1965 over the proposed giant rail mergers. All of railroad labor was opposed to these huge combinations, yet at the same time, BLE committees had to study their strategy in the event that such mergers would come about.
Noteworthy during 1965 were the BLE agreements with eastern railroads and others which saved jobs for firemen in the event of repeal of state full crew laws. During the same year engineers on the Illinois Central voted by better than 63 per cent to be represented by the BLE.
Repeated efforts by the carriers during 1966 threatened many passenger train cancellations, many of which were opposed by the BLE as being a hardship not only on the railroad workers, but also on the communities and passengers which these trains served.
Historic apprentice engineer agreements were signed by the BLE on the Louisville & Nashville R.R. and on the Alabama State DocksTerminal Railway.
At the 1966 convention Grand Chief Perry S. Heath easily won reelection against the two candidates nominated to oppose him. First Assistant Grand Chief Engineer C. J. Coughlin and General SecretaryTreasurer John F. Sytsma were unopposed.
The BLE, in 1966, won the vote for locomotive engineer representation on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. This was the first of a series of contests with the firemen's organization for representation. Later in the year the BLE also confirmed its representation on the Canadian National, the Chicago River & Indiana, and on the Clinchfield. The BLF & E withdrew its bid to represent engineers on the Grand Trunk Western, leaving the field to the senior organization.
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