Show Railroad Impasse Is Rail's Sole The railroad unions' complete intransigence combined the railroad companies' unwillingness to compromise seem destined to result in a situation where compulsory arbitration is the only The issues involved appear to be The railroad companies want to do away with what they say are unneeded particularly those of almost firemen on oil-burning diesel to save million a The unions reply that firemen are necessary for and in any case they are unwilling to give up members' livelihoods without a Negotiations between the unions and companies began in but bogged down after a In 1960 the request of both President Eisenhower appointed the commission to study the After 14 months of hearings and on-the-spot the commission issued a report recommending extensive revisions in work rules and wage-base The report also recommended that the release of unneeded workers be cushioned with long advance notices and generous severance plus with companies paying 75 of the The intransigent from almost the beginning rejected the The companies at first accepted the but later rejected it with the rationale that a change on the part of the companies from their original position would signal the start of another series of battles between the A strike by railroad brotherhoods cannot be allowed to take The immediate results of such a according to the President's Council of Economic would be a stoppage of the shipment of certain chemicals and perishable The Council forecasts that a strike would not only put rail workers off the but would also cause six million non-railroad layoffs within 30 days as plants ran out of raw materials and the unemployment rate would soon reach 15 Faced with the untenable prospect of such a strike President Kennedy in a message to Congress proposed a joint resolution to deal with the emergency which provided that issues involving the of trains be submitted to the Interstate Commerce Oc for decision within days of their submission and that the two sides would bargain about other issues for up to 60 days before submitting unsettled disputes to the Although the President denies the charge that such a- procedure would be compulsory it is obvious that if such were passed the precedent for future government intervention in settling disputes would be set the trend |