Wiley Blount Rutledge

“ The Brotherhoods point to the dangers cumulating in the unadjusted grievances. The Railway Labor Act becomes as ineffective as it was prior to the 1934 amendments; and such a result might well have been anticipated from the destruction of a system that had become customary.
The Court says that it adheres to its previous opinion. Last Term it found that it could not say that the respondents had authorized the union to settle their grievances, and remanded the case for judicial redetermination of the Board's decision. ”

“ A denial of that right will produce no real benefits to individual employees, will impair the effectiveness of representatives as stabilizing influences in this field, will deprive the carriers of any agency to which they may go to secure a final settlement of many vexatious labor controversies and will bring about a general deterioration of relations between employees and management which will necessarily impair the paramount interest of the public in uninterrupted transportation. ”

“ If the custom of the railroad industry rather than the conventional law of agency is to govern, clearly the expert, centralized Board is the appropriate tribunal for ascertaining whether the authorized bargaining agency is authorized to represent the grievances of its members before the Board, and not the multitudinous courts throughout th country with their varying understanding and varying judgments. ”

“ Considering the various factors involved such as the volume of the grievances, the extra burden placed on the committees, and the additional delays which would be encountered, the task of compliance with the technique required by the Court's decision seems calculated to cause a breakdown of grievance handling by employee representatives. It is obvious that handling by individuals or on an individual basis will not work. ”

“ The 'carrier would be free * * * to bargain with each employee for whatever terms its economic power, pitted against his own, might induce him to accept." 'We earnestly urge upon the Court * * * that the collective bargaining process has always been viewed by the participants thereto as including the settlement of grievances and, more particularly, that employers and unions have always considered that they had the power to dispose of grievances on a large scale. ”