At the bargaining session in late May in Washington, DC, a representative of the National Railway Labor Conference, the group which represents the railroads in collective bargaining, handed BMWE President Mac A. Fleming a copy of the complaint they had filed in Texas on May 26.

The railroads - Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Conrail, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific - sued to force the BMWE to give 10 days' notice prior to "engaging in strikes, work stoppages, picketing, or other forms of self-help in connection with disputes over collective bargaining agreements with the plaintiff railroads."

In their suit, the railroads claim the BMWE "for nearly a decade ... has pursued a policy or practice" of declaring its disagreements with railroads to be "unilateral changes" in collective bargaining agreements and engaged in a "campaign of strikes" which have hurt service and damaged customer relationships.

"BMWE simply does not go on strike because it has heartburn," BMWE General Counsel William Bon told Frank Wilner of Traffic World. "BMWE's strikes, said Bon, have not been over differences in contract interpretation, but over unilateral actions by the carriers to avoid what railroads had agreed to." The railroads will sign agreements to avoid strikes over failed contract talks, "but when the ink is hardly dry they begin prolonged sharp-shooting to get back what they gave up at the bargaining table," said Bon. "Once the contract is signed they want to put us in an endless, interminable, recede-into-the-distance house of mirrors arbitration process."

Bon noted that the relief - 10 days' notice - sought by the carriers is not permitted under the 1932 Norris-LaGuardia Act, which prohibits every court from issuing restraining orders or injunctions in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute in most instances. The law also immunizes striking unions from civil suits for damages.

It is assumed the carriers want the courts to order the BMWE to give 10 days notice so that the railroads can seek restraining orders based upon the promise of a strike from railroad friendly district court judges.

The BMWE recently learned that the BNSF has gone to court at least four times in the last two years seeking injunctions because management had heard rumors of a strike. The carriers are simply attempting to get the courts to legislate changes that Congress has not made by manipulating the courts to create and enforce a 10 day notice of strike provision even though it isn't in any statute. BNSF's outrageous filings were withdrawn, but the suit filed by all of the railroads is frivolous and seeks the same relief - a court created statute for a strike notice.