A chronology of the railroad featherbedding battle:

1959

February. The railroads ask the unions to join them in requesting a study by a presidential commission.

June. The unions refuse.

August. The railroads ask President Eisenhower to set up a study commission anyway.

September. Ike declines.

November. The railroads propose a list of work-rules changes, begin negotiations with the unions.

1960

July-October. Switching to another track, the unions ask for a study by a presidential commission. The railroads insist that the commission proposals be binding. The unions balk at that. Finally the railroads agree to a non-binding study.

November. Ike names a 15-member commission.

1961

February-November. Chaired by Lawyer Simon Rifkind, the commission chugs along, amassing a record of 15,306 pages, plus 20,319 pages of exhibits.

1962

February. With its five labor members dissenting, the Rifkind commission submits to President Kennedy a report calling for sweeping changes in work rules.

April-May. Meeting in Chicago, the railroads and the unions hold 20 bargaining sessions on work rules without reaching any agreement.

May-July. The two sides sit through twelve more no-progress sessions under the auspices of the National Mediation Board. The board offers to arbitrate. The railroads agree. The unions refuse.

July. The railroads serve notice that they will put the Rifkind-commission recommendations into effect within 30 days. The unions sue in federal court to derail the plan.

1963

March. The U.S. Supreme Court, 8 to 0 (Justice Goldberg not participating), rejects the union claim that the proposed work-rule changes would violate the Railway Labor Act.

April. After negotiations stall again, the railroads declare they will put the work-rule provisions into effect as of April 8. President Kennedy delays the deadline by appointing a three-man emergency board, headed by ex-Judge Samuel Rosenman.

May. In its report to the President, the Rosenman board in effect upholds the Rifkind-commission findings. The railroads accept the Rosenman recommendations. The unions reject them. At the urging of the Administration, the two sides resume negotiations, this time in Washington.

June. With negotiations getting nowhere, Labor Secretary Wirtz persuades the railroads to postpone their deadline again, from June 12 to June 18. Three days before that deadline, President Kennedy meets with management and union leaders, asks them to keep negotiating until July 10.

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