Back on the Sidetrack Again

President Kennedy kept his plan for avoiding a nationwide railroad strike a secret right down to the moment he was ready to unwrap it. Only a few members of his own New Frontier team knew what he was going to propose. He wanted to spring his plan on Congress before critics could marshal any arguments. Then, to the White House one day, he summoned a passel of congressional leaders. Seated at the Cabinet Room's spacious, coffin-shaped table, he somberly reported that management and union negotiators were deadlocked, and that federal intervention was the only way out. Then he revealed his secret. He would, he said, ask Congress to empower the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish railroad work rules for a span of two years, during which time a railroad strike or lockout would be illegal.

In Disguise. The tension in the room evaporated in a collective gasp of relief. The legislators had expected Kennedy to ask Congress to settle the dispute by outright compulsory arbitration --a prospect that frightened the politicians, wary of offending organized labor. "This is just right," whispered New York's Republican Senator Jacob Javits. "A ten-strike," murmured Oregon's

Democratic Senator Wayne Morse. Senate Majority Whip Hubert Humphrey, who had expected to face what he considered the impossible task of guiding an arbitration bill through the Senate, settled contentedly back in his chair.

Despite the congressional leaders' relief, the President's plan was a form of compulsory arbitration, but disguised by indefiniteness and delay. Almost by reflex, railroad union leaders grumbled about the plan. Cried Roy E. Davidson, grand chief engineer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers: "This is not only compulsory arbitration, but compulsory arbitration with the added evil of an utterly unfair preferment for the demands of management. The ICC is biased against the labor organizations." But for the unions, the President's plan was actually a good deal. At the very least, it provided delay, and delaying management's proposed rules changes is the unions' essential goal.

If the President's plan was unfair to either side, it was unfair to the railroad companies. Two presidential panels had approved work-rules revisions, and federal courts had upheld management's legal right to impose them. Six times the companies had complied with U.S. Government requests or court orders that they delay putting new work rules into effect. The last time that happened, President Kennedy promised railroad negotiators that he would not ask for another delay.

With new rules scheduled to go into effect this week, members of Congress urged the railroads to accept another delay while Congress deliberates on the President's ICC plan. By agreeing to a 30-day postponement of the announced deadline, the railroads preserved intact their record of going along with every Government request during the four years of the dispute.

Befogged Future. Under the President's plan, the railroads may petition the ICC to establish new rules in the hottest area of dispute, notably the question of whether a fireman will continue riding in the cab of every diesel train, doing no necessary work. The commission must consider the findings of the presidential panels that have already exhaustively examined these issues and decided them in favor of management. The ICC is to act within 120 days "or as soon thereafter as is practicable"--a broad franchise for stalling.

Each decision the ICC hands down is to remain in effect for two years.

For the other issues in dispute, including the formula for setting wages, the prescribed procedures are similar except that management and labor must resume bargaining for 60 days before either side can apply to the ICC. On all issues the two sides are directed to continue bargaining throughout the two-year lifetime of the plan, and if they reach agreement on any point, the ICC ruling on that point will be lifted.

The future of management's proposed work-rules changes is now well befogged. How soon the fog lifts will depend upon the eleven members (six Democrats, five Republicans) of the ICC. Said ICC Chairman Laurence K.

Walrath to the Senate Commerce Com mittee: "This is not a task we would have asked you to give us, but I think we are qualified. We have the staff, the procedures for handling parallel matters; this is not foreign to our experience. We are prepared to give it the priority that is called for." But the ICC also has long had a reputation for painfully slow motion.

From many quarters, the President's plan drew justifiably sharp criticisms. They were well summed up by the usually temperate New York Times: "The author of Profiles in Courage has run away from a tough decision to embrace a politically easy one. President Kennedy has taken the easy way out, and a way that can only do harm to the country, the railroads, and, in the long run, to labor as well."

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