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N0KFQ > TODAY 25.08.10 17:14l 44 Lines 1913 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 25
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Aug 25, 1950:
Truman orders army to seize control of railroads
On this day in 1950, in anticipation of a crippling strike by
railroad workers, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive
order putting America’s railroads under the control of the U.S.
Army, as of August 27, at 4:00 pm.
Truman had already intervened in another railway dispute when
union employees of the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee
Railway Company threatened to strike in 1948. This time,
however, Truman’s intervention was critical, as he had just
ordered American troops into a war against North Korean
communist forces in June. Since much of America’s economic and
defense infrastructure was dependent upon the smooth functioning
of the railroads, the 1950 strike proposed by two enormous labor
organizations, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the
Order of Railway Conductors, posed an even greater threat. In
July, Truman ordered the formation of an emergency board to
negotiate a settlement between the railroad unions and owners.
The unions ultimately rejected the board’s recommendations and,
by August 25, seemed determined to carry out the strike.
In a public statement that day, Truman insisted that
"governmental seizure [of the railroads] is imperative" for the
protection of American citizens as well as "essential to the
national defense and security of the Nation." He used the same
justification for seizing control of steel plants when the
United Steel Workers union struck later in the year.
The railroad strike lasted for 21 months. Finally, in May 1952,
the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the Order of Railway
Conductors and another union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen and Enginemen, accepted the Truman administration’s
terms and went back to work.
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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