Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company

In 1898, Congress passed the Erdman Act, which provided for the mediation and arbitration of disputes in the railroad industry which involved the operating brotherhoods, telegraphers and switchmen. Within a year after its adoption the switchmen, represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, invoked the law, which failed when its principles were repudiated by the leading railroad companies involved.

The Act provided that when a controversy which could not be solved at the local level arose over rates of pay, working conditions, or grievances, a grand officer of the national organization would take the matter up with the railroads involved. If he failed to secure a settlement the matter was to be referred to the employees for a strike vote. If they voted to strike, a further effort was to be made by the national officer and the road to negotiate a settlement. If this failed either party could apply to the mediators designated in the Erdman Act for the use of their good offices to avert the strike. If the mediator was unable to get the parties to agree, he was authorized to try to get an agreement to submit the dispute to arbitration.

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