Title: Wisconsin. Employment Relations Board: Public Utility Labor Dispute Case Files
Inclusive Dates: 1947-1951

Creator:

• Wisconsin. Employment Relations Board

Call Number: Series 1811

Quantity: 4.8 c.f. (4 record center cartons, 2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Case files on labor disputes between public utility employees and their employers. Included are rules of procedure; lists of conciliators and arbitrators; transcripts of hearings before the Board; union and company exhibits introduced in those hearings; conciliators' reports; arbitrators' awards; correspondence; court orders, motions, and stipulations; and copies of court opinions. Regulation of the public utility bargaining process was authorized by the Wisconsin Public Utility Anti-Strike Law, Chapter 414, Laws of Wisconsin, 1947, which was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in 1951.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-ser01811

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Alphabetical by case.

For a period of almost four years, the state of Wisconsin regulated the collective bargaining process between public utility employers and their employes through the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board. Chapter 414, Laws of 1947, the Public Utility Anti-Strike Law, created section 20.585 and subchapter III of chapter 111 of the statutes. The law proscribed public utility employe strikes, lockouts, work stoppages, or slowdowns likely to cause interruptions of essential public utility services, which were defined as water, light, heat, gas, electric power, public passenger transportation, and communications. Instead, the law provided a means for settlement by conciliation or arbitration of labor disputes in which negotiations had reached impasse or stalemate. Declaring it to be in the public interest to facilitate prompt, peaceful, and just settlement of labor disputes which threatened to interrupt essential public utility services, the law stated that such interruptions resulted in damage and injury to the public and created an emergency situation justifying the action for which the law provided.

Within thirty days of the effective date of the law, the Board was directed to appoint a panel of persons to serve as conciliators or arbitrators. When an impasse occurred in contract negotiations and either party petitioned the Board, the Board was empowered first to appoint a conciliator to meet with the parties to attempt to settle the dispute. In the event that conciliation failed, the Board was authorized to submit a list of names of arbitrators to the parties; each side was allowed to strike alternately one name from the list. Standards were established to govern the decisions of the arbitrators which were final and binding, subject to judicial review.

The constitutionality of the Public Utility Anti-Strike Law was challenged in two cases, the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transport Company, Case V and the Milwaukee Gas Light Company, Case X, when the unions representing the public utility employes appealed the arbitration orders to circuit court and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Both courts upheld the constitutionality of the law. These court rulings were subsequently appealed to the United States Supreme Court; and in decisions issued February 26, 1951 (340 U.S. 383 and 340 U.S. 411) the Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts and declared the law unconstitutional. Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Fred Vinson ruled that the Wisconsin law conflicted with federal legislation, specifically the Federal Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (the Taft-Hartley Act), which safeguarded the employes' rights to engage in peaceful strikes. Concurrent state regulation which effectively limited the right to strike could not be permitted. Further, the Wisconsin Supreme Court had sought to distinguish between federal regulation of national manufacturing organizations and local public utilities. However, Chief Justice Vinson ruled that Congress had chosen to draw no such distinctions and to regulate labor relations to the full extent of its constitutional power under the Commerce Clause. Previous U. S. Supreme Court cases had held that federal labor legislation encompassed all industries affecting commerce, whether privately owned local public utilities whose business activities were carried out wholly within one state or national industries affecting interstate commerce. The U. S. Supreme Court also rejected the respondent's argument that Congress had intended to regulate only labor disputes threatening “national emergencies,” leaving the states free to regulate “local emergency” situations. Chief Justice Vinson emphasized that the Wisconsin Act was not, in fact, emergency legislation, but a comprehensive code for the settlement of all labor disputes between public utility employers and employes. With the ruling of the U. S. Supreme Court, Wisconsin's attempt to govern the public utility employe bargaining process came to an end.

Arranged alphabetically by case name, the case files span the years 1947 to 1951, the entire period of time during which Wisconsin regulated the bargaining process between public utility employers and their employes. The records include rules of procedure of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board; list of conciliators and arbitrators; transcripts of hearings before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board; union and company exhibits introduced in those hearings; conciliators' reports; arbitrators' awards; correspondence; court orders, motions, and stipulations; and copies of court opinions delivered when the decision of the arbitrators was appealed, including a copy of the U. S. Supreme Court decisions which invalidated the Public Utility Anti-Strike Law in 1951. Also included is a summary of all 43 cases prosecuted under the law, showing name of employer, number of employes, name of union representing employes, by whom petition to Wisconsin Employment Relations Board filed, and method of settlement of case. The fronts of the folders of the case files are annotated, providing an excellent summary of the major developments in each case.

Processing Information

Processed by Nancy Kaufer, June 1978.

Box   1 Folder   1	Rules of Procedure adopted under subchapter III of chapter 111, Wisconsin Statutes, 1947
Box   1 Folder   2	List of Conciliators and Arbitrators, 1947
Box   1 Folder   3	General Correspondence, 1947-1948, 1950
Box   1 Folder   4	Final Summary of Closed Public Utility Cases, September 1, 1947-February 26, 1951
Box   1 Folder   5	Adams-Marquette Electrical Cooperative, Case III, 1948
Box   1 Folder   6	Barron County Electric Cooperative, Case I, 1948
	Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative
Box   1 Folder   7	Case II, 1949
Box   1 Folder   8	Case III, 1950
	Clark County Electric Cooperative
Box   1 Folder   9	Case IV, 1947
	Case VI,
Box   1 Folder   10	General, 1949
Box   1 Folder   11	Transcripts, 1949
Box   1 Folder   12	Union Exhibits, 1949
Box   1 Folder   13	Company Exhibits, 1949
Box   1 Folder   14	Case VII, 1950
Box   1 Folder   15	Commonwealth Telephone Company, Case I, 1948
	Dairyland Power Cooperative
Box   1 Folder   16	Case X, 1948
Box   1 Folder   17	Case XI, 1948
Box   1 Folder   18	Case XIV, 1948-1949
	Case XV,
Box   1 Folder   19	General, 1950
Box   1 Folder   20	Transcript, 1950
Box   1 Folder   21	Exhibits, 1950
	Dunn County Valley Electric Cooperative
Box   1 Folder   22	Case I, 1948-1949
	Case II,
Box   1 Folder   23	General, 1949
Box   2 Folder   1	Transcripts and Exhibits, 1949
	Eau Claire Electric Cooperative
	Case I,
Box   2 Folder   2	General, 1949
Box   2 Folder   3	Transcript and Exhibits, 1949
	Case II
Box   2 Folder   4	General, 1950
Box   2 Folder   5	Transcripts, 1950
Box   2 Folder   6	Union Exhibits, 1950
Box   2 Folder   7	Madison Bus Company, Case II, 1949
	Madison Gas and Electric Company
Box   2 Folder   8	Case I, 1948
Box   2 Folder   9	Case III, 1949
	Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transport Company, Case V,
Box   2 Folder   10	General, 1948-1951
Box   2 Folder   11	Transcript, Part I, 1949
Box   3 Folder   1	Transcript, Part II, 1949
Box   3 Folder   2	Transcript, Part III, 1949
Box   3 Folder   3	Transcript, Part IV, 1949
Box   3 Folder   4	Union Exhibits, 1949
Box   3 Folder   5	Request for Declaratory Judgment in re Chapter 414, Laws of 1947, 1949-1951
	Milwaukee Gas Light Company
	Case VIII
Box   3 Folder   6	General, 1947
Box   3 Folder   7	Case Summary, 1947
Box   3 Folder   8	Union Exhibits, 1947
Box   3 Folder   9	Company Exhibits, 1947
Box   3 Folder   10	Case X, 1949-1951
Box   3 Folder   11	Milwaukee Solvay Coke Company, Case IV, 1949
Box   3 Folder   12	Price Company Electric Cooperative, Case III, 1950
Box   3 Folder   13	Rhinelander Telephone Company, Case IV, 1950
Box   4 Folder   1	Trempealeau County Electric Cooperative, Case II, 1950
	Urban Telephone Company
Box   4 Folder   2	Case II, 1948
Box   4 Folder   3	Case IV, 1949
Box   4 Folder   4	Case V, 1950
Box   4 Folder   5	Wausau Gas Company, Case II, 1950
	Western Electric Company
	Case I,
Box   4 Folder   6	General, 1950
Box   4 Folder   7	Exhibits, Motions, and Union Memoranda, 1950
Box   4 Folder   8	Case II, 1950
Box   4 Folder   9	Western Union Company, Case I, 1947-1948
	Wisconsin Electric Power Company
	Case XVIII,
Box   4 Folder   10	General, 1948-1949
Box   4 Folder   11	Transcript, 1948-1949
Box   4 Folder   12	Union and Company Exhibits, 1948-1949
Box   4 Folder   13	Case XIX, 1950-1951
	Wisconsin Hydro-Electric Company
Box   4 Folder   14	Case II, 1948
	Case IV,
Box   4 Folder   15	General, 1949
Box   4 Folder   16	Transcript and Exhibits, 1949
Box   4 Folder   17	Case V, 1951
	Wisconsin Telephone Company
	Case IV,
Box   5 Folder   1	General, 1948-1949
Box   5 Folder   2	Exhibits, 1948-1949
Box   5 Folder   3	Case VI, 1948
Box   6 Folder   1	Wisconsin Telephone Company, Case VII, 1948
	Case X,
Box   6 Folder   2	General, 1950
Box   6 Folder   3	Exhibits, 1950
Box   6 Folder   4	Case XI, 1950