U.S. Code » Title 45 » Chapter CHAPTER 8— RAILWAY LABOR › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— GENERAL PROVISIONS

45 U.S.C. § 151

Definitions; short title

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When used in this chapter and for the purposes of this chapter—

First. The term “carrier” includes any railroad subject to the jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board, any express company that would have been subject to subtitle IV of title 49, as of December 31, 1995,,11 So in original. and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by or under common control with any carrier by railroad and which operates any equipment or facilities or performs any service (other than trucking service) in connection with the transportation, receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, and handling of property transported by railroad, and any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the business of any such “carrier”: Provided, however, That the term “carrier” shall not include any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general steam-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general steam-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power. The Surface Transportation Board is authorized and directed upon request of the Mediation Board or upon complaint of any party interested to determine after hearing whether any line operated by electric power falls within the terms of this proviso. The term “carrier” shall not include any company by reason of its being engaged in the mining of coal, the supplying of coal to a carrier where delivery is not beyond the mine tipple, and the operation of equipment or facilities therefor, or in any of such activities.

Second. The term “Adjustment Board” means the National Railroad Adjustment Board created by this chapter.

Third. The term “Mediation Board” means the National Mediation Board created by this chapter.

Fourth. The term “commerce” means commerce among the several States or between any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia and any foreign nation, or between any Territory or the District of Columbia and any State, or between any Territory and any other Territory, or between any Territory and the District of Columbia, or within any Territory or the District of Columbia, or between points in the same State but through any other State or any Territory or the District of Columbia or any foreign nation.

Fifth. The term “employee” as used herein includes every person in the service of a carrier (subject to its continuing authority to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of his service) who performs any work defined as that of an employee or subordinate official in the orders of the Surface Transportation Board now in effect, and as the same may be amended or interpreted by orders hereafter entered by the Board pursuant to the authority which is conferred upon it to enter orders amending or interpreting such existing orders: Provided, however, That no occupational classification made by order of the Surface Transportation Board shall be construed to define the crafts according to which railway employees may be organized by their voluntary action, nor shall the jurisdiction or powers of such employee organizations be regarded as in any way limited or defined by the provisions of this chapter or by the orders of the Board.

The term “employee” shall not include any individual while such individual is engaged in the physical operations consisting of the mining of coal, the preparation of coal, the handling (other than movement by rail with standard railroad locomotives) of coal not beyond the mine tipple, or the loading of coal at the tipple.

Sixth. The term “representative” means any person or persons, labor union, organization, or corporation designated either by a carrier or group of carriers or by its or their employees, to act for it or them.

Seventh. The term “district court” includes the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; and the term “court of appeals” includes the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

This chapter may be cited as the “Railway Labor Act.”

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2,195 cases (136 in the last 5 years), 1928–2026 · leading case: Atl. Coast Line R.R. v. Bhd. of Locomotive Engineers, 398 U.S. 281 (1970).
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Atl. Coast Line R.R. v. Bhd. of Locomotive Engineers, 398 U.S. 281 (1970). · cites it 8× “577 , as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq., and that that right could not be interfered with by state court injunctions.”
Rufo v. Inmates of Suffolk Cnty. Jail, 502 U.S. 367 (1992). · cites it 4× “A railroad and its unions were sued for violating the Railway Labor Act, 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq., which banned discrimination against nonunion employees, and the parties entered a consent decree that prohibited such discrimination.”
Repub. Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650 (1965). · cites it 6× “1185 (1934), 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq. (1958 ed.). [6] See infra, p.”
Bhd. of R.R. Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 394 U.S. 369 (1969). · cites it 6× “577 , as amended, 45 U. S. C. §§ 151 First, Fourth; Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, § 1 (3), 24 Stat.”
Local 514 Transp. Workers Union v. Keating, 2003 OK 110 (Okla. 2003). · cites it 8× “[2] 45 U.S.C. §§ 151 , et seq. [3] 5 U.S.C. §§ 7101 , et seq.”
Bishop v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n, 900 F.3d 388 (7th Cir. 2018). · cites it 2× “In 2003, when United Airlines was in the throes of bankruptcy, United and ALPA negotiated a concessionary collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") that resulted in wage and benefit cuts.”
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R.R. v. Ry. Labor Executives' Ass'n, 491 U.S. 490 (1989). · cites it 4× “577 , as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq.; the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA), 49 U.”
Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc., 424 U.S. 554 (1976). · cites it 2× “577 , as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq., involved a claim that a railroad had wrongfully deprived plaintiff of his seniority and that the union had failed in its duty to protest.”
Air Line Pilots Ass'n, Int'l, Cross v. United Air Lines, Inc., Cross-Appellee, 802 F.2d 886 (7th Cir. 1986). · cites it 5× “With respect to these issues, ALPA filed suit alleging various violations of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, 45 U.S.C. § 151 et seq. (1982) (the “RLA” or the “Act”).”
Marek v. Chesny, 473 U.S. 1 (1985). · cites it 2× “577 , 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq., are both designed to regulate the hours and wages of covered employees.”
Local No. 93, Int'l Ass'n of Firefighters v. City of Cleveland, 478 U.S. 501 (1986). · cites it 2× “When the Act was amended several years later to permit union shops, the unions moved to modify the consent decree; their motion was opposed by the plaintiffs and by the railroad.”
Consol. Rail Corp. v. Gottshall, 512 U.S. 532 (1994). · cites it 2× “577 , as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 151 et seq. See 480 U. S., at 564-567 .”
Show all 2,195 citing cases →
— 45 U.S.C. § 151(5) — 1 case
Bhd. of Ry. & S.S. Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employees v. Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co., 94 F.2d 97 (6th Cir. 1937).
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.