May 6: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1959:  Hearings are held for unit determinations of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority‘s labor bargaining units

LAMTA employees install new bus stop signs, ca. 1958 (Click for more information)

Under the LAMTA Act, the agency is required to recognize and negotiate with unions.

Up to this point, the representative unions have carried over from Los Angeles Transit Lines and Metropolitan Coach Lines which hinders efficient consolidation of LAMTA operations.

Harvard law professor Archibald Cox is hired to determine the employee groupings.

The outcome of these hearings, Cox’s work and elections that follow establish and certify three unions:

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen for operators

Amalgamated Transit Union for mechanics

Brotherhood of Railway Clerks for clerical employees

More information can be found in the May, 1959 issue of The Emblem, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority employee news magazine.