Reagan Acts to Avert National Rail Strike

President Reagan, citing what the White House described as an “extremely critical” situation, Friday set in motion legal procedures aimed at averting a threatened nationwide railroad strike.

Under procedures spelled out in the Railway Labor Act, Reagan established a special presidential emergency board to investigate and make recommendations regarding the dispute between the United Transportation Union and most of the nation’s railroads.

The act gives the board 30 days in which to report its findings and then requires the union to refrain from striking for another 30 days as it and the railroads consider the board’s recommendations.

Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said in a statement that a nationwide rail strike could force layoffs of hundreds of thousands of workers, halt the flow of $750 million in goods daily and have “a materially adverse effect on basic industries served by railroads.”

Railroads, he said, move more than one-third of all intercity freight.

Talks between the union and the National Railway Labor Conference, which is the bargaining agent for the railroads, broke off earlier this month after the union rejected a call for arbitration by the National Mediation Board.

The union is legally banned from striking for 30 days after rejecting such an offer. Reagan’s move Friday adds an additional 60 days to the cooling-off period.