Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 17, 1990                   TAG: 9004170490
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INJUNCTION REQUEST DELAYED

After a hearing Monday, U.S. District Court Judge James Turk granted Harold Ross, the union's Cleveland, Ohio, attorney, additional time to file a brief in the case. While Turk has the case under advisement, the union has agreed not to strike the railroad.

Turk granted the NW a temporary restraining order on April 7 that forbade the union from striking the railroad, pending the outcome of Monday's hearing.

The union's dispute with the NW involves supervisors doing work that the union says should be done by union laborers.

On Feb. 5, the railroad began regularly assigning supervisors to accompany union foremen on track inspections, replacing union laborers who had customarily accompanied the foremen, BMWE general chairman Joe Pugh said. The union laborers had performed minor repairs on the track but that work is now being done by supervisors, Pugh said.

Roughly 40 union laborers had lost work because of the railroad's new policy, Pugh said.

The railroad contends the dispute involves an interpretation of the union's labor contract with the NW and should be resolved through arbitration. The union, however, contends this is a major dispute; and, if Turk agrees, the union might be free to strike the railroad.

In seeking the earlier restraining order, the railroad claimed that the union was planning to strike the NW on April 8 by establishing picket lines in Norfolk and in NW territory formerly owned by the Wabash railroad.