The Nation - News from Sept. 27, 1985

A presidential emergency board in Washington, set up in an effort to avert a national rail strike, recommended phasing out the job of fireman on most freight-carrying railroads. The recommendation, favorable to the rail industry, involves a dispute that led to the rejection by the United Transportation Union of a tentative national rail agreement reached June 22. The railroads and the UTU have 30 days to consider the recommendation. Then the union’s 68,000 members affected by the dispute would be free to strike. The board said firemen duties disappeared by 1960.