# Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen v. Burlington Northern Railroad Company

> Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · September 15, 1987 · 829 F.2d 617

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9476737

## Case

- **Full name:** BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD SIGNALMEN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BURLINGTON NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- **Decided:** September 15, 1987
- **Citations:** 829 F.2d 617; 126 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2490; 1987 U.S. App. LEXIS 13764
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Cudahy
- **Judges:** Cudahy, Cummings, Posner
- **Cited by:** 12 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9476737

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- noting the “relatively light burden that the railroad must meet in order to show that its unilateral actions constitute a minor dispute”

## Opinion text

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
Although I agree with the result and much of the majority’s analysis, I cannot agree, for example, with the proposition that the use of a lie detector is only a “slight variation of investigative technique----” Supra p. 621. I also question the majority’s implication that asking employees to submit to polygraph tests never involves a change in “working conditions” under the Railway Labor Act. A “working condition” is not necessarily limited to a requirement with which an employee must comply to avoid being fired.
In addition, I believe labor-management relations must always be viewed realistically. The employment relationship frequently involves coercion — spoken and unspoken. “Consent” by an employee to an investigative technique is therefore a tricky business. Here, the district court found that the consent of the employees made the testing voluntary and this finding is not clearly erroneous. We need not embellish this conclusion with much independent speculation.
Beyond this, the polygraph examinations conducted here took place in a sheriff’s office in the course of what started as a criminal investigation. This circumstance distinguishes the present facts from tests independently undertaken by the railroad and unrelated to law enforcement.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9476737. Public record. Not legal advice.