Vollmar v. CSX Transportation, Inc.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ELLIS, District Judge.

I. Introduction

This conditionally certified class action grows out of a unique context and presents novel questions. Plaintiffs are Canadian employees of defendant who claim that their various unions negotiated a lower wage increase in 1973 than otherwise would have been the case in return for defendant’s agreement to pay a greater share of plaintiffs’ retirement taxes and to seek legislation to accomplish this. Congress obliged; it passed the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 (the “Act”), 45 U.S.C. §§ 231 etseq. For five years the arrangement worked.…