The Omaha Traction Company was a privately owned

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

business in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. Created in the early 1900s by wealthy Omaha banker Gurdon Wattles, the company was involved in a series of contentious disputes with organized labor.

History

Gurdon Wattles bought the

Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company The Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company, known as O&CB, was incorporated in 1886 in order to connect Omaha, Nebraska with Council Bluffs, Iowa over the Missouri River. With a sanctioned monopoly over streetcar service in the two ...

, or O&CB, along with several competing local lines and merged them into one unit called the Omaha Traction Company in the early 1900s. Wattles continued using the O&CB brand. In 1943, the company began training women as streetcar operators after many of its male drivers were called into military service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The women learned quickly and were paid the same wages as their male counterparts. The company disbanded with the creation of

Metro Area Transit Metro Transit, previously known as Metro Area Transit, is Omaha, Nebraska's local mass transportation provider. Metro currently operates around 135 buses throughout the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, including Bellevue, Ralston, La V ...

in the early 1970s.

Labor relations

The

Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor organization in the United States and Canada that represents employees in the public transit industry. Established in 1892 as the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America, the un ...

attempted to

unionize A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

workers in Omaha Traction Company in the first decade of the 20th century with an organizer arriving in the city in 1902. That early effort faded within a year; however, Gurdon Wattles formed the Omaha Business Men's Association within the year to fight the prospect of losing the city's

open shop An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union ( closed shop) as a condition of hiring or continued employment. Open shop vs closed shop The major difference between an open and closed ...

status. Wattles resisted any unionization within his businesses, as well as the city. When workers struck in early September 1909 he quickly hired

strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

s from across the country to cross

picket line A picket line is a horizontal rope along which horses are tied at intervals. The rope can be on the ground, at chest height (above the knees, below the neck) or overhead. The overhead form is usually called a high line. A variant of a high l ...

s. He further provoked unionizers by publicly refusing arbitration in two of the city's business community's organs, the ''

Omaha Bee The ''Omaha Daily Bee'' was a leading Republican newspaper that was active in the late 19th and early 20th century. The paper's editorial slant frequently pitted it against the ''Omaha Herald'', the '' Omaha Republican'' and other local papers. A ...

'' and the '' Omaha Herald''. Starting September 19, 1909 mobs rioted in the streets of downtown destroying streetcars, terrorizing company officials and attacking strikebreakers. Wattles kept the strikebreakers on, hiring others from

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...

cities to come in until the strikers agreed to his terms. Wattles later wrote a booklet about the events entitled ''A Crime Against Labor: A brief history of the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Strike, 1909.'' In the book he referred to the strikebreakers as, "a jolly lot of disreputables, always ready for a fight." The riots continued through September 23, 1909, eventually subsiding to the pressure of the strikebreakers. In April 1935 the fragile truce between pro-open shop management of the Omaha Traction Company and pro-union labor forces broke, causing a long, violent strike. The company hired

s from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and several other Eastern cities. Within days the company rolled out heavily fortified streetcars, complete with windows covered by heavy wire and armed guards on board. While few cars attracted passengers, the cars initially encountered little resistance. The company resisted calls for arbitration from the

Omaha City Council The City Council of Omaha, Nebraska, is elected every four years on a nonpartisan basis. The next election will occur in 2025. Omaha has a strong mayor form of government. Members are elected by district. Currently seven city council districts ...

and continued employing strikebreakers. In early May violence broke out, with workers' attacking the streetcars and strikebreakers by rifle attacks, violent beatings and bombings across the city. In June riots broke out with mobs' burning streetcars and looting. There were two deaths. The city government lost control of the violence and called in the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

, which sent 103 officers and 1,273 enlisted men to restore order. Governor Robert Cochran declared

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

and ordered the streetcars to stop running. After the governor intervened and owner Wattles agreed to arbitration, a number of agreements were made with workers' representatives. But no substantive changes were made and strikebreakers stayed on the job. The violence ended, court cases ensued, and the situation slowly faded. On June 14, 1935, Omaha was put under

as the result of three days of streetcar strike rioting in which a man was killed and more than ninety persons, including women and children, were wounded. Governor

Robert Leroy Cochran Robert Leroy "Roy" Cochran (January 28, 1886 – February 23, 1963) was an American Democratic politician and the 24th Governor of Nebraska. Cochran was born in Avoca, Nebraska, and began his education in a sod school house. After graduating ...

ordered arbitration later in the week; however, new riots were reported by the end of the month. 1,800 National Guardsmen were called in to quell the violence. The final count was two people killed and 100 injured."History at a Glance"
,

Douglas County Historical Society The Douglas County Historical Society, or DCHS, is located at 5730 North 30th Street in the General Crook House at Fort Omaha in north Omaha, Nebraska. The mission of the DCHS is to collect, preserve and present to the public the history of Douglas ...

. Retrieved June 18, 2007. p 93. The Omaha Traction Company never unionized.

References

{{OmahaStreetcars Passenger rail transportation in Nebraska Tram, urban railway and trolley companies Labor disputes in Nebraska Rail transportation labor disputes in the United States Streetcars in Omaha, Nebraska Defunct companies based in Nebraska Labor-related riots in the United States Crimes in Omaha, Nebraska 1904 establishments in Nebraska 1971 disestablishments in Nebraska Riots and civil disorder in Nebraska

History

Labor relations

See also

References