The United Transport Service Employees of America (UTSEA) was a

labor union 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 ( ...

representing railroad workers, principally station porters, in the United States.

History

The union was established in May 1937, as the International Brotherhood of Red Caps. Its founding conference was held in January 1938, chaired by A. Philip Randolph of the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...

. Its second conference, in January 1940, changed the union's name to the UTSEA. The union represented workers of all ethnicities, but soon after its formation, a group of white workers withdrew, and it was thereafter principally an African American organization. The

Brotherhood of Railway Clerks The Transportation Communications Union (TCU) is the successor to the union formerly known as the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks and includes within it many other organizations, including the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America and the Brother ...

organized a rival auxiliary group, open only to white workers, and in protest, many locals left the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

. UTSEA chartered these locals, and in June 1942, the national union was chartered by the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

, at which time, it had around 3,500 members. The union quickly achieved shorter working hours and seniority rights for station porters. It affiliated to the new AFL-CIO in 1955, and by 1957, its membership had grown to 6,500. However, by 1969, this figure had fallen to just 3,000. On October 1, 1972, it merged into the

.{{cite web , title=Inactive Organizations , url=https://umdlabor.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/3/9/29397087/inactive_organizations.pdf , website=UMD Labor Collections , publisher=University of Maryland , access-date=18 April 2022

Presidents

:1937:

Willard Saxby Townsend Willard Saxby Townsend (December 4, 1895 – February 3, 1957) was an African-American labour leader. He worked to improve the working conditions of African-American baggage handlers in railroad terminals, and was the first African-American to se ...

:1957: Eugene E. Frasier :1964: George Sabattie

References

Railway unions in the United States Trade unions established in 1937 Trade unions disestablished in 1972