The railroad brotherhoods are

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 (s ...

s of railroad workers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. They first appeared in 1863 and they are still active. Until recent years they were largely independent of each other and of 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 mutua ...

1863–1920

With the rapid growth and consolidation of large railroad systems after 1870, union organizations sprang up, covering the entire nation. By 1901, 17 major railway brotherhood were in operation; they generally worked amicably with management, which recognize their usefulness. Key unions included the

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) is a labor union founded in Marshall, Michigan, on 8 May 1863 as the Brotherhood of the Footboard. It was the first permanent trade organization for railroad workers in the US. A year late ...

(BLE), the Order of Railway Conductors, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. Their main goal was building insurance and medical packages for their members, and negotiating bureaucratic work rules that favored their membership, such as seniority and grievance procedures. They were not members of the AFL, and fought off more radical rivals such as the

Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...

in the 1880s and the American Railroad Union in the 1890s. They consolidated their power in 1916, after threatening a national strike, by securing the

Adamson Act The Adamson Act was a United States federal law passed in 1916 that established an eight-hour workday, with additional pay for overtime work, for interstate railroad workers. History The terms that were embodied in the act were negotiated by ...

, a federal law that provided 10 hours' pay for an eight-hour day.

1920s

At the end

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, the brotherhoods promoted the " Plumb Plan" for the nationalization of the railroads, and conducted a national strike in 1919. Both efforts failed, and the brotherhoods were largely stagnant in the 1920s. They generally were independent politically, but supported the third-party campaign of

Robert M. La Follette Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855June 18, 1925), was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the 20th Governor of Wisconsin. A Republican for most of his ...

in 1924. The Republican Party was dominant in Washington and it was generally hostile to the brotherhoods until it moderated its position around 1926.Robert H. Zieger, "From Hostility to Moderation: Railroad Labor Policy in the 1920s," ''Labor History'' (1968) 9#1 pp 23-38 online The

Great Railroad Strike of 1922 The Great Railroad Strike of 1922, commonly known as the railroad shopmen, Railway Shopmen's Strike, was a nationwide Strike action, strike of railroad workers in the United States. Launched on July 1, 1922, by seven of the sixteen List of Amer ...

, a nationwide railroad shop workers' strike, began on July 1. The immediate cause of the strike was the Railroad Labor Board's announcement that hourly wages would be cut by seven cents on July 1, which prompted a shop workers' vote on whether or not to strike. The operators' union did not join in the strike, and the railroads employed strikebreakers to fill three-fourths of the roughly 400,000 vacated positions, increasing hostilities between the railroads and the striking workers. On September 1, a federal judge issued a sweeping injunction against striking, assembling,

picketing Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the pick ...

, colloquially known as the "Daugherty injunction". Unions bitterly resented the injunction; a few sympathy strikes shut down some railroads completely. The strike eventually died out as many shopmen made deals with the railroads on the local level. The often unpalatable concessions—coupled with memories of the violence and tension during the strike—soured relations between the railroads and the shopmen for years.

Main railroad brotherhoods

References

* Arnesen, Eric. "'Like Banquo's Ghost, It Will Not Down': The Race Question and the American Railroad Brotherhoods, 1880-1920." ''American Historical Review'' 99.5 (1994): 1601–1633
online
* Arnesen, Eric. ''Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality'' (2001) * Bernstein, David E. "Racism, Railroad Unions, and Labor Regulations." ''The Independent Review'' 5.2 (2000): 237–247
online
* Chateauvert, Melinda. ''Marching together: Women of the brotherhood of sleeping car porters'' (University of Illinois Press, 1997), on the auxiliaries. * Cupper, Dan. "Review of 'History of the BLET: Since 1863'" ''Railroad History'' (2013) #209 pp. 115–11
online
* Gamst, Frederick C. "Railroad Craft Seniority: The Essence of Railroad Society and Culture (and Its 'State')." ''Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers'' (2003): 176-20
online
* Kelly, Joseph. "Showing Agency on the Margins: African American Railway Workers in the South and Their Unions, 1917–1930." ''Labour: Journal of Canadian Labour Studies/Le Travail: revue d’Études Ouvrières Canadiennes'' 71 (2013): 123–148, in the USA
online
* McIntyre, Stephen L., "'The City Belongs to the Local Unions': The Rise of the Springfield Labor Movement, 1871-1912," ''Missouri Historical Review'' 98 (2003): 24–46. in Springfield, Missouri * Olssen, Erik. "The making of a political machine: The railroad unions enter politics." ''Labor History'' 19.3 (1978): 373–396, in 1922 in the

Conference for Progressive Political Action The Conference for Progressive Political Action was officially established by the convention call of the 16 major railway labor unions in the United States, represented by a committee of six: William H. Johnston of the Machinists' Union, Martin F. ...

(CPPA). * Osborn, Christabel. "Railway Brotherhoods in the United States." ''The Economic Journal'' 8.32 (1898): 577-57
online
* Stradling, David. "Dirty Work and Clean Air: Locomotive Firemen, Environmental Activists, and Stories of Conflict." ''Journal of Urban History'' 28.1 (2001): 35–54. * Stromquist, Shelton. "Enginemen and Shopmen: Technological change and the organization of labor in an ERA of railroad expansion." ''Labor History'' 24.4 (1983): 485–499. * Taillon, Paul Michel. " 'What we want is good, sober men:' masculinity, respectability, and temperance in the railroad brotherhoods, C. 1870-1910." ''Journal of Social History'' 36.2 (2002): 319–338
excerpt
* Taillon, Paul Michel. ''Good, Reliable, White Men: Railroad Brotherhoods, 1877-1917'' (U of Illinois Press, 2009). * Taillon, Paul Michel. "Americanism, Racism, and 'Progressive' Unionism: The Railroad Brotherhoods, 1898-1916." ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'' 20.1 (2001): 55–65
online
* Troy, Leo. "Labor representation on American railways." ''Labor History'' 2.3 (1961): 295–322. * Walker, Mark. "Aristocracies of labor: craft unionism, immigration, and working-class households in West Oakland, California." ''Historical Archaeology'' 42.1 (2008): 108–132, on standard of living
online
* Wetzel, Kurt. "Railroad management's response to operating employees accidents, 1890–1913." ''Labor History'' 21.3 (1980): 351–368. * White, W. Thomas. "Railroad Labor Protests, 1894-1917: From Community to Class in the Pacific Northwest." ''Pacific Northwest Quarterly'' 75.1 (1984): 13–21
online
* Williams-Searle, John. "Courting Risk: Disability, Masculinity, and Liability on Iowa’s Railroads, 1868–1900." ''The Annals of Iowa'' 58.1 (1999): 27–77. * Zieger, Robert H. "From hostility to moderation: Railroad labor policy in the 1920s." ''Labor History'' 9.1 (1968): 23–38.

External links

* {{Cite Collier's, wstitle=Railway Brotherhoods, short=x *

Labor history Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other fac ...

Railway unions in the United States

1863–1920

1920s

Main railroad brotherhoods

See also

References

Further reading

External links