[Excerpt] The traditional pattern of union organization in the railroad industry has been along multiple craft-union lines. As late as 1970 there were more than thirty separate unions representing the approximately 800,000 railway workers of the nation. Historically, the unions have been divided into two groupings: the operating employees, who are involved in the physical movement of trains, and nonoperating employees, an amorphous group composed of workers who fall into numerous classifications

Briggs, Vernon M, Jr

English

[Excerpt] The traditional pattern of union organization in the railroad industry has been along multiple craft-union lines. As late as 1970 there were more than thirty separate unions representing the approximately 800,000 railway workers of the nation. Historically, the unions have been divided into two groupings: the operating employees, who are involved in the physical movement of trains, and nonoperating employees, an amorphous group composed of workers who fall into numerous classifications.Briggs16_Railrood_Brotherhoods.pdf: 283 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Briggs, Vernon M. Jr

eCommons (Cornell Univ.)

Railroad Brotherhoods

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1-1-1976 
Railroad Brotherhoods 
Vernon M. Briggs Jr 
Cornell University ILR School, vmb2@cornell.edu 
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Railroad Brotherhoods 
Abstract 
[Excerpt] The traditional pattern of union organization in the railroad industry has been along multiple 
craft-union lines. As late as 1970 there were more than thirty separate unions representing the 
approximately 800,000 railway workers of the nation. Historically, the unions have been divided into two 
groupings: the operating employees, who are involved in the physical movement of trains, and 
nonoperating employees, an amorphous group composed of workers who fall into numerous 
classifications. 
Keywords 
railroad, unions, organization, labor, classification 
Disciplines 
Collective Bargaining | Unions 
Comments 
Suggested Citation: 
Briggs, V. M. Jr. (1976). Railroad brotherhoods. Retrieved [insert date] from Cornell University, ILR School 
site: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/142/ 
Required Publisher Statement: 
From Dictionary of American History 8v set, 1E. © 1977 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced 
by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/142 
RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 
RAIL FENCES. For many years following the first 
settlement in America, rail fences were common. 
Easily split tree trunks were abundant, and an ax was 
the only tool necessary to make rails and fence. Pine, 
oak, and chestnut were favorite woods for rails, the 
tree trunks being cut into 11-foot lengths about 4 or 5 
inches thick. A 10- or 12-inch log would make five or 
six rails, all three-cornered; a 20- or 24-inch log 
would rum out twelve to eighteen rails, those next to 
the heart of the log three-cornered, those outside four-
cornered. In a snake, or worm, fence, the ground 
rails, laid zigzag, were the "worm"; the top rails 
were the "riders." The worm zigzagged across the 
line 2 feet or more on each side, the fence thus cover-
ing a strip of land 5 feet wide. If stakes were dug in at 
the corners to support the riders, they toed out still 
farther. In a cap fence, upright stakes (posts) clamped 
each corner, and the worm was more nearly straight. 
The caps were short clapboards, with an auger hole in 
each end, fitted down over the tops of the posts, hold-
ing them together. The best rail fences were straight 
on the line, with the ends of the rails mortised into 
heavy posts. Soldiers in the Revolution, the War of 
1812, and the Civil War found old dry fence rails 
handy for campfires and burned millions of them. 
JOHN W. WAYLAND 
RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, U.S. In April 
1917 railroad executives formed the Railroads' War 
Board to achieve a coordinated "railway system" 
for the World War I emergency. There resulted some 
pooling of freight cars and coal supplies, but without 
governmental intervention it was difficult to unify 
other transportation resources and almost impossible 
to obtain adequate financial assistance. Therefore, in 
December 1917 President Woodrow Wilson, in a 
proclamation authorized by an act of Aug. 29, 1916, 
established the Railroad Administration to control 
and operate all rail transport for the duration of the 
war. These facilities were "leased" by the govern-
ment and eventually comprised 532 properties with 
366,000 miles of track, valued at $18 billion. Termi-
nal companies, an express company, and certain 
coastal and inland waterways and piers were in-
cluded, but not street cars, interurban lines, or indus-
trial railroads. In general, the personnel and adminis-
trative machinery of each property were retained, 
under the direct charge of a federal manager, usually 
an officer of the corporation. Operations were coordi-
nated by regional directors, who in turn were under 
the director general (William Gibbs McAdoo, former 
secretary of the Treasury, and, later, railroad lawyer 
Walker D. Hines) and a central administration at 
Washington, D.C. 
This episode of government enterprise was in-
tended to be an emergency military measure to help 
win the war and was not regarded as a Socialist exper-
iment. Certain efficiencies and economies did result, 
and competitive wastes were eliminated by central-
ization and standardization. Unified terminals were 
organized, notably at Chicago, and a "permit sys-
tem" prevented loading until assurances for unload-
ing were given by shippers. Locomotives and freight 
cars were standardized, and the purchasing of equip-
ment and supplies was centralized. Repair shops and 
maintenance were pooled. A coal zoning plan helped 
to eliminate fuel wastes (see Fuel Administration). 
Passenger service, while discouraged because of the 
war, was unified by such devices as consolidated 
ticket offices, the universal mileage book, and stan-
dard ticket forms and baggage rules. Finally, adver-
tising was eliminated and statistics were standardized. 
Expenditures totaling $1.12 billion were made by the 
government, mostly for additions, betterments, and 
equipment. By the act of Mar. 21, 1918, stockholders 
and bondholders were guaranteed compensation equal 
to the average annual net operating income during the 
preceding three years, 1914-17. Wages were gener-
ally increased, and the administration formally recog-
nized the eight-hour day for 2 million railroad em-
ployees. In March 1920, sixteen months after the 
armistice, the railroads were returned to private man-
agement under the supervision of the Interstate Com-
merce Commission and in accordance with the Trans-
portation Act of 1920. 
[F. H. Dixon, Railroads and Government, 1910-1921 ; 
W. D. Hines, War History of American Railroads.] 
MARTIN P. CLAUSSEN 
RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS. The traditional 
pattern of union organization in the railroad industry 
has been along multiple craft-union lines. As late as 
1970 there were more than thirty separate unions 
representing the approximately 800,000 railway 
workers of the nation. Historically, the unions have 
been divided into two groupings: the operating em-
ployees, who are involved in the physical movement 
of trains, and nonoperating employees, an amorphous 
group composed of workers who fall into numerous 
classifications. 
The five major brotherhoods of the industry (the 
"Big Five") have been the operating unions: locomo-
tive engineers (founded in 1863), railroad conductors 
RAILROAD CONSPIRACY 
(1868), locomotive firemen and enginemen (1873), 
railway trainmen (1883), and switchmen (1894). 
Early efforts by Eugene V. Debs to unify the separate 
crafts into a single body, the American Railway 
Union, were aborted by the Pullman strike of 1894. 
Until the 1960's each union largely went its separate 
way. With the introduction of major technological 
changes into railroad operations, the extensive con-
solidation of once-competing lines, and the increasing 
use of other modes of transportation by travelers and 
by freight shippers, railroad employment began a sec-
ular decline after World War II. To overcome their 
weaker bargaining structure and to reduce the nu-
merous jurisdictional disputes that were the inevitable 
result of employment contraction, four of the operat-
ing brotherhoods departed from their past pattern by 
merging on July 1, 1969, into the United Transpor-
tation Union. With only the locomotive engineers 
remaining aloof, the new union represented about 87 
percent of the operating employees of the industry. 
The original impetus for collective organization 
was the establishment of mutual life insurance and 
accident benefit programs. The inordinately high 
frequency of job-related deaths and injuries that 
plagued railway operations—especially in the early 
years—made such protective arrangements naturally 
attractive to large numbers of workers. Regular com-
mercial companies, because of the high risk factor, 
offered such insurance only at high rates, if at all. 
Subsequently, the brotherhoods became more frater-
nal in purpose and, ultimately, assumed the character 
of business unions, focusing on wages, hours, and 
working conditions. 
Once touted as the aristocracy of the American 
union movement, the operating brotherhoods earned a 
well-deserved reputation for militancy. Aside from 
the bitter conflicts between them, the militancy 
derived from the industry's history of making wage 
cuts during depressions, the use of militia to quell 
strikes, the frequent issuance of labor injunctions by 
courts, and the pervasive hostility of railroad manage-
ment toward worker organizations. 
[Jacob J. Kaufman, Collective Bargaining in the 
Railroad Industry; Reed C. Richardson, The Locomotive 
Engineer 1863-1963: A Century of Railway Labor Rela-
tions.] 
VERNON M. BRIGGS, JR. 
RAILROAD CONSPIRACY (1849-50) was directed 
against the Michigan Central Railroad, the first built 
in that state, by certain persons angered by such 
issues as disputes over rights of way, the location of 
stations, and the killing of cattle by locomotives. The 
conspirators stoned and shot at trains, destroyed cul-
verts, removed rails, and burned stations. The freight 
depot at Detroit was burned, and when rebuilt, was 
burned again. Twelve participants were tried in 1851 
and given prison sentences ranging from five to ten 
years. 
ALVIN F. HARLOW 
RAILROAD CONVENTIONS were phenomena of 
the early years of railroad promotion. They were held 
before the railroads were built rather than after their 
completion, and they were composed not only of 
railway builders but also, and principally, of the 
public-spirited citizens of their vicinities. 
The conventions served as a vent for popular enthu-
siasm for better means of transportation, which they 
helped to generate. They probably did not greatly 
stimulate private investment in railroad securities, but 
they undoubtedly did yeoman service in the numerous 
campaigns for state or local aid. It was hoped in many 
cases that they would serve to reconcile conflicting in-
terests and aspirations as to routes and termini; in the 
nature of things they could only demonstrate or pro-
mote popular interest in particular projects. 
Railroad conventions were innumerable. Perhaps 
the most notable were the three great Pacific Railroad 
conventions in Saint Louis and Memphis, October 
1849, and in Philadelphia, April 1850. They were 
held to demonstrate the strength of the popular de-
mand for federal aid for a railroad to the Pacific coast, 
to formulate a practicable plan of financing it, and to 
assert claims for the eastern terminus—the Philadel-
phia convention supported the pretensions of the Saint 
Louis convention. But Congress gave their resolu-
tions scant courtesy. One of the most influential gath-
erings of the sort ever held was the Southwestern 
Railroad Convention in New Orleans, January 1852. 
It helped to launch Louisiana and New Orleans on 
ambitious programs of state and municipal aid and to 
make clear the broad outlines of a proper railroad sys-
tem for the whole Southwest. The Pacific Railroad 
conventions in Sacramento, September 1859 and Feb-
ruary 1860, sought to unite the Pacific coast in sup-
port of a central route and to persuade the legislatures 
of California, Oregon, and Washington Territory to 
make provision for getting the western leg of the 
proposed railroad started. The Southwestern Conven-
tion in Memphis, November 1845, was interested 
primarily in the improvement of western rivers; but it 
also endorsed the major railroad projects of the South-
20 


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