Railway brotherhoods

Railway brotherhoods, unions for railroad workers in the United States and Canada. Because railway work—originally viewed as dangerous—was uninsured, these unions formed (1863) to insure workers. The unions generally operated through collective bargaining rather than strikes, since the railroads were strictly controlled by the government. By the 1950s the unions in this brotherhood joined the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Oranizations. By 1969 the four unions of the Railway brotherhoods merged to form the United Transportation Union.