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Inventory of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees
MS 4  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Collection Description
  • Historical Background

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees
    Collection number: MS 4
    Creator: Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees
    Extent: 11 document boxes
    Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library
    Sacramento, California 95814
    Shelf location: Big Four Building or off-site storage. Please contact the Library in advance of your visit.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Provenance

    Raymond Hillman

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Senior Curator. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees, MS 4, California State Railroad Museum Library, Sacramento, California.

    Collection Description

    The collection consists of business records and correspondence pertaining to the Brotherhood and the Western Pacific Railway during the mid-twentieth century.
    Documents in the collection contain information on the railroad's hiring and job bidding procedures, as well as hours worked and wages paid for various positions. In addition, the collection has material on union/management disputes arising form violations of labor agreements, and on the business operations of the Brotherhood's General Chairman's office.

    Historical Background

    In December 1899, the Order of Railway Clerks was organized in Sedalia, Missouri. Initially the Order affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The Order's first convention, however, severed this connection in 1901 and it was not resumed for many years. The name of the organization was changed to the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks in 1904, and two years later it became involved in its first strike against the Southern Pacific.
    The Brotherhood expanded in 1908 to include freight handlers, and over the next ten years other classes of workers joined as well. The 1919 convention adopted the name Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees. Airline clerks and employees were added in 1945, although the word "airline" did not appear in the official union name until 1967.