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.