Railway brotherhoods were unions of railroad workers in the United States and Canada. Many persons used the term for the “big four” railroad labor unions. These were the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen. In 1969, the latter three unions merged with the Switchmen’s Union of North America to form the United Transportation Union. This union has about 160,000 members.
Railroad unions did not develop as other unions did. They started as insurance agencies for their members. Insurance companies considered railroading so hazardous that they would not insure the workers. Locomotive engineers formed the first brotherhood in 1863. They were followed by the railway conductors in 1868, the firemen and engineers in 1873, and the railroad trainmen in 1883.
The railway brotherhoods did not operate in the same way as other labor unions. The railroads were subjected to strict government controls, and the unions usually used collective bargaining, rather than strikes, to win their ends. The brotherhoods remained independent of the organized labor movement until the late 1950’s. Then the trainmen and the firemen and enginemen groups joined the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
