Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/32

Rh confines of one trade in one railroad town to broad-sweeping movements of the four trades on all the railroads in the United States. To one familiar with the gradual manner in which workers improve the structure of their labor unions this tremendous advance will stand out as a long stride towards the inevitable industrial union in the railroad industry.

Before going further with the four brotherhoods let us turn our attention to the unions in the miscellaneous section; viz, Telegraphers, Clerks, Signalmen, Stationary Firemen, and Maintenance of Way Workers. Their evolution is comparitively simple. Before the war the latter four led a very precarious existence, as they possessed little organization upon the various roads. When the war came, however, they underwent a mushroom growth and swarmed nearly all of the eligible workers into their ranks. At one blow almost they advanced from the primitive status of negotiating separate agreements for each system to the establishments of national agreements for their respective crafts on all interstate systems.

Because of their long quarrel with the Trainmen, the Switchmen remained in the detached condition characteristic of the unions in the miscellaneous section. In fact, although properly a transportation union, they usually found themselves left out of the joint movements in that department.

The principal shop unions are the Machinists, Blacksmiths, Boilermakers, Carmen, Electrical Workers, and Sheet Metal Workers. Their evolution was much more lengthy and involved than that of the miscellaneous unions. It is comparable to that of the transportation unions and merits our attention. It illustrates clearly the constant get-together tendencies of the railroad unions.