File MS-9-10, SF Box 52, Folder 25 - United Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees & Railway Shop Labourers Local 396

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes is a Division of the Rail Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters representing and protecting the rights of rail workers who build and maintain the track and structures on railroads throughout the United States of America. The history of the advance and growth of American railroads is an episode in the saga of a people's restless urge to explore and to move on. Heeding that urge, these people expanded into the far corners of the North American Continent, moving as slow or as fast as their means of transportation allowed. Once the rail system was established, the great construction gangs began to settle down and maintain that which they had built. But, while the robber barons of the early railroads amassed great fortunes, their employees worked from dawn to dusk for pennies a day without insurance, vacations or means of support after years of hard work. It was these conditions that inspired early rail workers to organize collectively and form unions to protect their common interests. Rail labor leaders continue the fight today for job security, better working conditions, fair wages and benefits, improved safety conditions and elimination of massive cutbacks. The benevolent society that started with a few trackmen on a hot July day in Alabama has shown that it can meet the challenges and problems of an everchanging industry and will continue to protect its members' rights as it has for more than a century.