Joint Committee of Adjustment for the Rock Island System's Order of Railway Conductors and Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen Photograph

The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen [BRT] was founded in 1883 in Oneonta, N.Y. as a protective and insurance organization. The BRT was established to represent members' interests in obtaining a satisfactory contract with management. The rail service members of the BRT included conductors and their assistants, dining car stewards, ticket collectors, train baggagemen, brakemen, and train flagmen. The yard service members of the BRT included yardmasters, yard conductors, switchtenders, foremen, flagmen, brakemen, switchmen, car tenders, operators, hump riders, and car operators. By the time of its merger with three other railroad labor unions to form the United Transportation Union in 1969, it had the greatest membership of any of the operating railroad brotherhoods.



The Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen [ORC&B] was founded in 1868 to represent the interests of railroad conductor. The first name of the organization was the Conductors Union. The name was changed to Order of Railway Conductors of America [ORC] in 1878. In 1942, the Order of Sleeping Car Conductors merged with ORC. The union's name was changed in 1954 to the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen to reflect the changes in their membership after the union began to represent brakemen. In 1969, the Order merged with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and Switchmen's Union of North America to form the United Transportation Union.



The Rock Island Railroad (formally known as the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad) was a Class I railroad which operated in the midwestern region of the United States from 1852-1980.