How Trains Built America's Labor Movement

Americans love trains, and so does The Takeaway! So we’re telling the story of the people who work on the rails and make sure all our precious cargo gets to us on time. As crucial as these workers are to every facet of the American economy, they’re currently facing grueling working conditions and paltry benefits. After negotiations broke down between rail worker unions and companies this past month over paid sick leave benefits, Congress moved to prevent rail workers from striking. But that basic right to strike was won by early labor organizers at the cost of many lives.

We’re looking at this current labor dispute and the epic battles on the rail that shaped the labor movement, with Jeff Schuhrke, assistant professor at the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies at SUNY Empire State.

Then, we learn about the workers who were left out of that early labor movement, with Manu Karuka, assistant professor of American studies at Barnard College, and author of "Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad."

And we hear about how some of these rail workers later built their own engines of power and became vital drivers of the movement for civil rights, from Bob Lettenberger, associate editor of Trains Magazine.