NOTE: In recognition of TWU’s 75th Anniversary, the Express will be publishing important pieces of the union’s colorful history throughout this year.  The following article chronicles the earliest days of the union’s founding in New York City.  Our thanks go out to Joseph Kutch, editor of the TWU Express from 1951-1985, for his contributions to this article. 

April 12, 1934 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Transport Workers Union of America, an event that launched a remarkable journey of exhilarating successes, historic strikes, and landmark contractual breakthroughs– all in pursuit of a better, more secure life for TWU members and their families.

Efforts to unionize transit in New York City had been ongoing for nearly 30 years prior to TWU’s founding.  Strikes against some of the powerful private transit companies were brutally squashed in 1905, 1910, 1916, and 1919.

After the 1916 strike, the IRT—the largest of the private transit companies—forced the formation of its own sham “union” known as the Brotherhood of Interborough Rapid Transit Company Employees. This façade of a labor organization forced promises from its members not to join an outside bargaining group on the vague provision of an "extended period of employment."  This was a lurid example of the hated "yellow dog contracts" which employers of that day were using to curb true union organization.

As bad as things were for transit workers back then, they got much worse after the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression.

In 1932, the companies imposed a 10% pay cut and laid off thousands of workers, necessitating speed ups, longer hours and, in general, a miserable existence.  However, those harsh measures may have been the last straws as far as NYC transit workers were concerned.

Since most of the transit men were Irish and Catholic, they sought help from several conservative Irish organizations.  These groups turned them down, stating they couldn’t be involved in controversial labor matters.

While pursuing fellow workers on a man-to-man basis, the early organizers received help from an assortment of leftwing, pro-labor groups.  These groups provided experienced organizers and others to help in the process.  They included organizers John Santo, and Austin Hogan, editor Maurice Forge who started the union’s first publication, The TWU Bulletin, and Harry Sacher, a labor lawyer.

Date for the founding of the Union was set at the aforementioned April 12, 1934, which was when Santo and Hogan first met with the Clan na Gael’s transit organizing group in Stewart’s Cafeteria at Columbus Circle.  Clan na Gael was a major social and political organization for Irish immigrants in New York.

Squeegee Strike

On July 9th, 1935, an incident occurred that proved to be an important turning point of the fledgling union. Six men at the IRT’s Jerome Avenue Barn were fired for refusal to clean wet windows with enlarged "squeegees" on a rainy day. 

When the IRT’s General Manager refused to meet with a committee formed by the men and would only meet with individuals, a two-day picket line was conducted at the Barn and at the IRT offices at 165 Broadway.

The July "Bulletin" reported: "The men carried the day with what is considered the first successful strike on the IRT of any proportion since the union is in existence. Not a single man was discriminated against and they were taken back in groups according to classifications. Not a single scab was taken on while the men were out, although the company did try to recruit some who refused to take the jobs." 

Stimulated by the success of the "squeegee strike," the Union had grown strong enough to hire two full-time organizers. The August 7, 1935 meeting of the Delegate’s Council appointed Michael J. Quill, a well-known and enormously popular member of Clan na Gael, and Douglas MacMahon to the post by a unanimous vote. Quill, a change maker on the IRT, proved to be a dynamic and fearless organizer.  He was a forceful public speaker and a public relations genius, who utilized the media of the day perhaps better than any labor leader in history.

Grand Central Incident

A second confrontation fueling TWU’s growth occurred on August 10, 1935. 

A group of TWU men returning from a picket line at the IRT headquarters at 165 Broadway were jumped by a gang of company goons, know as beakies, in the tunnel to the shuttle at Grand Central Station. 

Five TWU men—including Michael J. Quill—were arrested. The beakies got off scot-free and perjured themselves in court without punishment. But after a tough court fight, the Union quintet was freed.

This incident gave TWU organizers more ammunition in their efforts to convince the workers that membership in the Union was the only way to counter the companys’ harassment, abuse, and violence.

Sit Down Strike

Probably the most important event of the early years occurred On January 3, 1937 when nearly 600 workers at the BMT Kent Avenue Powerhouse staged a sitdown strike over the firing of three engineers for union activity. The sit-in lasted three days and ended in the reinstatement of the fired workers. After this incident, thousands of New York transit workers flocked to the union. It marked the beginning of TWU as the most important force in New York City transit, and it marked the beginning of the end of harsh management dominance of transit workers in the nation’s largest city.

The union’s leadership used the victory in New York as a springboard to many organizing victories in other cities, including Philadelphia in 1944 and San Francisco in 1947.

The union then went onto major victories in other facets of transportation, including the organization of airline workers at Pan Am and American, railroad workers, utility workers, and workers at universities and municipalities.