Fonds consists of records that document the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers (CBRT&GW) including conventions, executive officers, financial records, interactions with other labour organisations, and labour relations and collective bargaining with employers, and subject files maintained by the union.
The fonds also includes local charters and cartoons (see in horizontal storage, container nos. 92 to 94). Two scrapbooks documenting strikes are also included.
Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers : The Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees (CBRE) was formed in 1908. The name was changed to Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers (CBRT&GW) in 1958.
The CBRE was formed by a small group of non-operating workers on the Intercolonial Railway, who had been organized into the International Brotherhood of Railway Employees the year before. Between 1908 and 1917, the union's strength was its sizeable representation along the Intercolonial line in Quebec and the Maritimes. However by 1919, expansion in central and western Canada justified moving the national office from Halifax to Ottawa.
Over the years the brotherhood has broadened its jurisdiction to include workers in a variety of other transportation and transportation-related industries, although non-operating employees of Canadian National have remained a majority of its membership. Bus, tram, truck, and taxi drivers were organized, as were canal workers and some shipping workers on the Great Lakes. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific hotel employees also joined the brotherhood. The two name changes of the union reflect this widening jurisdiction: in 1939, the words "and Other Transport Workers" were added to the original title and in 1958, the name was changed to "Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers".
Until 1917, when it joined the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, the brotherhood was not affiliated to any central labour body. Expelled from the craft union Congress in 1920 on jurisdictional grounds, the CBRE was an important member of the All-Canadian Congress of Labour and the Canadian Congress of Labour. Its long-time president, A.R. Mosher, also served as President of both congresses.
