Published 13 Apr, 2011
Seventy-seven years ago, TWU was founded on April 13, 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression when transit workers stood up to exploitation and demanded their rights.
New York City transit workers had tried to unionize before, but the powerful transit companies squashed four major strikes between 1905 and 1919. Still, the workers continued to organize in order to build the power necessary to change poor working conditions, low pay and management abuse. A renewed effort launched by a pioneering group of workers led by TWU’s founder Mike Quill finally succeeded in forming a union in 1934. The visionaries of TWU believed that the only way to achieve equality and a voice on the job was to be united and to bridge all racial and ethnic divides.
Despite the power of the companies and the competition for scarce jobs, Quill and his fellow leaders built a unified industrial union that could stand up to the company and exercise the workers’ collective power. This vision of equality, inclusion and action sparked a massive growth in unions in New York and across the nation.
Today, 77 years later, TWU and workers across the country are still fighting for their rights, decent jobs and respect on the job. However, TWU has faced tough times before, the founders of the union presevered through a terrible economy and corporate power to organize around the principle of United Invincible.