Founded 1887 (1887) Country United States | Members 36,025 (2014) Website www.bmwe.org | |
Full name Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division Affiliation International Brotherhood of Teamsters | ||
The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) – later to become the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) – is a national union representing the workers who build and maintain the tracks, bridges, buildings and other structures on the railroads of the United States.
History
Founded in 1887, at Demopolis, Alabama, as a fraternal organization by track foreman John T. Wilson, the BMWED membership forms a cross section of American culture. Their goals, interests and political backgrounds are as diversified as their heritage. Once an international union with over 350,000 members in the United States and Canada, automation, the rise of the trucking and airline industries, coupled with conservative government policies, has depleted the ranks of the BMWED to under 40,000 members.
It was in 2004 that the BMWE merged with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and consolidated its strength with that of the powerful 1.4-million-member Teamster Union.
Freddie N. Simpson serves as the national president as well as a member of the Teamsters General Executive Board, and Perry K. Geller serves as secretary-treasurer.