Metro-North Railroad

On November 14, 1934, twenty-nine men – supervisors at the Chicago and
North Western Railway – met at Harmony Hall in Chicago. There they
founded what would become the American Railway Supervisors Association
(later adding the word “Airway”).

One of the founders, John Nuter, recalled that in 1934, the supervisors “worked not less than 10-12 hours a day. They were assigned two rest days a month and most of the time we worked the rest days with no additional compensation”.

Ironically, those railroaders working under their supervision already had the benefits of
unionization and were paid more for fewer hours.
The Supervisors’ first contract was signed in 1936, and from
that beginning ARASA went on to organize supervisors at railroads around the country.

In 1980 the Supervisors Union merged with TCU and a separate Supervisors’ Division,
operating under its own By-Laws, was established. In July 2005, TCU members voted
to merge the union with the International Association of Machinists.