Dear Jack and Everybody,

Despite how we view unions today, it is important to remember that unions have played a major role in shaping the railroad industry. Moreover, the effectiveness of their organization is reflected in the equipment we preserve, whether it be a dog-house on the back of a tender, an extra seat or two in the locomotive cab (or armrests on those seats), and wood cabooses that lasted well into the 1970's because a local wanted it that way. Understanding this history, and how it functioned, is key to effectively interpreting our equipment, artifacts, and ephemera. It is also important to remember that union members were/are people - just like museum visitors who are people. It is easier to understand the significance of an inanimate object when we (museum folks) can describe what is was like to work with and live around that object.

Tom Cornillie

> This subject is far to deep to go into here,
> but from where I stand I'm not a big union
> fan and I am tring to figure out why anyone
> is using this forum to debate something as
> off the prevation subject as brakeman dog
> houses and unions here???????
> The way I see it(steping up on a soap box)
> This is the 21st century. It's time for the
> tail(the union) to stop tring to wag the dog



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