Switchmen’s Union of North America
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| Founded | October 13, 1894 |
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| Date dissolved | January 1, 1969 |
| Merged | United Transportation Union |
| Affiliation | American Federation of Labor |
| Office location | Buffalo, New York |
| Country | International |
The Switchmen's Union of North America (SUNA) was a labor union formed in October 1894 that represented the track switch operators and people who coupled railway cars in railway yards in the United States and Canada. It became part of the United Transportation Union in 1969.
The origins of the union can be traced to August 1870 when a local switchmen's mutual aid association was formed in Chicago. At that time, switchmen were paid $50 a week for twelve hour days, seven days a week. The association was formed to help them bargain for better conditions.
The Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association of North America was organized in 1877 and held its first meeting in 1886. The national association suffered from a lockout by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and the failed Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888 against the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. In 1889 it was affiliated with the Supreme Council of United Orders of Railway Employees.
Although blacks were widely employed by the railroads after the American Civil War, particularly in the south, they were generally excluded from the higher-paying jobs of engineers, switchmen and conductors. In 1887 white switchmen staged a walkout in protest against working with blacks in the Southern Pacific Railroad yard at Houston, and were supported by white switchmen from the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. In 1890 the white switchmen quit when the company refused to fire black workers at the yard. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors, Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association and Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen formed a joint committee that submitted a protest:
Article 1–The mere fact of negroes being employed in train, yard and locomotive departments of this company is causing many of our most worthy members to leave the service. ... We term it an injustice to subject us to an association which is directly antagonistic to our organization and taste. Therefore, we earnestly request that all negroes employed in train, yard and locomotive departments of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad system be removed and white men employed in their stead.
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