Alexander F. Whitney

Alexander F. Whitney
Alexander F. Whitney leaving the White House on 6 July 1938 after a conference with the President.
Born	1873 Iowa, United States
Died	16 July 1949 (aged 76)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Labor leader
Known for	President of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen

Alexander F. Whitney (1873 – 16 July 1949) was an American railway worker who became president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT). He was an influential labor leader during the Great Depression and World War II, and in the years immediately following the war. He was the principal leader of a two-day railroad strike in May 1946 that paralyzed the nation.

Alexander E. Whitney was born in Iowa in 1873. In 1888 he started to work for Illinois Central Railroad. The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen (BRT) was organized on 23 September 1883, and later moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio. The BRT restricted membership to whites. Whitney joined the Brotherhood in 1898. He was appointed a vice president in 1907. Whitney was elected president of the Brotherhood on 1 July 1928. He succeeded William Granville Lee.

Whitney took office at the start of the Great Depression. A Department of Labor study of veteran railway employees showed that between July 1929 and April 1933 two thirds reported that their earnings had dropped by at least 20%, and two fifths said earnings had dropped by 30% or more. This did not count workers who had lost their jobs. By the spring of 1933 the national unemployment rate was 25%. However, Whitney and other labor leaders were opposed to Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a government relief program that provided simple jobs paying $1 per day. He said the CCC, "would place Government's endorsement upon poverty at a bare subsistence level."

Whitney soon became an important public figure, representing the trainmen in many discussions with government and business. During his tenure the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen grew to 215,000 members. From 1932 to 1934 Whitney was chairman of the Railway Labor Executives' Association. David B. Robertson of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen stepped down in 1932 to devote more time to his union, and Whitney was elected his successor. In 1932 Whitney was among the labor leaders whom the American Federation of Labor was considering endorsing for the position of Secretary of Labor in Roosevelt's government, although Daniel J. Tobin of the Teamsters came to be favored. In the end the president selected Frances Perkins, who took office on 5 March 1933.