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International Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Employees in Eretz Yisra'el

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aliasesIU, NURPTW, National Union of Railway, Post and Telegraph Workers in Palestine

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Summary

The name adopted in May 1931 by the Jewish-led railway workers’ union previously called the Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Workers (URPTW) and, from February 1928, the National Union of Railway, Post and Telegraph Workers in Palestine (NURPTW) (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 1878, 1898-1900).

Details

  • The February 1928 renaming to NURPTW accompanied new bylaws formally establishing separate national sections, reversing the January 1925 decision to abolish them; “national” (artzi in Hebrew, qutri in Arabic) seems to have been chosen to emphasise the union’s claim to be open to all railway workers in Palestine despite the sections (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 1878).
  • The May 1931 seventh congress renamed it the IU after deciding its Jewish members would continue to belong to the Histadrut while its Arab and other non-Jewish members should join the Histadrut’s general workers’ clubs until an “international workers’ federation” was established; Chapter 4 note 30 records that “international” (bein-le’umi), attributed to David Ben-Gurion himself, was translated on the union’s stationery into Arabic as ‘amma (“general”), and “employees” replaced “workers” to accommodate white-collar joiners (lines 1898-1900; Chapter 4 note 30).
  • At the beginning of 1932 the IU claimed 253 Arab members of 657 total, a claim Lockman judges probably inflated; the Colonial Office estimated 300 Jewish and 210 Arab members (line 1900).
  • By the eve of the Second World War the IU had only 401 dues-paying members (186 railway workers and 215 postal and telegraph workers), no Arab members at all, and Jews constituted only 8 percent of the railway workforce, though it continued to style itself an “international union” (lines 1990-1992).

Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Workers, Palestine Railways, Histadrut, Arab Union of Railway Workers, Joint Organization

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