Note: This was written originally as a comment on an essay on the remake of the Three Stooges in Working Class Perspectives, http://workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/calling-all-stooges-slapstick-and-the-working-class/
The remake or recreation of the Three Stooges by the Farrelly brothers is mission impossible, because the individuals involved, the original Stooges, were more than an act, but their caricature of American society in its many faces. An actor can act, perform or more correctly mimic, the Stooges, but cannot recreate the mindset that motivated their performances.
When I was a young child, I loved the Stooges, but as I became older, their performances were almost painful for me to watch. This is because I had begun to indentify those caricatures created by the Stooges as the stereotypes present in our society, particularly in the identification of blue collar workers as being "less than," the middle and upper classes. The Stooges' caricaturization of bumbling plumbers, carpenters and many other bluecollar workers was utilized by the power paradigm to attack workers in campaigns aimed at esmasculating labor unions and workers later on in the 20th century and have been built in to the over perception fo those work with their hands and backs.
As a railworker for many years, I was always amazed at how little value my fellow workers equated to their labors in making the national economy,"work." This was a consistent theme in my years on the railway as the company continuously represented the labor of the workers as a liability on their balance sheets and consequently a drag on the profitabilty of the company.
In the railroad industry, the carriers had undertaken a national campaign in the 1950's and 1960's to disparage the labor of their workers with the infamous "Featherbedding" offensive. The underlying reason for this campaign was to garner public support for the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs on the nation's railroads in the shops, railyards and on the trains. In the Featherbedding campaign, railworkers were caricatured as being lazy, and sleeping on the job. Train crews, especially firemen, conductors and brakemen were caricatured as lazy, sleeping on cabooses and engines while getting paid. Left out of the picture was the fact that train and yard crews worked as much as 16 hours at a time and could be forced to work multiple tours of duty.
The Fireman position was a central issue as the rail companies wanted to eliminate that position from road and yard crews. During the steam era on the railways, the fireman was a necessary position, as he kept the fire in the boiler on the locomotive going and regulated the steam created in it that power the engine that pulled the train. The diesel-electric locomotives were first introduced into yard and local switching service and steam locomotives were still dominate in over the road freight and passenger service. In 1950, the National Carriers Conference (NCC), the organization that negotiated the national agreements wth the railroad brotherhoods, offered the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers who represented the firemen, an agreement guraranteeing the firemen's jobs on the railroads of the nation. This agreement called the National Diesel Agreement was accepted by the BLF&E.
With the arrival of the diesel-electric locomotive and its introduction into road freight and passenger service on a wide scale, the role of the fireman became ambiguous in its original design with the elimination of the steam engine. The NCC and its rail company members, recognized that the National Diesel Agreement was a mistake and begin to place pressure on the operating rail unions to renegotiate crew size, and the fireman position was at the head of the list to be eliminated, along with cutting a brakeman's position on train and yard crews.
Rail labor, especially the union representing the firemen, defended the fireman position, saying that since locomotive engineers were promoted out of the ranks of the firemen or as they now called them, enginemen and the experience and education needed for an engineer to operate a locomotive and run a train came from the enginemen's time working on the railroad. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers made the case that their members were the railroad equivalent to the airline co-pilot and necessary.
The railroad operating brotherhoods went to the state legislatures in many states and were successful in getting legislation passed, requiring railroads to operate with a "full crew," that consisted of at least five men and in some states, six men. In Ohio, they were successful in getting a full crew law passed, the mandated that trains operated in the state, have a crew consisting of a Conductor, two Brakemen, an Engineer and a Fireman. All of these laws were passed with the idea of public safety and the preservation of rail jobs in Ohio communities. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen put together a pamplet that discussed what 100 rail jobs meant to a community in terms of local commerce and taxation. All of these actions were undertaken to counteract the featherbedding campaign by the railroad companies.
The featherbedding campaign was aimed at all rail crafts, in the shops and on the trains, as the elimination of the steam engines had reduced the need for many of the mechanics who worked in the shops in those areas directly related to steam power. By the late 1950's, the total workforce on the railroads were reduced by at least one million workers as large shops whose purpose was designed around the steam engine, were shut down and the workers fired. These actions caused many dislocations for workers and their families, as many of them had to move to the ends of their railroads to keep their jobs, and many more found that their railroad job was gone forever.
By the middle 60's, most crew agreements had been changed because of either renegotiation or imposing of agreements through Public Law Board and National Rail Adjustment Board decisions. Rail train crew sizes in full crew states stayed the same, but in many southern and western states, crew sizes were reduced, with the fireman position being the first one eliminated. Some 13 years later, these train crew consist battles were resumed by the NCC. These wars went on, with the intrafracidal behavior of the railroad brotherhoods against each other contributing to the eventual victory of the rail carriers.
These wars finally came to an end in the early 90's, with loss of not only the fireman but also the brakemen positions on train crews. It is now common for road train crews to have only two people, a conductor and an engineer, while in the yard, many crews have only one person, a conductor, who performs all of the duties of the four workers lost in these fights, operating the locomotive by remote control while physically performing the work of coupling the railcars together to build the large trains common today.
Too bad, the contemporary version of the Stooges does not deal with the idea of one person coupling hundreds of rail cars together while controlling the movement of the locomotive from a distance of sometimes a half a mile, this would make good comedy, but it makes a terrible job and raises questions of workers safety sacrificed to increase the bottomline of the company. When I hired out on the railroad in 1966, there were about 1.2 million people working in the industry, now that number is less than 120,000. Where once upon a time, rail unions used to argue the benefit of 100 rail jobs in the community, rail unions are less than a shadow of their former selves and have little power after selling their jobs for a dollar raise at contract time.
The remake or recreation of the Three Stooges by the Farrelly brothers is mission impossible, because the individuals involved, the original Stooges, were more than an act, but their caricature of American society in its many faces. An actor can act, perform or more correctly mimic, the Stooges, but cannot recreate the mindset that motivated their performances.
When I was a young child, I loved the Stooges, but as I became older, their performances were almost painful for me to watch. This is because I had begun to indentify those caricatures created by the Stooges as the stereotypes present in our society, particularly in the identification of blue collar workers as being "less than," the middle and upper classes. The Stooges' caricaturization of bumbling plumbers, carpenters and many other bluecollar workers was utilized by the power paradigm to attack workers in campaigns aimed at esmasculating labor unions and workers later on in the 20th century and have been built in to the over perception fo those work with their hands and backs.
As a railworker for many years, I was always amazed at how little value my fellow workers equated to their labors in making the national economy,"work." This was a consistent theme in my years on the railway as the company continuously represented the labor of the workers as a liability on their balance sheets and consequently a drag on the profitabilty of the company.
In the railroad industry, the carriers had undertaken a national campaign in the 1950's and 1960's to disparage the labor of their workers with the infamous "Featherbedding" offensive. The underlying reason for this campaign was to garner public support for the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs on the nation's railroads in the shops, railyards and on the trains. In the Featherbedding campaign, railworkers were caricatured as being lazy, and sleeping on the job. Train crews, especially firemen, conductors and brakemen were caricatured as lazy, sleeping on cabooses and engines while getting paid. Left out of the picture was the fact that train and yard crews worked as much as 16 hours at a time and could be forced to work multiple tours of duty.
The Fireman position was a central issue as the rail companies wanted to eliminate that position from road and yard crews. During the steam era on the railways, the fireman was a necessary position, as he kept the fire in the boiler on the locomotive going and regulated the steam created in it that power the engine that pulled the train. The diesel-electric locomotives were first introduced into yard and local switching service and steam locomotives were still dominate in over the road freight and passenger service. In 1950, the National Carriers Conference (NCC), the organization that negotiated the national agreements wth the railroad brotherhoods, offered the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers who represented the firemen, an agreement guraranteeing the firemen's jobs on the railroads of the nation. This agreement called the National Diesel Agreement was accepted by the BLF&E.
With the arrival of the diesel-electric locomotive and its introduction into road freight and passenger service on a wide scale, the role of the fireman became ambiguous in its original design with the elimination of the steam engine. The NCC and its rail company members, recognized that the National Diesel Agreement was a mistake and begin to place pressure on the operating rail unions to renegotiate crew size, and the fireman position was at the head of the list to be eliminated, along with cutting a brakeman's position on train and yard crews.
Rail labor, especially the union representing the firemen, defended the fireman position, saying that since locomotive engineers were promoted out of the ranks of the firemen or as they now called them, enginemen and the experience and education needed for an engineer to operate a locomotive and run a train came from the enginemen's time working on the railroad. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers made the case that their members were the railroad equivalent to the airline co-pilot and necessary.
The railroad operating brotherhoods went to the state legislatures in many states and were successful in getting legislation passed, requiring railroads to operate with a "full crew," that consisted of at least five men and in some states, six men. In Ohio, they were successful in getting a full crew law passed, the mandated that trains operated in the state, have a crew consisting of a Conductor, two Brakemen, an Engineer and a Fireman. All of these laws were passed with the idea of public safety and the preservation of rail jobs in Ohio communities. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen put together a pamplet that discussed what 100 rail jobs meant to a community in terms of local commerce and taxation. All of these actions were undertaken to counteract the featherbedding campaign by the railroad companies.
The featherbedding campaign was aimed at all rail crafts, in the shops and on the trains, as the elimination of the steam engines had reduced the need for many of the mechanics who worked in the shops in those areas directly related to steam power. By the late 1950's, the total workforce on the railroads were reduced by at least one million workers as large shops whose purpose was designed around the steam engine, were shut down and the workers fired. These actions caused many dislocations for workers and their families, as many of them had to move to the ends of their railroads to keep their jobs, and many more found that their railroad job was gone forever.
By the middle 60's, most crew agreements had been changed because of either renegotiation or imposing of agreements through Public Law Board and National Rail Adjustment Board decisions. Rail train crew sizes in full crew states stayed the same, but in many southern and western states, crew sizes were reduced, with the fireman position being the first one eliminated. Some 13 years later, these train crew consist battles were resumed by the NCC. These wars went on, with the intrafracidal behavior of the railroad brotherhoods against each other contributing to the eventual victory of the rail carriers.
These wars finally came to an end in the early 90's, with loss of not only the fireman but also the brakemen positions on train crews. It is now common for road train crews to have only two people, a conductor and an engineer, while in the yard, many crews have only one person, a conductor, who performs all of the duties of the four workers lost in these fights, operating the locomotive by remote control while physically performing the work of coupling the railcars together to build the large trains common today.
Too bad, the contemporary version of the Stooges does not deal with the idea of one person coupling hundreds of rail cars together while controlling the movement of the locomotive from a distance of sometimes a half a mile, this would make good comedy, but it makes a terrible job and raises questions of workers safety sacrificed to increase the bottomline of the company. When I hired out on the railroad in 1966, there were about 1.2 million people working in the industry, now that number is less than 120,000. Where once upon a time, rail unions used to argue the benefit of 100 rail jobs in the community, rail unions are less than a shadow of their former selves and have little power after selling their jobs for a dollar raise at contract time.
