[SoCal Pubbie]

I'll save you the trouble. Aside from the 8 hour work day, which unions fought for since the early 1800's in Britain, few if any "benefits" were the result of unions.

The 40 hour work week and the concept of a minimum wage began with Henry Ford. Overtime pay was a creation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as was the elimination of child labor. Medical coverage began as a way for employers to circumvent government wage regulations during WWII.

Now, some credit can go for unions demanding paid holidays, however even non union employees almost universally get normal paid holidays. Unions are more know for demanding company killing clauses like trying to keep firemen on locomotives long after diesels were introduced, and the firebox was long gone.

[gas0linealley]

You must think that Congress was in a gift giving mood one day and decided to bestow gifts on American workers, things of which the workers themselves had never dreamed.

Had it not been for the political power of unions, Congress would not have given working conditions a second thought.

As far as your example of locomotives is concerned, there were good reasons to have two men in the engine, that had nothing to do with feeding a boiler.