Created in the early 1900s by wealthy Omaha banker Gurdon Wattles, the company was involved in a series of contentious disputes with organized labor.
In 1943, the company began training women as streetcar operators after many of its male drivers were called into military service during World War II.
The Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees attempted to unionize workers in Omaha Traction Company in the first decade of the 20th century with an organizer arriving in the city in 1902.
[3][4] Wattles later wrote a booklet about the events entitled A Crime Against Labor: A brief history of the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Strike, 1909.
In April 1935 the fragile truce between pro-open shop management of the Omaha Traction Company and pro-union labor forces broke, causing a long, violent strike.
Within days the company rolled out heavily fortified streetcars, complete with windows covered by heavy wire and armed guards on board.