The records of Local 720 were presented to the Archives in 1997. None of the standard organizational records such as minutes, membership files or financial records are present. Nevertheless, the collection provides useful information about the history of the local and particularly about railroad working conditions during the second half of the twentieth century. The correspondence, which primarily dates from the 1960s through the 1980s, documents in great detail the contract maintenance process whereby agreements, work rules, and salary were defined. Together with the transcripts of the investigatory hearings of the 1960s, this material provides detailed information about the nature of the railroad employees. Two issues are also well documented: the proposed abandonment of the Lake Michigan car ferry service and the acquisition of the Green Bay and Western and the Fox River Valley Railroad by the Wisconsin Central Railroad. The latter issue, which was one of the most contentious labor issues in Wisconsin in the 1990s is extremely well documented here, although the correspondence does not cover the court-ordered end of the local's representation.
