Local 1533 of the United Steelworkers of America, was first certified by the National Labor Relations Board in 1937 as an affiliate of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of North America. Its members work at the Fairbanks, Morse Engine Division (Division of Colt Industries) plant in Beloit. The first contract between the local union and Fairbanks, Morse was signed in 1939, but this was essentially a written record of what was in practice at the time.
By the early 1950s the union had become the largest United Steelworkers local in Wisconsin. In 1950 the union achieved the establishment of the first joint union-company insurance program in Beloit, which was among the first policies of this type written by large insurance companies. In the same year a retirement plan paid for by the company was also established. For twenty-five years after this time the local union continued to work to improve the wages and benefits of its members without strikes. However, on August 16, 1975, the union voted to strike after contract talks stalemated in a dispute over wages and retirement benefits. The strike lasted one week and resulted in a contract, which essentially granted the union's wage demands but compromised on the retirement benefits.
