The records of the United Steelworks of America, Local 1533 include by-laws of the local union, a constitution of the Beloit Industrial Union Council, minutes, general administrative records, correspondence (mostly incoming), election materials, radio scripts, printed materials, and newspaper clippings.
Organizational Records of Local 1533 consist of copies of its by-laws including a working copy from 1954, a section on rules and regulations regarding finances from 1959, and an incomplete copy dated 1967; and an incomplete working copy, Article VII to the end, of the constitution of the Beloit Industrial Union Council.
The Administrative Records include the minutes of the local union covering all general and special meetings from August 1956 until December 1973, and the August 1975 general meeting. Monthly summary financial reports are appended to the minutes from August 1956 to May 1958, and some election tallies and results are scattered throughout. This segment of the records also contains guidelines for conducting local meetings; sample agenda; officers' attendance records, originally compiled for recording the minutes; a list of officers in October 1975; resolutions passed by the local union amending the local constitution, endorsing public housing, civil rights, and the Medicare program, and commending local and international officers. Also filed here is a copy of an insurance agreement between the union and Fairbanks, Morse, dated 1969.
The majority of the Correspondence of the local union is composed of incoming letters primarily from three sources: the national office of the United Steelworkers of America, and the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. Almost all of these letters are printed and addressed to all affiliates. The letters from the United Steelworkers national office are concerned with by-laws and their amendment and general union policy. The correspondence from the district office of the Steelworkers and the state AFL-CIO contains many similar types of materials: notices of conventions and conference and related materials, information on educational programs of the unions, requests for support of political candidates endorsed by the unions, pleas for financial assistance to affiliated unions on strike, and notices of sports and recreational activities sponsored by the unions. In addition to the correspondence from these three sources, there are also letters from other local unions and other organizations, most of which are requests or acknowledgments for financial support of striking workers, charities, or political campaigns. There is only a limited amount of general correspondence reflecting the functioning of the local union in relation to its members and its members' employed, including notification of the expiration of contracts, notifications of disputes between local 1533 and Fairbanks, Morse, resignations of officers, the establishment of officers' training sessions, requests for sponsorship of sports events, and other miscellaneous material.
Election Records of the union cover mainly the local elections of international officers in 1961 and 1966, and of local officers in 1967 and 1970. A few materials refer to the election of local officers in 1966 and other years.
Other Records, the final segment of the collection, includes three radio scripts from a series of broadcasts made by the local union about the aims of the Steelworkers over Station WBEL in Beloit in 1959, printed publications, and newspaper clippings from the Beloit Daily News, August 16-26, 1975, covering the progress of this strike. Among the printed materials are a pamphlet about Local 1533, “14 Years of Progress 1939-1953,” contracts between Fairbanks, Morse and Local 1533 (1958, 1959, 1972), Local Union Elections Manuals (1960, 1962), publications of the U.S. department of Labor on union elections (1961, 1962), pamphlets on retirement and insurance plans, the 1974 Constitution of the International Union, United Steelworkers of America, and a summary of economic contract improvements demands by the union in the August 1975 strike.
