In 1936, delegates from eighteen local unions formed the Kenosha Union Label League to encourage businessmen to stock union-made merchandise and to persuade citizens to buy only products which bore union labels. The Union Label Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor granted the League a certificate of affiliation on February 11, 1937. Hortwick Dahl, president of the Kenosha Trades Council, was the first president of the League. Frank R. Stella served as treasurer in the early l940's and as secretary from 1942 until the dissolution of the organization in 1970. About 1950, the organization changed its name to the Kenosha Union Label Council.
The Union Label Council received lists of union-made products from unions throughout the United States as a result of its affiliation with the Union Label and Service Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. It published the Kenosha Union Label Directory and Purchasing Guide annually in an effort to maintain financial independence and to promote the patronage of businesses handling union-made merchandise or employing union labor. The directory featured advertisements from local businessmen approved by the Council; a list of officers, meeting times, and locations of local unions; lists of city, county, state, and national elected officials; and illustrations of various union labels.
