The United Steelworkers of America (U.S.W.A.), Local 1404 records, 1936-1973, are arranged in nine series: Organizational Records; Administrative Records; Membership Records; Arbitration Records; Employment Standards and Benefits; Correspondence and Memoranda; Newsletters and Internal Circulars; News and Public Relations Items; and Miscellaneous. These series are further subdivided according to subject, with the materials in each sub-category arranged chronologically. Although some of the categories provide a continuous account of the periods specified, there are significant gaps throughout most of the collection.
ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS consist of by-laws for Local 1404 and constitutions (with amendments) for the Greater New York CIO, the U.S.W.A. International Union, and the Dane County Industrial Union Council.
In the ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS series, 1937-1970, minutes, financial records, and committee papers, convention materials, and policy statements are assembled. The Minutes and Reports, 1937-1968, range in importance from those generated by minor internal committees of the local union to those from the executive boards for both Local 1404 of Madison and the Wisconsin State Industrial Union Council, headquartered in Milwaukee. Local 1404 executive board minutes from 1937 to 1948 are in bound form, but since these bound volumes are not entirely complete, they have been supplemented by loose mimeographed pages for the years 1945 through 1947. Also, because most of the minutes were originally separate from other committee materials, this pattern has been continued and all minutes have been separated from the general committee records, which are filed under Regular and Ad Hoc Committee Materials. Except for a succession of financial reports that remain appended to mimeographed minutes of the Wisconsin State Industrial Union Council Executive Board, all financial statements, annual reports, summary audits, and tax returns pertain exclusively to Local 1404 and the Gisholt Machine Company and are filed as Financial Records. A fragmentary collection of notices, agendas, delegate listings, and summary proceedings from conventions and conferences of the Wisconsin State Industrial Union Council, the United Steelworkers of America (national and international), the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, and the U.S.W.A. District 32 in Milwaukee are all located under Convention Materials. However, resolutions drafted at such gatherings are under Policy Statements. Additional position statements can be found among the many circular letters in the NEWSLETTERS AND INTERNAL CIRCULARS series.
The MEMBERSHIP RECORDS series provides an ongoing account of the changing employment and union status of individual members from 1946 to 1971. Included are rosters, computer printouts, retirement notices, and other routine registry in addition to voting and eligibility records.
Legal and quasi-legal documents--briefs, transcripts, exhibits, awards--concerning all manner of litigation, mediation, and negotiation make up the ARBITRATION RECORDS series. Beginning with grievance reports and ending with agreements and stipulations, this series is organized according to the order in which such disputes are typically resolved. As a result, the strict temporal chronology within some of the categories has been disrupted slightly in order to keep documents dealing with each case history intact. Records of this series cover the years 1947 to 1971 with very few gaps.
The EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS AND BENEFITS series, 1943-1971, reflects the ultimate results of continuing company/union negotiations. The standards were mainly those established by management of the Gisholt Machine Company. The benefits--unemployment, health, retirement--were those offered by the Gisholt Machine Company and insured by Local Union 1404.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORANDA form a comparatively complete series for the years 1939-1972, containing mostly interpersonal communications such as notes, letters, and telegrams; however, miscellaneous items such as promotional brochures and incidental circular letters are interspersed. Other circular letters found in sufficient quantity to warrant special classification are listed according to source under NEWSLETTERS AND INTERNAL CIRCULARS. The majority of the newsletters are from sources outside Local 1404 and the Gisholt Machine Company. Though not formally recognized as such, many of the mimeographed letters are essentially position statements. Emanating from practically all echelons of the labor movement, these “newsletters” reveal organizational postures not only on internal union politics, but on national and international affairs of a general nature as well.
A small collection of labor and general public relations periodicals can be found under NEWS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS ITEMS, together with clippings from Madison newspapers and a limited but varied assortment of press releases, radio scripts, and speeches. Among the periodicals are copies of News Crib, 1968-1969, a house publication of the Gisholt Machine Company, and the Wisconsin edition of the weekly CIO paper, The CIO News, 1942-1944. Employee Relations in Action, 1966-1970, is a 4-page monthly published by Man and Manager, Inc. Other labor relations articles are excerpts from Mill and Factory magazine. Most of the press releases, speeches, and scripts have been generated by the Gisholt Machine Company and the local union.
Remaining printed materials neither attached to other documents nor easily fit into any established category of the collection have been relegated to MISCELLANY under Printed Materials, General. These include government publications, pamphlets, posters, notices, brochures, and general trivia. The photographs (prints and negatives) are listed in this series and show working conditions, workers on strike, and equipment loaded on trucks, circa 1956-1970. Also included under Miscellany are three industrial surveys conducted in 1970 by the U.S.W.A. research department, and several seemingly insignificant notebooks of union members.
