Title: United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America. Education Department: Records
Inclusive Dates: 1934-1968

Creator:

• United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America. Education Department

Call Number: Mss 262; Disc 137A

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 2 disc recordings

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the United Rubber Workers' Education Department consisting of intermittent files of publications, photographs, handouts, minutes, constitutions, and other printed materials. The material relates to the department's educational function and documents the history of the union, affiliation with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, organizing efforts in the 1940s, the controversy in various states concerning right-to-work legislation, the 1954 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company strike, and especially the 1957-1958 O'Sullivan Rubber Corporation strike in Winchester, West Virginia. Records include a union songbook and a transcript of an interview with John D. House, the first president of Goodyear Local 2. The disc recordings include union songs sung by Joe Glazer.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00262

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On September 12, 1935, culminating a long struggle to organize rubber workers, fifty-one delegates representing twenty-six unions met in Akron, Ohio, and founded the International Union of United Rubber Workers of America. In defiance of American Federation of Labor president William Green, they refused to accept a charter of affiliation with the A.F. of L., which would have given Green the right to “designate or appoint [the rubber workers'] officers for a probationary period.” The 3,080 member union elected Sherman Dalrymple first president. In 1936, demonstrating continuing opposition to the vote of the A.F. of L. to retain craft union status, the United Rubber Workers affiliated with the expelled A.F. of L. Committee of Industrial Organizations under coal miner president John L. Lewis. On February 17 of that year, the Rubber Workers launched its first major successful strike, against Goodyear Rubber, and in the succeeding five years had its period of greatest growth. In 1945, Dalrymple resigned, having never fully recovered from a near-fatal beating he suffered while organizing rubber workers in Gadsden, Alabama in 1936; Leland Stanford Buckmaster was elevated to the presidency. That same year the name of the union was changed to the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America.

An education and research committee was appointed at the second quarterly meeting of the union, January 21-23, 1937, consisting of union president Sherman Dalrymple, vice-president Thomas F. Burns, and executive board member Leland Buckmaster. The committee was to consult with John L. Lewis and his advisors and report to the general executive board of the Rubber Workers. At the fourth quarterly meeting held at Akron, Ohio, August 4-10, 1937, an education and research department under direct supervision of the vice-president was established. This small department remained intact until its two discrete functions were assigned separate departments by a 1952 constitutional amendment. The present department of education is responsible to the international president and the international executive board of the union. It provides assistance to union locals in developing educational programs for members, officers, and stewards, conducts summer training and legislative institutes, disseminates strike information, and has an active publishing program.

For a more detailed early history of the union see: Roberts, Harold Selig. The Rubber Workers; Labor Organization and Collective Bargaining in the Rubber Industry. New York and London: Harper and Bros., 1944.

The records of the Education Department of the URCLPWA are intermittent files of publications, handouts and other printed materials, and a few letters. They relate to the department's educational function, and document the organizing efforts of the union in the 1940s, the controversy in various states concerning right-to-work legislation (1954-1958), the 1954 Goodyear strike and especially the 1957-1958 O'Sullivan strike. The collection's paper records are arranged in an alphabetical subject file and chronologically thereunder.

Included are copies of three constitutions of the union (1946, 1964, 1966); convention materials which consist of the published proceedings of four conventions (1944, 1953, 1962, and 1964), published reports of union officers to six conventions held between 1937 and 1964, and published resolutions adopted at the conventions of 1956 and 1960; and three items of correspondence (1954-1959) including a routine letter from Hubert Humphrey (May 26, 1959). Filed here also are minutes of the council meetings of District #7, New York (1958) and District #1, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1964); and miscellaneous materials (1934-1968), which include pamphlets, reports, agreements, guidelines, and questionnaires.

The focus of the records is in the publications and printed materials, which reflect primarily the activities of the department under Joe Glazer and William Abbott (a graduate of the University of Wisconsin) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This file contains histories of the United Rubber Workers, a union songbook, a shop steward's manual, and other materials providing information to union members on the national economy and politics, as well as union procedures. Of interest in this file also is the transcript of a taped interview (undated) with John D. House, first president of Goodyear Local 2, the “first CIO union.”

The staff conference manual is the agenda and related materials for a conference held January 11-14, 1961. Topics under consideration at the conference included organizing, legal problems, contracts, communication and leadership, automation, pensions and insurance, and the URW skilled trades program.

The O'Sullivan Rubber Corporation (Winchester, Virginia) strike is the most substantially documented union activity in the collection. Included are periodic reports to the media, newspaper articles, fact sheets on the progress of the strike, and materials used in promoting a national boycott in support of the O'Sullivan strikers.

The disc recordings contain 1958 vote spots and union songs by Joe Glazer and Ruby McDonald. They are listed below after the subject file.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, Akron, Ohio, March 14, 1968. Accession Number: M68-45

Processing Information

Processed by Ed Rider (Intern) and Joanne Hohler, March 5, 1975.

Mss 262	Series: Subject File
Box   1 Folder   1	Constitutions, 1946-1966
	Convention materials
Box   1 Folder   2	Proceedings, 1953-1964
Box   1 Folder   3	Reports of officers, 1937-1964
Box   1 Folder   4	Resolutions, 1956, 1960
Box   1 Folder   5	Correspondence, 1957-1959
	District council minutes
Box   1 Folder   6	District #7, New York, 1958
Box   1 Folder   6	District #1, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1964
Box   1 Folder   7	Miscellaneous materials, 1934-1968
	Publications and printed material
	Education department
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Pamphlets and fact sheets, 1949-1967
Box   2 Folder   3	Drafts and transcripts, undated
Box   2 Folder   4	Newspaper articles and reprints, 1958-1962
Box   2 Folder   5	Public relations department, URCLPWA - (AFL-CIO), 1935-1955 (pamphlet)
Box   2 Folder   6	Research department, Pamphlets and fact sheets, 1942-1968
Box   3 Folder   1	Right-to-work legislation, 1954-1958, in California, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, and miscellaneous
Box   3 Folder   2	Staff conference manual, 1961
	Union actions
Box   3 Folder   3	Goodyear strike, 1954
Box   3 Folder   4	O'Sullivan strike, 1957-1958
Box   3 Folder   5	Union organizing materials, 1943-1945, 1959
Disc 137A	Series: Disc Recordings	⇧
	1958 Vote Spots, Presto Recording Company Physical Description: 12 inch 33 1/3 rpm
No.   1 Side   1	#1 through #6, 5 1/2 minutes
No.   1 Side   2	#7 through #11, 6 1/2 minutes
No.   2	Union Songs, URW-CIO, Education Department, #80C-3591 Physical Description: 12 inch 78 rpm  Scope and Content Note: Contains “The Song of the Guaranteed Wage” by Joe Glazer and Ruby McDonald; “We've Got a Plan” and “I Like Ike” by Joe Glazer.