Summary Information
La Crosse Trades and Labor Council Records
1902-1971
- La Crosse Trades and Labor Council (Wis.)
La Crosse Mss CJ; La Crosse SC-O 1
3.8 cubic feet (9 archives boxes, 1 flat box, and 1 oversize item)
UW-La Crosse Murphy Library / La Crosse Area Research Ctr. (Map)
Records of the La Crosse Trades and Labor Council, a La Crosse, Wisconsin labor organization chartered in 1902 by the American Federation of Labor to extend union membership, monitor working conditions, organize activities to educate workers, and enhance the quality of life. The records include minutes, membership lists and attendance records, and files of Herman Burgchardt, organizer for the Council, the La Crosse Building Trades Council, and Local 199 of the Teamsters. Burgchardt's files includes correspondence with William Green, Henry Ohl Jr. and Daniel J. Tobin and other union and civic leaders; bi-weekly organizing reports; and information on his management of the La Crosse Labor Day activities and publication of the Annual Labor Review. Other labor organizations with records in the custody of the Trades and Labor Council include locals 386, 390, and 395 of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union; Building Service Employees, Local 21; and Plasterers Local 257. In addition the files include minutes, annual and monthly reports, and financial and member account records of the Pioneer CIO Credit Union.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-lx00cj ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The origins of the La Crosse Trades and Labor Council (LXTLC) are not documented in the organizational records in this collection. Much of the information about the Council's early years is taken from the 1941 Annual Labor Review filed in Box 1. Although the Council is known to have existed in 1902 when it was chartered by the American Federation of Labor, a predecessor, the Grand Labor Council, dates to at least as early as 1891. Among the local unions that participated in this organization were the typographical union, the stone masons, hod carriers, brewery workers, barbers, cigarmakers, carpenters and woodworkers, clerks, coopers, tailors, painters, blacksmiths, molders, plumbers, and teamsters. Because the locals met at various locations around the city, cooperation was difficult. In 1895 the Grand Labor Council issued the first city directory of union organizations, the publication later known as the Annual Labor Review. In 1898 the Council hosted the convention of the Wisconsin Federation of Labor.
In 1902 the La Crosse Trades and Labor Council was chartered by the American Federation of Labor. This organization included seven local craft unions: Cigarmakers Local 61, Brewery Workers Local 81, Typographical Union Local 448, Tailors Local 66, Beer Bottlers Local 247, Coopers Local 85, and Painters Local 374. By the 1930s the LXTLC membership had grown to include more than thirty locals as well as the La Crosse Building Trades Council. Although the LXTLC fought representation battles against the CIO in the late 1930s, in its early years it included industrial locals such as the employees of the Trane Company.
The Council first employed a business agent/organizer in 1910. This person was employed on a full time basis to monitor working conditions and wages: organize new locals and form affiliations with existing locals: plan social activities, especially the annual Labor Day celebrations; edit the annual Labor Review; and act as liaison to the AFL, WSFL, the AFL Building Trades Department, and various national and international unions.
The first LXTLC organizer was John Rae. He was followed by Reuben Knutson (circa 1917-1918). Between 1924 and 1936 this position was held by Herman Burgchardt, a member of Carpenters Local 1143 who had joined the Council as a delegate in 1921. During his tenure, Burgchardt carried out all of the functions listed above, in addition to serving on the La Crosse School Board, coordinating the Building Trades Council, serving on the executive board of the Wisconsin Federation of Labor, and sharing Teamsters' organizing responsibility with Adolph Bachman, the business agent of Local 199. After 1929 Burgchardt was also partially responsible for editing and publishing the Carpenters State Council magazine, Wisconsin Carpenter. Among other accomplishments, he organized locals of the auto mechanics and hotel and restaurant employees union and successfully affiliated Building Service Employees Local 21 with the Council. Burgchardt organized a Teamsters strike in 1931 against the coal and ice dealers in an effort to forestall Depression-era pay cuts, and he provided encouragement to the workers of the La Crosse Rubber Mills during their strike for union recognition in 1934. He also became involved with Federal employment relief efforts including the Civil Works Administration and the Public Works Administration, and in 1935, at the urging of Henry Ohl Jr., president of the Wisconsin Federation of Labor, he took a position with the WPA. In 1936 Burgchardt was defeated for reelection as organizer and corresponding secretary and replaced by the president of the Council, Robert Franklin.
Unlike the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor, which was dominated by Milwaukee Socialists during the early years of the century, the union leadership of La Crosse, which was among the best organized city in the state, followed the national American Federation of Labor in supporting candidates friendly to union positions such as the Wisconsin Progressives.
Important events in the early history of the Trades and Labor Council include the creation of the American Federation of Labor Building Trades Department in 1908, which caused the traditionally independent building trades workers to affiliate with the LXTLC as locals within an autonomous Building Trades Council; a major citywide strike of street railway employees in 1909; the purchase of the La Crosse Labor Temple and incorporation of the Labor Temple Association in 1921; the election of Joseph J. Verchota, a member of the tailors local, as mayor of La Crosse (1923-1929, 1931-1935, and 1939-1947); and the appointment of Reuben G. Knutson, LXTLC organizer and a member of the plumbers and steamfitters local, to the Wisconsin Industrial Commission from 1921 to 1933.
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of LA CROSSE TRADES AND LABOR COUNCIL RECORDS, MEMBER ORGANIZATION RECORDS, and PIONEER CIO CREDIT UNION RECORDS. These records, as well as some separately catalogued records of the La Crosse Labor Temple, were all housed in the La Crosse Labor Temple Building at 423 King Street and apparently left behind when the Council moved to a new headquarters in the 1970s. This history partially explains the incomplete nature of many of the records. Despite this weakness and the absence of information on labor unrest and broader issues such as ethnicity, the role of women, and workers' attitudes about foreign policy, the collection preserves important documentation of the day-to-day operations of workers associations in La Crosse in the early twentieth century.
The LA CROSSE TRADES AND LABOR COUNCIL RECORDS, which document the period from 1902 to 1936, consist of minutes, attendance records, and the files of organizer Herman Burgchardt. The minutes are most informative from 1920 to 1922, while the less valuable minute volume dating from 1930 to 1936 is supplemented by Burgchardt's files. The attendance records consist of the names of representatives of the various locals who attended the twice-monthly Council meeting.
The organizer's files, which are among the most important documentation in the collection, are subdivided into educational activities and organizing activities, with the latter further subdivided into general papers and reports. In La Crosse the organizer combined the aspirations of Progressive-era reformers with the skills of ward politicians, and Burgchardt's papers reveal the range and organization of the Council's programs. From the outset, important educational activities included arrangements for the annual Labor Day celebrations; publication of the Labor Review; and operation of the Labor College, evening classes in labor law, parliamentary procedure, and public speaking begun by the WSFL in the early 1920s. About these activities the files include correspondence, planning committee minutes, financial records, editorial copy, and lists of union members who enrolled in the labor classes. In addition, this section includes material on the 1930 WSFL convention which was held in La Crosse. Because it was an AFL policy that school boards include union representation, Herman Burgchardt served on the La Crosse School Board. In the collection are records about preparation of the 1928-1929 maintenance budget and information on a petition drive to unseat Burgchardt.
Burgchardt's role as organizer is documented by correspondence that primarily dates from the 1920s and typewritten, bi-weekly reports for the years 1928, 1929, and 1930. These reports contain a wealth of information about unionized labor, ranging from barber shops and restaurants to major breweries and factories, and the strengths and weaknesses of the local unions. The general papers consist of alphabetically-arranged correspondence stemming from Burgchardt's various responsibilities for the Council, the Building Trades Council, and Teamsters Local 199. Documentation of Burgchardt's role in the Teamsters' negotiations with coal and ice dealers in the late 1920s and early 1930s is particularly strong. In addition, there are files for various governmental officials and state and national labor leaders such as William Green, Reuben Knutson, Henry J. Ohl Jr., and Daniel J. Tobin.
The MEMBER ORGANIZATION RECORDS, 1903-1971, mainly consist of financial records and minutes alphabetically arranged by union name. Best represented are several locals of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union, Building Service Employees Local 21, and Plasterers Local 257. There are also miscellaneous records of the Stationary Firemen and the Women's Auxiliary, a successor to various AFL-sponsored associations of workers' families organized in 1938 to encourage purchase and consumption of union-produced products by union members and to support the social and charitable activities of local trade-union councils. Two organizational items document the La Crosse Women's Trade Union League.
The bakery union records are of various types, spanning the period from 1937 to 1971. The records of La Crosse Local 386 date from 1937, and they focus on contract negotiations with seven local bakeries. Local 395 of Winona, Minnesota, was a small local of Federal Bakery workers affiliated with the Winona Trades and Labor Council. This local included a large proportion of women, a number of whom were elected as officers. The La Crosse and Winona bakers make an interesting contrast. The La Crosse local was businesslike, maintaining a focus on contract negotiations, while the Winona local operated much like a social club. Both locals were expelled from the AFL-CIO with the International Bakery and Confectionery Union in 1957. In the following year, they joined the new American Bakery and Confectionery Union chartered by the AFL-CIO. The bakery locals merged as Local 390 in 1960 and enjoyed considerable growth. Records of the merged local include contracts from the late 1960s with Harvey's, Erickson's, and Consumers Bakeries in La Crosse. These records permit comparison of wage scales and working conditions at a time when workers were under pressure from changes within the baking industry.
Largely through Herman Burgchardt's efforts, Building Service Employees Local 21 affiliated with the LXTLC in 1929. This local union began as a small group of school janitors in the 1920s, but it benefited from the help of the Council, New Deal labor legislation, and the rise of the teachers union, and it gradually experienced improved wages and working conditions. The minutes of Local 21 contain incidental information about the La Crosse Trades and Labor Council dating from the late 1930s to early 1950s, a period not covered by LXTLC's own minutes.
Plasterers Local 257, a classic craft union, with a membership of no more than fifteen during the period documented in the collection, is represented by minutes covering the years from 1903 to 1917. Local 257 was associated with the firm of Lyons and Molzahn in La Crosse, and affiliated with the AFL Building Trades Council. The 1915 minutes contain information on the International's impending amalgamation with the Cement Finishers.
The third series, PIONEER CIO CREDIT UNION RECORDS, 1937-1956, documents a financial institution that was originally chartered as the Rubber Mills Employees Credit Union in 1937. This credit union was one of about twenty such organizations in La Crosse, and it came into being as part of national and state efforts to encourage savings and extend credit to persons who were not served by the banking system. he rubber workers local had been organized and chartered by the AFL through the La Crosse Trades and Labor Council in 1933, winning a strike for recognition by the company in 1934. As part of the international union, the local joined the CIO in the late 1930s. Open originally to the employees of the La Crosse Rubber Mills and their immediate families, the credit union expanded in 1940 to include any member of a CIO union. At the same time the credit union changed its name to the Pioneer CIO Credit Union. During its subsequent history Pioneer CIO Credit Union experienced additional name changes, eventually consolidating into the Community Credit Union in 1980.
The Pioneer CIO Credit Union records consist of charter documents, minutes, fragmentary correspondence, annual financial reports, committee records, lists of delinquent loans, receipt and disbursement ledgers, a general ledger, and a member account book. There are also copies of reports and regulatory examinations carried out by the State Banking Department. The majority of these records are typical of the documentation permanently retained by the Archives about Wisconsin credit unions, although the presence of the member account ledger and delinquent loan lists permit a more detailed examination of individual members' banking activity than such records allow. In addition, the records document financial activities of an important, but under-represented segment of the economy. Unfortunately, the collection contains virtually no information about the role of the CIO in its creation or management, and only incidental information about its impact on the community.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by the La Crosse Telephone Company via the La Crosse Area Research Center, 1982. Accession Number: M82-247 (No deed of gift on file.)
Processed by intern John Jeffrey Gibbens, 1997.
Contents List
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La Crosse Mss CJ
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Series: La Crosse Trades and Labor Council Records, 1902-1936
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Constitution, 1911
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Box
1
Folder
2
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History (1941 Annual Labor Review)
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Minutes
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Box
1
Folder
3-7
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1902-1907, 1909-1915
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Box
2
Folder
1-3
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1915-1922, 1930-1936
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Loose material from minute books
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Miscellaneous material and lists
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Box
3
Folder
1-2
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Attendance records, 1913-1920, 1934-1936
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Organizer's files, 1924-1935
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Educational activities
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Box
3
Folder
3
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Labor College, 1927-1928
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Labor Day
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1927
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Box
3
Folder
4
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General
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La Crosse SC-O 1
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Poster
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La Crosse Mss CJ
Box
3
Folder
5
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Ticket sales
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Box
3
Folder
6-10
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1928-1931, 1934-1935
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Labor Review
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1927
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Box
3
Folder
11
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Bids and related material
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Box
3
Folder
12
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Correspondence and invitations
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Box
3
Folder
13
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Deposit account
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Box
3
Folder
14
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1934 sale of advertising
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Box
3
Folder
15
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La Crosse School Board, 1928-1929
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WSFL Convention, 1930
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Box
3
Folder
16
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Correspondence and mailing lists
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Box
3
Folder
17
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Printing
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Box
3
Folder
18
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Unidentified writings and doodles
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Organizing activities
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General papers
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Box
4
Folder
1
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American Federation of Labor, 1925-1931
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Box
4
Folder
2
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Building Trades Department (AFL), 1925-1932
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Box
4
Folder
3
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Brewery Workers (Joseph Obergfell), 1931
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Building Trades Council
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Box
4
Folder
4
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Cases, 1929-1930
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Box
4
Folder
5
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General correspondence, 1924-1930
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Box
4
Folder
6
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Leadership correspondence, 1925-1931
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Box
4
Folder
7
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Elected officials, 1927, 1931-1933
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Box
4
Folder
8
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General correspondence, 1927-1931-1933
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Box
4
Folder
9
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Kenosha Trades and Labor Council, 1927-1929
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Box
4
Folder
10
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Knutson, Reuben (Industrial Commission), 1927, 1933
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Box
4
Folder
11
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Labor leadership, 1928-1933
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Box
4
Folder
12
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Ohl, Henry Jr. (WSFL), 1927-1931
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Box
4
Folder
13
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Organization names and addresses, 1927-1928
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Box
4
Folder
14
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Plasterers, 1927-1931
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Box
4
Folder
15
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Sheet metal workers, 1926-1932
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Teamsters
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Box
4
Folder
16
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Business agent's reports (Bachman), 1928-1930
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Box
4
Folder
17
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Coal and ice dealer negotiations, 1926-1932
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Box
4
Folder
18
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General business correspondence and resolutions, 1927-1930
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Box
4
Folder
19
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Leadership correspondence, 1926-1928
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Box
4
Folder
20
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Schlutter, Charles, problem, 1928
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Box
4
Folder
21-23
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Organizer's reports, 1928-1930
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Series: Records of Member Organizations, 1903-1917, 1936-1971
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Bakery and Confectionery Workers, 1937-1971
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Local 386, La Crosse
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Box
5
Folder
1
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Agreements, 1957; undated
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Box
5
Folder
2-4
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Minutes, 1937-1960
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Box
5
Folder
5
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Loose materials from minute books, 1952-1960
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Box
6
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Treasurer's cash books, 1937-1960
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Box
5
Folder
9
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Treasurer's cash journal, 1958-1960
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Local 390 (merged)
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Box
7
Folder
1
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Agreements and negotiations, 1965-1971; undated
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Box
7
Folder
2
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Minutes, 1960-1962
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Local 395, Winona, Minnesota
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Box
5
Folder
6-7
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Minutes, 1937-1960
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Box
5
Folder
8
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Loose material from minute books, 1952-1957
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Box
7
Folder
3-4
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Building Service Employees Local 21, minutes, 1936-1952
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Box
7
Folder
5
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La Crosse Trades and Labor Council Women's Auxiliary, constitution, undated and general ledger, , 1939-1946
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Box
7
Folder
6
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La Crosse Women's Trade Union League, organizational documents, circa 1928
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Box
7
Folder
4
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Plasterers Local 257, minutes, 1903-1917
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Box
7
Folder
5
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Stationary Firemen Local 317, membership records, circa 1913 and Membership Card
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Series: Pioneer CIO Credit Union Records, 1937-1956
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Box
8
Folder
1
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Charter and by-laws, 1937-1945
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Box
8
Folder
2-4
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Minutes, 1937-1954
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Box
8
Folder
5
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Annual reports, State Banking Department, 1937-1949
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Box
8
Folder
6
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Annual Treasurer's reports, 1941-1952
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Box
8
Folder
7
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Auditing Committee reports, 1941-1946
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Box
8
Folder
8
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Banking Department/Commission correspondence, 1937-1952
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Box
10
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Cash receipts and disbursements, 1937-1956
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Box
8
Folder
9
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Correspondence, 1941-1951
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Box
8
Folder
10
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Credit (Loan) Committee reports, 1947-1952
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Box
8
Folder
11-12
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Delinquent loan reports, 1947-1953
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Box
8
Folder
13
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Examinations (Banking Department), 1940-1952
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Box
8
Folder
14
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Examining Committee reports, 1946-1953
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Box
8
Folder
15
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Federal forms and regulations, 1941-1949
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Box
8
Folder
16
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General ledgers, 1937-1952
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Box
9
Folder
1
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Member account ledger, circa 1937-1946
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Box
9
Folder
2-3
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Monthly statements, 1939-1955
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Box
9
Folder
4
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Officer lists, oaths of office
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Box
9
Folder
5
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Summary balance statements, 1954-1956
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