Title: American Federation of Hosiery Workers. Branch 139: Records
Inclusive Dates: 1937-1958

Creator:

• American Federation of Hosiery Workers. Branch 139 (Royersford, Pa.)

Call Number: Mss 471; PH Mss 471

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 24 photographs

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 a union local which represented employees of the Royersford Needle Works, Royersford, Pa., manufacturers of parts for knitting machinery; including routine business and financial records, incoming correspondence, some contracts and arbitration hearing records, and photographs.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00471

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Branch 139 of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers (AFHW) represented employees of the Royersford Needle Works, manufacturers of needles, sinkers, and other parts for knitting machinery. Royersford, a town northwest of Philadelphia, is in an antiunion area that the AFHW did not organize success-fully until the 1930's. Branch 139 was chartered in 1937.

The AFHW responded to the industry's economic uncertainty by adopting policies intended to make unionization contribute to industry stabilization. In 1929, the union agreed to arbitration of all disputes that could not be settled locally. Union policy also emphasized job security over dramatic wage and benefit increases. Demands and strikes that might threaten production were discouraged in order to safeguard jobs.

The activities of Branch 139 were routine with few problems requiring arbitration or continuing concern, until 1955. During contract negotiations that year, the Needle Works representative reported that the company had last shown a profit in 1951. The union requested a federal mediation office audit, which, when completed, verified the company's report. Although the Needle Works began converting from hourly to piece rates in 1958, the AFHW persuaded the local against taking a strike vote. In 1959, Carl Lieberknecht, Inc., a Reading, Pennsylvania, subsidiary of Howe Precision Products (itself a division of Howe Sound Products, a mining company) bought the Needle Works and began to transfer its operations to Royersford. The Reading plant's needle department had been organized by the Steelworkers Federation (SWF), an independent union which had won them higher wages and such benefits as a pension plan. The Royersford workers' lower wages threatened their jobs.

The SWF challenged the AFHW's right to represent Royersford workers, and a vigorous campaign ensued. The AFHW emphasized SWF internal mismanagement and lack of accountability, and portrayed SWF promises as pie-in-the-sky which would put the company out of business. The AFHW won an election ordered by the National Labor Relations Board in a runoff. It then negotiated an improved contract.

However, business did not improve for the Royersford Needle Works. In 1961, Branch 139 estimated that 75 percent of its members were laid off. Contract extensions continued until the Needle Works closed permanently in April 1963. Branch 139 was then dissolved.

See also: Records of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers, Wisconsin Historical Society (Mss 62); and Rogin, Lawrence, “Making History in Hosiery: The Story of the AFHW,” c1938, 31 pp.

These records were separated from additions to the records of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers international union donated to the Historical Society by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, Textile Division. The Branch 139 records, apparently, came to the international's office when the Royersford Needle Works closed and the local was dissolved. The collection contains fairly extensive but incomplete runs of several kinds of routine records, including business and financial records, incoming correspondence, some contracts and arbitration findings, and photographs.

Monthly business meeting Minutes are complete from the Branch's inception to 1947. Like those for the Branch Relief Association, they cover routine business with occasional mention of discussion. Both Branch and Branch Relief Association Bylaws are included. Detailed Financial Records exist for 1937 through 1953. Incoming Correspondence, although it covers only the four-year period 1949-1952, illustrates the local's relationships to the AFHW and other labor organizations, and to federal agencies.

The Contracts and Arbitrations file contains items that complement the international's files on Branch 139 which begin with 1947; the branch file covers 1937-1947. The international's correspondence files contain arbitration hearings for Branch 139 during the 1960's; arbitration hearings from the office of the industry's Impartial Chairman in the branch file are dated 1947. Miscellaneous Records include membership applications and related forms, Union Label campaign materials, and delegate credentials for state and national conventions.

Photographs include images of meetings and social activities of the branch. They also include images of a visit by George Baldanzi to Harvard University in 1945, and a visit by John F. Kennedy to a textile plant in New Bedford, Mass., in October 1958.

Additional materials relating to Branch 139 may be found in the international union's records. Included there are a number of correspondence files about Branch 139, several items in the General President's Correspondence and Subject File for 1961, and in the General Secretary-Treasurer's Correspondence and Subject Files for 1961-1963. Two Research and Education Department files provide information on the last years of the Royersford branch. The international's Contract File contains notes, memos, and correspondence about contract negotiations and matters under arbitration concerning Branch 139. There is no file for the Royersford Needle Works in the Employer Files series.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, Textile Division, New York, New York, 1976-1977. Accession Number: M76-400

Processing Information

Processed by Judith Felsten and Joanne Hohler, March 1980.

Mss 471 Box   1 Folder   1	Bylaws and Certificates of Affiliation
	Minutes
Box   1 Folder   2	Monthly Business Meetings, 1937 June-1947 April
Box   1 Folder   3	Branch 139 Relief Association Meetings, 1946 August-1958 March
	Financial Records
Box   3 Folder   1	Treasurer's Book, 1937 June-1939 December
	Ledger pages
Box   3 Folder   2	Cash Received, 1940-1946, 1949-1953
Box   3 Folder   3	Cash Disbursed, 1940-1946, 1949-1953
Box   1 Folder   4	Financial Secretary's Journal, 1939-1946
Box   1 Folder   5	Treasurer's Quarterly Report, 1939 September-1951 September
Box   1 Folder   6	Annual Audit Reports to International Office of AFHW, 1945-1950, 1954
Box   1 Folder   7	Relief Committee Audit Report, 1946 September-1947 March
Box   1 Folder   7	Monthly Check-Off Reports, 1956
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Incoming Correspondence, 1949-1952
	Contracts and Arbitrations
Box   2 Folder   3	Articles of Agreement, Branch 139 and Royersford Needle Works, Inc., 1937, 1944, 1945, 1947
Box   2 Folder   3	Hearings of the Impartial Chairman, 1947
Box   2 Folder   4	Miscellaneous Records
PH Mss 471	Photographs