The records of Local P-1 arerganized in six series: Bulletins; Correspondence and Subject Files; Financial Records; Grievances; Minute Books; and Transcripts of Oral History Interviews. Only the interviews document the origins and history of the Local before the 1950s; the bulk of the records dates from the late 1960s and early 1970s. There are also a few records of UPFWA Local 1187 which represented workers at the Ralston Purina plant in Ottumwa. These are filed separately in the series of correspondence (reel 4) and financial records (reel 5).
The BULLETINS are brief mimeographed handouts, 1954-1973, prepared for the local membership providing information on union meetings, local union business, politics and elections at all levels, community affairs, and matters affecting work within the plant. They provide details unavailable elsewhere on work life and union activities. The bulletins are arranged chronologically.
The CORRESPONDENCE AND SUBJECT FILES, 1945-1973, consist of materials created or received by the Local president, secretary-treasurer, and chief steward. Correspondence with the International Union consists largely of materials mailed to all locals. The Iowa State Federation of Labor folders deal with state and national politics, especially the State Committee on Political Education (COPE). Labor efforts in the 1972 presidential election are especially well documented in this material. The general correspondence relates to community affairs; to union assistance to individual members, especially in dealing with government agencies; to activities of other local unions in Morrell plants; and to various other matters. Several folders include information on the long 1969 strikes against Iowa Beef Packers, Inc. and Neuhoff Packing Company. The correspondence is arranged by subject.
FINANCIAL RECORDS, 1951-1972, include a ledger of back dues, welfare, and other accounts, circa 1951-1956; audit reports, 1962-1968; monthly reports of membership and fees, 1964-1968; and cash books, 1965-1970, showing details of all Local receipts and disbursements and monthly summaries of financial conditions.
The records relating to GRIEVANCES, 1952-1971, show a brief statement of the issue and, often, a record of its disposition. They are generally arranged by plant department and thereunder by grievance number.
The ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS were conducted by Leslie F. Orear, director of publications, AMCBWNA, and Francis A. DeLoughery, archivist, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, in Ottumwa on January 14-15, 1974, with former employees and long-time union members. Interviewees included Virgil Bankson, former chief steward; Frances Calhoon, a steward active in organizing plant office workers; Donald Jones; and Earl Richards. The interviews touch on work life and conditions for both production and office employees, the plant closing, details of Ms. Calhoon's retraining as a welder, and union activities from the 1920s through the 1940s, including organizing efforts by the CIO. Orear and DeLoughery each recorded the interviews separately; the AMCBWNA offices in Chicago prepared the transcripts from Orear's tapes which remain in the International Union Library. The transcripts of Orear's tapes are filed with the papers (reel 7). DeLoughery's tapes, part of this collection, include two of the three transcribed interviews. The DeLoughery tapes also include several brief, untranscribed, interviews and conversations as well as an untranscribed portion of the end of one of the interviews.
