The earliest evidence concerning the present-day Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen's International Union, Milwaukee Local No. 8, was the placement of announcements in various Milwaukee newspapers calling local stonemasons and bricklayers to an organizational meeting on November 14, 1980. At this meeting a temporary president (Hugo Grieswold) was elected and future meetings were arranged. After seven meetings, the “Maurer” or Mason and Bricklayer Union No. 1 was organized on December 21, 1880, and the following permanent officers were elected: Samuel Baumback, president; Hugo Grieswold, vice-president; William Luther, treasurer; and Charles Ueckert, secretary. Under their direction the union established an accident and relief fund and a death benefit fund, and on May 26, 1881 a state charter was received.
As the membership of the union increased so did its success in negotiation with the Contractors' Association. In 1880 the union members faced low wages and no rules regulating their working hours; by 1882 their wages had increased from about $1.75 per day to $3.00 per day. Following an eight-week struggle, in 1886 Mason and Bricklayer Union No. 1 was one of the first unions to achieve an eight-hour working day. After a strike in 1891 the wage was increased to 40 cents per hour; by 1900 the wage was $3.60 for an eight-hour day.
Until 1896 the union had no national affiliation and was thus forced to discipline its members without the authority of a national organization. Consequently a committee on jurisprudence was formed on July 24, 1886, to hear complaints and administer fines.
However, following the depression of 1893 the union found it increasingly difficult to maintain an effective organization due to its non-affiliated status. In the fall of 1895 the union sought affiliation with the Bricklayers and Masons International Union of America. Accordingly, the committee on jurisprudence was dissolved on March 21, 1896, and on May 6, 1896 the union received its charter as Local No. 8 of the Bricklayers and Masons International Union.
After receiving its charter, Local No. 8 occasionally held joint meetings with another Milwaukee affiliate, Local No. 7. Local No. 7 had been formed in 1893 and was smaller, less well organized and less stable than Local No. 8. Due to ongoing financial problems, Local No. 7 was forced to disband on February 22, 1899. The majority of its members were immediately incorporated into Local No. 8.
In 1908 the local won a Saturday half-holiday or a 44-hour week for the months of July, August, and September. By 1912 it had enlarged the 44-hour week as the work schedule throughout the year. In addition, in 1911 the union worked to ensure the safety of its members by instituting regulations on scaffold heights.
Although Local No. 8 continued its successful local negotiations with the inauguration of a weekly payday in 1913, it also advocated the start of a state conference. In 1928 the union became affiliated with the Wisconsin Federation of Labor. At the time of the local's fiftieth anniversary in 1930, it noted consistent efforts toward improvement of the condition of its fellow workers, both unionized and unorganized, through economic and political means.
Information on the local's second half century, which is not documented in the primary records held by the Historical Society, is contained in the historical publications in folder one of the collection.
