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.
