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.
