As a manufacturer of large electric motors, generators, and industrial controls, the Louis Allis Company began operations as the Mechanical Application Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a labor force of fifteen employees. A local businessman, Louis Allis, made an initial investment in the company in 1901 and became president of the operation only two years later. By 1906, the workforce had swelled to seventy-five employees and the company relocated to 427 Stewart Street, the site of the Allis family's original homestead. The company continued as the Mechanical Appliance Corporation until 1922 when the name was changed to honor Allis.
While the American labor movement gained momentum in the 1930s and the workforce at Louis Allis continued to grow, the industrial employees of the company decided to organize as a union. On March 17, 1937 they were chartered as the United Auto Workers, Local 251. After a fifteen-minute sit-down strike, the company recognized the union. Almost immediately following the signing of their first contract with the company, the Local changed affiliations on July 7, 1937 and became Local 1131 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE), a member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Both the company and the union continued to expand for the next two decades. During the 1940s the Local bargained for and received pay increases and improvements in seniority and vacation benefits. While more than 600 employees left to serve in the armed forces during World War II, the company took a leading role in the war effort. During this period, the Local expanded to over 2000 members, including the women and African Americans the company employed to fill G.I. vacancies during the war. As was the case with many wartime workers, many were laid off after the war as returning soldiers claimed their old jobs. In 1950 the Local affiliated with the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (IUE) after the UE was expelled from the CIO due to its alleged communist control. Even so, this decade marked a relatively peaceful period for relations between the union and the management of the Louis Allis Company as the Local negotiated additional wage increases and the creation of a pension fund.
During the 1960s the company built plants in South Carolina, Indiana, and Michigan and moved several product lines (and the jobs which supported them) to those locations. The loss of these jobs resulted in a decline in union membership, dropping total membership to about 1000 members by the end of the decade. While management had hoped that the new plants would help improve the company's overall profitability, it soon became apparent that this had not occurred. As a result, Jack Allis (the grandson of Louis Allis) oversaw the sale of the Louis Allis Company to Litton Industries on February 2, 1967.
Litton Industries was a large multinational corporation with headquarters in California and the end of local family management led to increased unrest among the Louis Allis workers and increasingly acrimonious contract bargaining. In 1972, the employees of the New Berlin plant (many of whom were women) organized as Local 846. From this point forward, Local 846 and Local 1131 worked together as advocates for their members, notably joining in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit in the late 1970s. Local 1131 voted to strike twice during this decade, first in 1973 in a walkout that lasted nineteen days, a reaction to what union members perceived as bad faith in bargaining by the company. During this period, Litton's management threatened to close the plant, though a contract that promised better wages and benefits was eventually agreed to and signed. However a second strike occurred in 1979.
Two strikes in six years, as well as similar experiences by employees at other Litton plants, fueled a national campaign to publicize the company's labor practices. Local 1131 cooperated with the IUE international, other IUE Locals, and the UE international in this effort. In Milwaukee the attempt to draw attention to Litton as the “J.P. Stevens of the 80s” and the “Nation's #1 Union Buster” culminated in Solidarity Day III in 1983. Together these actions won a favorable response from the National Labor Relations Board and from Congress.
In 1984, Litton Industries announced plant closings across the country. Before this happened however Litton sold its Louis Allis holdings to Magnetek, Inc., an investor group that included partnerships related to Michael Milken of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Shortly after Magnetek received control of Litton's pension plan, approximately 80% of the fund was transferred to the Executive Life Insurance Company (ELIC) of California. This transfer was concealed from the union for three years. During this time the Louis Allis pension monies were merged with other Magnetek pension plans. In 1991, ELIC declared bankruptcy as a result of its investment in junk bonds. When Local 1131 learned of this transfer of pension funds, it began a long, frustrating attempt to obtain information about the company's manipulations. In 1990 the Local was forced to sue Magnetek in civil court in order to protect the benefits of its retirees. This lawsuit was filed a year before ELIC's bankruptcy called national attention to the junk bond empire created by Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert. Several years later, in 1992, the union won a landmark victory.
In 1994 Magnetek sold the Louis Allis division for $8.3 million to a group of eight plant managers, at which time the company reverted to the Louis Allis name and established a new headquarters in Alabama. In August 1998 the company laid off approximately 60% of the workforce remaining at the Stewart Street plant after they rejected concessions sought in connection with a prospective sale. On October 28, 1998, the Louis Allis Company abruptly declared bankruptcy, laid off the remainder of its employees, and locked the doors of the Milwaukee plant. This action violated the Wisconsin plant closing law which requires companies to give workers 60 days notice before closing a plant. The ex-employees were also forced to deal with a sudden lack of health insurance and approximately one million dollars in unpaid medical claims (built up in the months leading to the bankruptcy). The company failed to transfer workers 401K contributions during 1998 and neglected to provide workers with W-2 forms at the end of the year. The final months of the local's existence were thus spent in attempting to recover lost wages and benefits for ex-employees of the Louis Allis Company and help displaced workers find new employment and deal with various problems that arose from the company's bankruptcy. The local officially dissolved in 1999.
