Interviews with fifteen women who participated in the Wisconsin Education Association Insurance Trust office workers strike of 1979. The Trust clerical workers were members of the United Staff Union which represented employees of the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Working conditions, management attitude, wages, and alleged lack of promotional opportunities led the Trust's clerical workers to go on strike, from September to November of 1979. In 1981 and 1982, the Women's Oral History Project interviewed fifteen women involved in the strike about their work and family histories, experiences as Trust employees, motivations for participating in the strike, and the effects of the strike on their lives.
The interviews came about as a result of several women's efforts to gather support for the strikers. Impressed by the impact of the strike on the Trust women's lives, a group of six women, including Cathy Loeb and Cindy Costello launched an oral history project to document the strikers' experiences. Interviews were conducted either by Project members in teams or by Loeb or Costello. A questionnaire (in Box 1, Folder 3) was used by the interviewers as the framework for the interviews found in this collection.
