International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers. Local 301 (Schenectady, N.Y.)

In 1934, the Trade Union Unity League and another small union organized within the Schenectady General Electric Plant merged into a single union of 300 members, and it was this union that was to become Local 301 in 1936. On December 15, 1936, IUE Local 301 became the collective bargaining agent for the General Electric workers, defeating the company union. The first national contract with the General Electric Company was signed in 1938. Beginning in 1936, the union had struggled to provide women with equal pay for equal work. After failed negotiations for a pay raise in 1946, Local 301 initiated its first major strike. In the late 1940's Local 301 and all of the IUE had been under investigation by the U.S. government because of the alleged communist-domination of the union. In 1966 a union strike was cancelled at the urging of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1969, the U.S. Court of Appeals handed down a decision that the company's practice of Boulwarism was illegal because it represented a refusal to bargain in good faith. As Local 301 moved into the 1970's and 1980's, the negotiating tactics of General Electric were forced to change, and strikes were nonexistent. The membership of Local 301 fell from numbers in the tens of thousands to just under one thousand by the end of the 20th century.

From the description of International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, Local 310 records, 1941-1999. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122684738