Office and Professional Employees International Union. Local 153 (New York, N.Y.)

AFL Federal Local 12646, Bookeepers, Stenographers, and Accountants Union, chartered in 1909, is the forerunner to the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

The BSAU affiliated with the CIO in 1936 and became the United Office and Professional Workers of America (UOPWA). In 1937 the AFL chartered a new Federal Local 20940, the American Federation of Office Employees, which was kept in trusteeship, but did hold elections. Howard Coughlin was elected president, and he later served as the President of OPEIU 1953-1976. In 1941 the AFL chartered a new local, 23076, with 200 members, the American Federation of Trade Union Office Employees. Its main jurisdiction was clerical workers in union offices, but it also organized vigorously and successfully within Local 20940's area. Local 23076 worked with the Women's Trade Union League to educate clerical workers about trade unionism and its actively participated in World War II Support work. In 1943, Lavina Michl was hired as an organizer--a major breakthrough for women's leadership in the local.

In 1945, the AFL chartered in new International, the Office Employees International Union. Local 23076 affiliated that same year with OEIU as Local 153. By the late 1940's there was sharp competition with the UOPWA-CIO over recruiting in white collar workers in non-profit organizations. In contrast to their rivals, the OEIU held strictly to an anti-Communist policy.

The late 1940's and early 1950's saw Local 153 continue to bargain contracts for New York City's union office workers while expanding its jurisdiction to cover salesmen in the soft drink and brewery industries, hotel administration employees, and clerical workers in the food processing industry. The close contact that Local 153 had with union office staff was especially advantageous during this period. Officers and organizers of a union under contract with Local 153 would aid 153's recruitment of clerical workers in their industries. This was especially effective in small manufacturing workplaces, such as in the garment or luggage industries. In 1951 Local 153 initiated its Welfare Fund, which began coverage with 253 members.

The mid-1950's saw the membership continue to grow, and campaigns were initiated in larger firms for sales or clerical workers at General Motors, Blue Cross, HIP, and several major textile companies. The major divisions of the union were Hotel, Sales, Clerical, Cashiers and Checkers, and Steamship. Lively public relations campaigns for the union including beauty contests and subway advertisements with radio and television spots helped to promote Local 153's advantages to New York City's white collar workers. Keen bargaining and zealous organizing campaigns were accompanied by active internal union programs, including social functions, steward training, and political support work.

In order to emphasize the growing importance of professional workers in its jurisdiction the International changed its name in 1965 to the Office and Professional Employees International Union. By the mid-1960's, organization and declined somewhat, although contracts in Local 153 continued to improve, with the 35 hour work week becoming common throughout the jurisdiction. The union campaigned for tax allowances for child care as early as 1966.

With the student protest movement on the rise in the late 1960's, Local 153 began organizing clerical workers on university campuses throughout the New York metropolitan area. In 1967 and 1968 campaigns were initiated at Columbia, Yeshiva, NYU, St. John's, Long Island University, and Fordham. Local 153 was successful at the latter two campuses and in later years at Fairleigh Dickinson, Wesleyan, Seton Hall and Hofstra Universities and at C.W. Post, Dowling, Southampton Colleges, Pratt and Polytechnic Institutes, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1987 3,000 university office and professional workers were represented by Local 153.

Other divisions of Local 153's jurisdiction include hotel employees, trade union office workers, and medical insurance workers (2,000 in each unit), steamship clerks (numbering 1,500) employees of the New York Stock Exchange (3,000), and office and professional employees of many other Ne York metropolitan area commercial firms. In 1987 Local 153 represented 17,000 white collar workers, the largest of the OPEIU's units.

From the description of Minutes, [microform], 1941-1981. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 78970969