Records, 1903-1980.

ArchivalResource

Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. Records, 1903-1980.

Records, 1903-1980.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/173700273

Records of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America (AMCBWNA), an international union formed in 1897. In 1979 AMCBWNA merged with the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) to become the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). Unions that merged with AMCBWNA during its earlier history include the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), the Stockyard Workers Association of America, the International Fur and Leather Workers Union, the United Leather Workers International Union, and the National Agricultural Workers Union. The administrative records primarily document high level policy making during the post-World War II leadership of Earl Jimerson, Thomas Lloyd, and Patrick Gorman. Included are International Executive Board minutes and correspondence with individual locals, informational mass mailings, and convention planning files. Three overlapping administrative subject files (1919-1980) comprise the heart of the collection. They document relations with the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, and the internationals with which the Amalgamated eventually merged, particularly the UPWA and the RCIU; major meat packers and grocery store chains, the War Labor Board, the National Labor Relations Board, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Additional files concern internal operations, convention planning, the Amalgamated Labor Life Insurance Company, and charitable interests of the union leadership such as cancer research and numerous Jewish organizations. The information about locals includes material on strikes, contracts, disciplinary cases, and jurisdictional disputes. This description thus far refers to the microfilmed records. The paper portion of additional unprocessed records, 1903-1979, include additional administrative records and incomplete files of the Fur and Leather, Packinghouse, Poultry, Research, and Retail departments and the Washington, D.C. office. Among the unprocessed administrative records are additional IEB minutes, scant documentation of the 1903-1921 era, indexes, publications, subject files, and clipping scrapbooks. The departmental records vary according to the sector of the economy or function represented, but they often include information on individual locals and their respective leaders, employers, contracts and master agreements, and legislation. The Research Department files are the most extensive, including reference and subject files containing background information and economic survey data and files on national negotiations, primarily 1945 to 1961. These unprocessed paper records are described in the collection register with the microfilm and other processed parts of the collection. The processed portion of this collection is summarized above and is described in the register. Additional accessions include extensive photographic holdings, other visual materials, and additional tape recordings described below.

503 reels of microfilm (16mm),18 tape recordings,29 films, and2 videorecordings; plusadditions of 101.8 c.f.,22 tape recordings,11,595 photographs,14,995 negatives,1,008 transparencies,61 pieces of ephemera,6 drawings,8 posters, and5 films.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project