All India Trade Union Congress Archives
Digitized documents from the oldest trade union federation. Dates: 1928-1970.
American Federation of Labor Records
More than 170,000 items dating between 1883-1925 consisting of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952) and other officials.
Between 1973 and 1989, the Southeast Division made seven donations of materials to the GSU Southern Labor Archives. These include correspondence, print materials and publications by the AFL-CIO and other organizations, administrative records, photographs, and audio recordings, as well as the personal papers of E.T. Kehrer.
Labor unions in the U.S., 1862-1974 : Knights of Labor, AFL, CIO, and AFL-CIO
This digital collection offers unique and important documentation on the growth, transformation, successes and failures of one of the important American social movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the modern American labor movement. Four major national organizations are documented in substantial detail in this module: the Knights of Labor, AFL, CIO, and AFL-CIO.
The Advancing Workers Rights Project
A collaboration between Georgia State University (GSU) and the University of Maryland (UMD), “Advancing Workers’ Rights in the American South: Digitizing the Records of the AFL-CIO’s Civil Rights Division” makes accessible a robust array of texts, photographs and films that provides insight into the historical intersection of civil rights and labor movements nationally and in the South. The records include speeches, correspondence, protest flyers, newsletters, telegrams, radio program transcripts, case files, clippings, candid photographs, documentary films, and more chronicling AFL-CIO civil rights work between 1943 and 1999.
Georgia State University's Southern Labor Archives, established in 1971, is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available the documentary heritage of Southern workers and their unions, as well as that of workers and unions having a historic relationship to the region. The largest accumulation of labor records in the Southeast, the Archives holdings include organizational records, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, personal papers of labor leaders, oral histories, collective bargaining agreements, constitutions and bylaws, and convention proceedings from 1888 to the present. The Southern Labor Archives is the official repository for hundreds of local and regional union offices, as well as the national offices of the IAM, National Federation of Federal Employees, United Garment Workers of America, United Furniture Workers of America, PATCO, and the United Textile Workers of America as well as many other union offices and state federations of labor, including the Georgia AFL-CIO.
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, Proceedings and Publications
Proceedings and publications including the Weekly News Letter from California State Federation of Labor.
The nation’s leading trade unionist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Samuel Gompers was president of the American Federation of Labor from 1886 until he died in 1924. "If there is any truth at all in democracy, if democracy has any real justification," he said, "it is as thoroughly justified in our industrial life as it ever was in our political life."
American Federation of Labor records : The Samuel Gompers era, 1877-1937
Provides a comprehensive understanding of the activities and priorities of Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor from the 1880s through World War I and Gompers's death in 1924. The collection includes correspondence, executive council records, newspaper clippings, convention records, circular letters, speeches, writings, and legal documents, including court records. Important correspondents include Gompers, Frank Morrison, John McBride, Woodrow Wilson, John B. Lennon, Gabriel Edmonston, and a wide variety of union leaders around the world.
American Federation of State, County, & Municipal (AFSCME) Image Collection
1300+ images of the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 587 Photograph Collection. 1916-2010
Photographs of the activities of the Seattle Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 between 1916-2010.
American Federation of Teachers, Local 200 Photograph Collection c. 1970-1974
Images of Seattle teachers involved in various meetings, strikes, campaigns, conventions, and classroom activities.
Canadian Farmworkers Union Collection
More than 700 "selected publications, documents and other significant items" from the union.
Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers
FBI documents on Chavez and the UFW.
Farmworker Movement Documentation Project
Collection of photographs, oral histories, newspaper (El Malcriado published by the NFWA and the Movement published by SNCC of California) & more documenting Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker's Movement.
Bob Fitch Photography Archive (Stanford University Libraries)
Includes United Farm Workers (UFW)/Cesar Chavez gallery,1968-1974.
The University of Washington makes available, in its digital collection of Vietnam War Era Ephemera, examples of posters, fliers, and pamphlets distributed in Seattle that advocated workers' rights. The primary emphasis of these documents is on the importance of boycotting non-union produce to support migrant farm workers, and the work of Cesar Chavez to organize these workers. Some materials focus on the use of the 1919 general strike as inspiration for activism, and on continued efforts by some groups to advocate for a more radical labor movement to oppose capitalism and the interests of corporations.
Cannery Workers & Farm Laborers Union Local 7 Records is comprised of selected union correspondence, flyers, brochures and pamphlets, meeting minutes, resolutions, and annual reports from the 1930s through the 1950s. The Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 Photographs include over 200 photographs documenting union meetings, events, portraits of union officers and members--primarily from the 1930s-1950s. Photos dating from the 1970s chronicle the role of the union and its members in the Asian American activism and community organizing in Seattle, including images of rallies, demonstrations, parades, and community events in the International District.
IAM Archives (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers)
IAM collections contain a wide variety of material documenting the history of the union and the American Labor movement.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Records, 1905-1952
"International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, & Helpers of America records, including correspondence files of the executive office from 1904-19952, with the majority of materials originating in the 1940s."
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU)
Collection includes ILGWU convention reports, 1900-1929, & official publications including the Yiddish, 1919-1958.
The Union Label and the Needle Trades
This digital collection consists of two full series and one partial series from the Records of the United Garment Workers of America, which are held at Georgia State University Library: Series I: Time and Motion Studies; Series III: Office Files, 1899-1994—Meeting Minutes of the General Executive Board subseries; and, Series VIII: Index Card Files for plants and/or locals in.
International Workers Order (IWO)
About 10,000 pages of documents from the Kheel Center’s collection of International Workers’ Order records have been digitized, thanks to a Cornell Library Arts and Sciences grant including selected records in Yiddish and English document the Jewish immigrant experience from 1930-1953. Subjects include the American Left, labor, immigration, Jewish communities and Jewish identity, relations with African Americans, World War II and the Cold War, cultural and artistic expression in radical politics, related organizations, and influential individuals.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) History Project
The history of the first three decades of the IWW illustrated with interactive maps, photographs, & documents.
The International Workers of the World (IWW) in the Pacific Northwest
Some of these documents are I.W.W. local charters, as well as letters and manuscripts written from a viewpoint sympathetic to the I.W.W., by individuals involved in organized labor in Washington. In addition, our digital collection contains dozens of photographs, from the entire IWW Photograh Collection. More frequently, however, these are documents from the papers of individuals and organizations opposed to the I.W.W.: the reports of labor spies employed by the Bon Marche's store manager, Broussais Beck, and the materials they gathered as evidence, along with the private and public statements of other men allied against the Wobblies.
National Domestic Workers Union Records
Records of the Atlanta based union of household workers.
The quest for labor equality in household work: National Domestic Workers Union, 1965-1979
This digital archive of records from the National Domestic Workers Union (U.S.) contains legal documents, minutes, printed material and voluminous correspondence with such notables as Julian Bond, Sam Nunn, Herman Talmadge, Andrew Young, and other Georgia and national political figures. The National Domestic Workers Union was founded in Atlanta in 1968 by Dorothy Bolden to help women engaged in household work. The subject files (1967-1979) cover a myriad of topics illustrating the Union's involvement in the Black community, the Manpower Program, the Career Learning Center, the Homemaking Skills Training Program, Maids Honor Day, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), and various federal agencies. The collection contains minutes of the Union (1968-1971, 1978), the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Transportation (1970-1972), the Citizens Neighborhood Advisory Council (1972-1978), and MARTA (1973-1975). The collection also contains financial documents (1968-1979) and files relating to Equal Opportunity Atlanta, which funded many of the Union's projects; and legal documents including agreements and contracts with Economic Opportunity Atlanta.
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) 1968-1985 Records
Records include "minutes, resolutions, subject and chronological files, correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, legal files, contracts, press releases, grievances, arbitration, and printed materials."
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Collection
1100+ photographs of SEIU activities including strikes.
United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
The United Automobile Workers of America (UAW) is the primary union within the American automobile industry. Founded in 1935, the UAW became one of the most powerful unions in the United States, both on the shop floor and within the American polity.
United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) Records
Collection includes UE News, the official newspaper of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) as well as photographs representing the activities, officers, and members.
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO) News 1956-1996
Magazine of the Bakery Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM).
AFL-CIO News.
BC District Union News 1944-1955
Newspaper published by the "B.C., Yukon and North West Territories locals of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers."
British Columbia Federationist 1911-1925
Weekly labor paper published by the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council.
Magazine of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBCJA).
Cigar Makers' Official Journal 1897-1954 & 1963-1972
Official paper of the Cigar Makers' International Union of America.
Congress of Industrial Organizations publication.
Commonwealth College Fortnightly 1926-1938
Digitized version of the labor college newspaper located in Mena, AR.
Official newspaper of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU).
Newspaper for the Maritime Federation of the Pacific, a consortium of unions that formed in the wake of the 1934 Pacific Coast waterfront and maritime strikes. The paper briefly served as the official communications organ for West Coast longshoremen.
Newsletter published by an anonymous group of rank and file longshoremen, closely associated with Harry Bridges and what became known as the Albion Hall Group, which galvanized support for the new militant unionism on the waterfront.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers magazine.
Firefighter, journal of the Fire Brigades Union 1947-2001
Magazine of the British Firemen's Trade Union/Fire Brigades Union.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen's Magazine
The official monthly journal for Locomotive mechanics.
The Journal of the Switchmen's Union of North America
The official journal of the Switchmen's Union of North America.
Polish Women's Alliance of America established a monthly newspaper in Chicago called Głos polek ("The Voice of Polish Women").
A newspaper published from 1948 through 1958, consisting of ten volumes and 5,056 pages of text; a chronicle of the worker perspective and labor movement in Hawaiʻi.
IAM Publications, District and Local Lodges
Collection of newspapers, newsletters, and other periodicals produced by District and Local Lodges of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
This collection includes the Machinists Monthly Journal (1889-1956) and the Machinists Newspaper (1946-2004)
Industrial Union Bulletin 1907-1909
Volumes 1 & 2 of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) newspaper.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) newspaper.
Official publication of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU).
Ladies' Garment Worker 1910-1918
Official publication of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU).
Publication of the Wood, Wire, and Metal Lathers' International Union.
Minneapolis Labor Review 1907-2006
Minnesota Labor publication.
British "weekly newspaper of the railway service and of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants."
Strawbridge & Clothier's Store Chat 1906-1966
Philadelphia department store employee magazine.
Magazines from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
"The Texas Labor Newspaper Collection represents labor unions and organization from 1901-1950." Focus on Galveston.
UE News (United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America) 1939-2010
Official newspaper of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America.
Issues of the labor newspaper published by young American working women, in response to the social changes brought by the Industrial Revolution.
James Albert Copenhaver (1891-1959) and his brother, Herbert Hadley Copenhaver (1909-1972), were union members who worked in Springfield, Missouri’s milling industry circa the 1920s and 1930s. James Albert was a bookkeeper and cashier for the Missouri Farmers Association, whose Mill and Feed Company was located on Holland Street in Springfield. He resigned as bookkeeper and cashier in 1928 and began working for the Tindle Milling Company, also of Springfield.
The Missouri Farmers Association (MFA) formed as an organization in 1914, incorporating approximately three thousand farm clubs around the state of Missouri, in order to improve the economic conditions of local farmers. William Hirth, the organization’s founder, served as president from 1914 until his death in 1940.
In the early 1920s, the MFA began a wholesale feed operation in Springfield, Missouri, called the Farm Club Mill and Feed Company of Springfield. In 1924, the name was changed to the Missouri Farmers Association Purchasing Department, but was still referred to as the Farm Club Mill and Feed Company, as well as other similar names, such as the Springfield Mill and Feed Department, the Mill and Feed Company of Springfield, and the Springfield Mill.
The collection mainly consists of materials regarding the Missouri Farmers Association (MFA) Milling Company in Springfield, Missouri, including photographs of the inside of their building and of floods at their building in the late 1920s; MFA financials; and meeting minutes for the Exchange Managers of Southwest Missouri, especially regarding the purchase of a new mill. Also included in the collection is information regarding the Flour, Cereal, Feed Mill, and Grain Elevator Workers Union.
This small collection contains minutes of the district council and memorabilia of Mr. Bowles.
Otto Bowles was born October 19, 1904, to Lon and Cora Bowles in Lawrence County, Missouri. He served in the Navy from 1923 to 1929. He then moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he started working in construction as a laborer. He joined Laborer’s Union local 676 in 1938, serving as a steward on such jobs as the construction of the U. S. Medical Center and O’Reilly Hospital. In 1941 he was asked to serve as the secretary treasurer of the local, and accepted the job. Shortly afterward, the local’s business agent was drafted into the Army, and Bowles held both offices until 1943. He also served as business manager of the Building and Construction Trades Council in Springfield. In 1947, he quit both union posts in Springfield to become business manager of the Greater Kansas City District Laborers’ Council.
His job as business manager for the district was to organize and assist local unions in over 50 counties in western Missouri. When he took the job, there were only three local contractors that had agreements with the union in his territory, but by the end of 1949 there were 90 to 100 contractors signed.
In the early 1960s, the council expanded to include all of Kansas and in 1966 was renamed the Western Missouri and Kansas District Laborers’ Council. Kansas was a right to work state, so organizing efforts intensified in the district.
Between 1962 and 1966, Bowles assisted in a huge organizing effort near Sedalia, Missouri, where 150 missile silos and 15 control centers were built by union labor as part of the Minuteman missile project.
In 1975, Bowles retired. He died on May 7, 1998.
Leonard Scott Union-Prevention and Counter-Union Campaign Consulting Files, 1966-2013 - The Leonard Scott collection consists of union-prevention training materials and related articles, files from counter-union campaigns waged by a variety of companies, and other anti-union and union-busting consulting records collected or created by Leonard C. Scott between 1966 and 2013. Scott is an ILR School alumnus and human resources consultant who specialized in combating union organizing and in developing programs to keep companies operating in a union-free environment. For more information pertaining to anti-union campaigns, please visit our libguide on Union Organizing/Anti-union Campaigns.
Anti-Labor Reactions & Labor Espionage
The U.W.'s digital collections present a large selection of labor spy reports from inside the Seattle labor movement in 1919 and 1920, primarily from two spies (Agents #17 and #106) employed by Broussais Beck, the manager of the Bon Marche, a downtown department store.