United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Collection, 1925-1995 (S0756)
0.8 cubic foot, 20 folders
The United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) was founded in 1936 as a labor union, and affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) until 1948. As anti-Communist tensions escalated in post-WWII years, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. The Act required union officers to sign an affidavit disavowing their ties to the Communist Party. Several UE officers refused to sign the affidavit, and, as a result, the CIO expelled the UE from the union and created the International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (IUE) in its place. Many of the papers and artifacts contained herein come from the personal collection of Lloyd Austin, a former employee of Emerson Electric in St. Louis. Austin’s collection contains original copies of the Emerson Equalizer, a newsletter published by the Local 1102 UERWCIO during the Emerson Electric sit-in of 1937. The sit-in lasted 53 days and sought to gain recognition from Emerson President Joseph Newman. When the strike finally ended, Newman conceded and agreed to recognize worker’s rights under the Wagner Act of 1935. The remainder of this collection consists of World War II worker propaganda, pro/anti-Communist literature, news clippings pertaining to the Emerson strike, and a second scrapbook by Emerson employee William C. Reidel.
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