Labor

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Ellen ""Nell"" Quinlan Donnelly Reed Papers, 1919-1972 (K0444)
4 c.f.

 Finding Aid

The Ellen "Nell" Quinlan Donnelly Reed Papers contain correspondence, printed and published advertisements, and photographs related to the life of Nell Donnelly Reed, prominent Kansas City businesswoman and cofounder of the Donnelly Garment Company. The papers also cover topics including politics and travel.

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James Alexander Reed Papers, 1903-1950 (K0443)
60 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Personal and professional correspondence, speeches, case files, legal documents, scrapbooks, and subject files of Kansas City Mayor and United States Senator James A. Reed.

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James Ross Reed Papers, 1949-1966 (K0565)
0.25 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Articles, announcements, memoranda, newsletters, agreements, reports, and newspaper clippings on Flight Engineers' International Association's (FEIA) labor disputes from a flight engineer for Trans World Airlines (TWA).

Right-To-Work Referendum Collection, 1973 (S0431)
0.25 cubic foot, 9 folders

 Finding Aid

This collection contains reports, brochures, and correspondence pertainining to the Right-to-Work Referendum, a proposed amendment to the Missouri Consitution to limit labor unions by making membership voluntary.

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Harry Von Romer Autobiography, 1970-1980 (S0171)
0.01 cubic feet, 3 folders

 Finding Aid

The Harry Von Romer Manuscript contains two handwritten chapters by St. Louis laborer and union organizer Harry Von Romer. During the Great Depression, Von Romer worked to organize the auto industry, in particular, the Fisher Body Plant. The chapters describe daily life among the working class in the 1910s and 1920s in St. Louis, working conditions during the Depression, and the organizing efforts, parades, and strikes of local labor unions in St. Louis.

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Harry Von Romer Collection, 1880-1981 (S0471)
7 cubic feet, 149 folders, 7 photographs

 Finding Aid

Harry Von Romer was a laborer, union organizer, and a Central Trade and Labor Union convention delegate. The collection includes labor agreements, correspondence, constitutions and bylaws, as well as union-related buttons and badges Romer collected over his lifetime.

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Myra Belzer Rostov Papers, No date (K1097)
0.01 cubic foot (1 folder, 1 photograph)

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

The collection contains one photograph of the Executive Committee of the Jewish National Workers Alliance Branch #95.

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Mary E. Ryder Scrapbook, 1947-1981 (S0730)
0.1 cubic foot, 2 folders, 17 photographs

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

This collection contains correspondence and several news clippings that chronicle the life and achievements of Mary Ryder, a labor activist and founder of the Mary Ryder Home.

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Sainte Genevieve "The Way We Worked Exhibit" Oral History Records, 2011 (CG0021)
0.01 cubic feet (1 folder)

 Finding Aid

The 96 oral histories were produced by Bolduc House Museum in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri for the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibit "The Way We Worked". This is the local copy of the records.

Robert S. Saunders Papers, 1965-1971 (S0087)
0.02 cubic feet, 11 folders

 Finding Aid

The Robert S. Saunders Papers contains the unpublished autobiography of Robert S. Saunders, chronicling his life as a migratory laborer and union organizer during the 1930s and 1940s. The autobiography includes narratives of living conditions in migrant camps, and Saunders’s efforts to recruit members for the Socialist Party in the Midwest.

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Elenore Schewe Collection, 1920-2002 (C4266)
1.8 cubic feet (39 folders), 3 audio cassettes, 5 oversize items

 Finding Aid

The collection of Elenore Schewe contains material of her research into refractory companies in Missouri, including both institutional records of the companies themselves and the personal papers and records of various important figures in the refractory companies. This collection was created as part of Schewe's work assisting in the research for the book Refractories: the Hidden Industry by Corinne Azen Krause.

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Service Station and Warehouse Employees of St. Louis Pamphlet, 1933 (S0635)
0.01 cubic foot

A pamphlet titled "Our Facts Regarding Disagreement and Strike of Service Station and Warehouse Employees of St. Louis Area," prepared by Gasoline Service Station and Warehouse Employees' Union No. 18362.

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St. Joseph (Mo.) Typographical Union No. 40 Records, 1905-1991 (C4272)
4.0 cubic feet (98 folders), 3 oversize items

 Finding Aid

The records of the St. Joseph Typographical Union No. 40 consist of correspondence, meeting minutes, contracts and agreements, convention materials, financial records, and miscellaneous materials of a printers’ trade union.

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St. Louis Labor Council Minute Books, 1913-1963 (S0061)
14 rolls of microfilm

 Finding Aid

The St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO Meeting Books contains meeting minutes, committee reports, and attendance lists documenting the Council’s efforts to strengthen organized labor, and advocation for social justice in the St. Louis area from 1913 to 1963.

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St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune Records, 1918-2019 (S0521)
49 cubic feet

 Digitized Materials

 Finding Aid

Maury Rubin founded the St. Louis Labor Tribune in 1935 to help expose poor quality work on non-union housing projects in St. Louis. Rubin's nephew, Ed Finkelstein, became publisher in the late 1970s, and Rubin died in 1984. The collection primarily includes the paper's photograph negative morgue. Also included in the collection are correspondence, memoranda, and newspaper clippings documenting labor-related events and news stories.

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St. Louis Streetcar Strike of 1900 Scrapbook, 1900 (S0664)
1 volume

 Finding Aid

The 131st Division of the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees was founded in 1899 by several St. Louis Transit Company employees. In 1900, the union members, disgruntled by long work hours, low pay, and the mistreatment of employees, went on strike against the Transit Company. The strike lasted from March to September. During that time, St. Louis was in a state of lawlessness, 14 people were killed, and nearly 200 wounded. The collection consists of one scrapbook documenting this bloody strike.

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St. Louis Strike Newspapers, 1978-1981 (S0706)
0.4 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

This collection contains copies of newspapers published during a labor strike against the major St. Louis dailies in 1973 and 1978.

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St. Louis Strike of 1877 Manuscript, 1877-2000 (S0320)
0.01 cubic foot

An Unpublished manuscript on the response of the Working Men's Party, St. Louis chapter, to the 1877 national railroad strike. Also included in this collection is an article by David Roediger entitled, "Not Only the Ruling Class to Overcome, But Also the So-Called Mob: Class, Skill and Community in the St. Louis General Strike of 1877," published in the Journal of Social History, Vol. 19, No. 2. Winter 1985.

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St. Louis Typographical Union No. 8 Records, 1856-1974 (C3661)
16.4 cubic feet (925 folders), 40 oversize volumes

 Finding Aid

The records consist of minutes, financial records, correspondence, and printed material of the union. The records also include The Typographical Journal and The Bulletin of the International Typographical Union and material from the St. Louis Allied Printing Trades Council.

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St. Louis Typographical Union No. 8 Records, 1856-2008 (CA5275)
5.4 cubic feet, 5 card files

 Finding Aid

Addition of union publications, meeting minutes, and membership records.

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St. Louis Union Labor Advocate Newspapers, 1934-1937 (S0203)
1 microfilm roll

 Finding Aid

The St. Louis Union Labor Advocate was a Labor newspaper endorsed by Central Trades and Labor Union of St. Louis and St. Louis branch of AFL. The paper was the precursor of the St. Louis Labor Tribune. The collection does not include issues from September 1934 and May 1, 1937

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St. Louis Women's Labor Conference Collection, 1973 (S0110)
0.01 cubic foot

 Finding Aid

The St. Louis Women’s Labor Conference met in 1973 to discuss working women’s issues such as organizing the unorganized, job training, equal pay and advancement, and daycare. Conference participants listened to speeches by prominent women unionists, attended workshops, and passed resolutions as part of a larger plan that was designed to further women’s positions in the workforce. The collection includes correspondence, flyers, a meeting packet, resolutions, and handouts.

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Teachers Club Benefit Association Records, 1916-1997 (K1214)
0.2 c.f.

The Association provided assistance to members who, "through sickness or other physical disability, are prevented from active discharge of school duty." Includes articles of incorporation, charter, and bylaws; Last Will and Testament of May Picken, a benefactor of the Association; audits and other financial records; and correspondence.

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The Communist Newsletters, 1868-1877 (S0430)
0.01 cubic foot

The collection consists of monthly newsletters originally published by the Reunion Community in Jasper County, Missouri, devoted to the establishment of common property and cooperative labor in business and political relations. Founder Alcander Longley established the Friendship Community in St. Louis in 1871 and continued to publish the newsletter.

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Theatrical Mutual Association (TMA) Lodge 13 Records, 1910-1995 (K1217)
0.31 c.f. (1 folder 1 volume)

 Finding Aid

Includes scrapbook containing minutes of the TMA club, and a history of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)-Local 31 by Ray Maier.

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Virginia P. Tindall Papers, 1931-1990 (C4258)
0.45 cubic feet (9 folders, 1 oversize volume)

 Finding Aid

The papers of Virginia P. Tindall contain information about the Women’s International Auxiliary to the International Typographical Union, photographs, convention materials, and other information pertaining to Tindall’s activities working in labor rights.

TWA Active Retired Pilots Association (TARPA) Records, 1932-2007 (K0563)
8 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Publications and records related to retired pilots of Trans World Airlines. Includes labor agreements, photographs of pilots, and seniority list.

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U.S. Wage Stabilization Board, 9th Region Minutes, 1951-1953 (C0154)
0.2 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

Minutes record regulations under which the board operated; labor-industry cases brought before the board; decisions; and petitions regarding wage rates, holidays, overtime and merit plans.

The Board's region consisted of Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 249 Records, 1987-1998 (K1225)
0.25 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Newsletters and printed materials from the UAW local in Kansas City, MO.

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United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Collection, 1925-1995 (S0756)
0.8 cubic foot, 20 folders

 Finding Aid

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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United Garment Workers of America, Local 47 Records, 1898-1915 (K0458)
1 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Organizational and membership records (Membership List and Receipt Accounts, and Membership Register) of the labor union. Includes minutes of a few meetings, a day-book of expenses and income, receipts and notes, and a general ledger.

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United Mine Workers of America, Local No. 298 (Richmond, Mo.) Records, 1901-1945 (C3044)
9 rolls of microfilm

 Finding Aid

Membership records for the organization known locally as the Welsh Miners' Union. Contains members' names, record of dues payments, suspensions, transfers, and death claims.

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United Shoe Workers International Union (USWA) Records, 1940-1985 (S1032)
55 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

The United Shoe Workers International Union (USWA) Records contain correspondence, meeting minutes, contracts, charters, and newsletters of the union's headquarters in St. Louis.

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Busch Voigts Papers, 1960s-2007 (K0566)
0.25 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Papers of former Trans World Airlines (TWA) pilot. Includes correspondence, invitations, pilot newsletters, newspaper clippings, card decks, photographs, and a TWA booklet.

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Mark Waldemer Labor Collection, 1920-1997 (S1193)
2 cubic feet

 Finding Aid

This collection contains labor agreements, correspondence, news articles, and photographs documenting Mark Waldemer's labor activism.

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Warehouse Employees Local 667 Strike Bulletins, 1935-1936 (S0217)
0.01 cubic foot, 1 folder

Warehouse employees called a strike against Kroger Grocery and Baking Company on November 7, 1935. The union demanded an increase in wages, seniority rights, a closed shop, and an end to work speedup programs. In March 1936, the International Executive Board revoked Local 667's charter for failure to comply with the International's negotiated settlement. The bulletins detail the strike activity, negotiations, support from other unions, and the use of scab labor.

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Western Auto Supply Company Records, 1920-2000 (K1233)
38 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Historical records of the national retail store headquartered in Kansas City, MO. Includes photographs, catalogs, publications, scrapbooks of advertising, artifacts, correspondence and working files on Western Auto stores.

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Western District, Missouri Federation of Teachers Records, 1974-1983 (K0817)
3.5 c.f.

Organizational records of a western Missouri teachers union. Includes correspondence, reports, newspapers clippings, photographs, and other documents related to the activities and concerns of the union.

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Hershel Wileman Papers, 1945-1952 (S0736)
0.25 cubic foot, 9 folders

 Finding Aid

During the late 1940s, Hershel Wileman served as the President of United Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers of America-Local #476. He worked for the Mercury Record Corporation in St. Louis, MO. The collection includes labor agreements, Congress of Industrial Organization's newspapers, union literature, correspondence, wage measures, and job classifications.

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Elizabeth Kreps Wilson Dissertation, 1944 (K0159)
0.1 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Doctoral dissertation entitled "A Cooperative Study of Occupations in the Greater Kansas City Area." Wilson was Director of High School Counseling in the Kansas City, Missouri, School District, and directed an occupational study in the Greater Kansas City area.

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Laurel E. Wilson Papers, 1860-2008 (K0594)
1 c.f.

 Finding Aid

Research files of Wilson, Professor Emerita and former curator of the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection-University of Missouri-Columbia, concerning the history of the Kansas City Garment Industry.

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