DOCSLIB.ORG

Studebaker Profits Were Moderate

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Studebaker Profits Were Moderate PAGE 8 UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER—DETROIT, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1940 Studebaker Profits Were Moderate FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION Consumers Power REPORTS 6.13% AVERAGE FOR Organizing Drive 11 YEARS FROM 1927 TO 1937 Is Pushed By CIO Pepped up by a favorable U. S. Though Studebaker is a leader among the socalled independent supreme court decision Jan. 2 the auto manufacturers it has never grabbed the exorbitant profits that Utility Workers Organizing Com- marked Nash and Chrysler in some years. Nor has it earned average mittee (CIO) is conducting a profits anywhere near Nash, Chrysler or General Motors. whirlwind organizing drive in the The federal trade commission’s Michigan plants of Consumers exhaustive report on the motor Pow'er Co. industry, from which vehicle the FACTS ON STUDEBAKER Organizing Director Allan S. this taken, facts in article are Haywood of the CIO and Director profit on The facts on Studebaker, as - gives an average net the Harry Straub of the committee for the 11 years 1927 well on all other motor -P investment as head a large staff of organizers manufacturers, are given in to 1937 inclusive for Studebaker who are enrolling power workers Corp. only (p. 809 of Federal Trade Commission Re- ' of 6.13% all over the state into the union. the report). port on Motor Vehicle Industry, \ |g «.'C' This drive is preliminary a It is true that many of those House Document 468, 76th Con- Hl' 11 to labor in years were Hoover depression gress. runoff board election years. But in that same period Send $1.25 to the Superinten- which the Consumers Power em- Nash and General Motors aver- dent of Documents, Washington ployes willhave a choice between or ' ‘‘no The AFL DC, invaluable J the CIO union.” aged 6 times much as Stude- and get this book - „v ‘ 1 ,1 \ in a previous elec- baker, and Chrysler times as of 1077 pages. Every local offi- r-Vvi’/ was eliminated much. The profits averaged: cer and committeeman should tion in which the CIO got the most have access to it. Alllocal union votes but not a majority. The PERCENT PROFIT 1927-37 libraries should have it on their supreme court decision approved form the runoff de- Peak Low Avg. shelves. Send money order as the of ballot spite AFL protests. Nash Motors 75.63 33.0* 36.9 stamps arc not accepted by the The CIO expects to get Motors 66.24 0.28* 35.5 government. sole Gen. bargaining rights for the entire Chrysler 74.46 0.64 28.59 when the Studebaker ..16.21 6.59* 6.13 system election date is * fixed by the labor board. I iOSS 1933, where UAW-CIO Local 5 has a contract. An assembly plant While Nash and Chrysler made was opened in Los Angeles in about 75c profit on each dollar 1935. Local 255 has the contract Aircraft Local invested in their best year for this there. Opens 2nd Office period, Studebaker made only SALES PROCEDURE about 16c on the invested dollar Studebaker tried directly owned The west coast campaign to or- in its best year, which was 1928. retail outlets from 1927 to 1935 ganize the aircraft workers took THROUGH THE WRINGER but lost over $4,500,000 on them, on a new phase when Amalga- The commission points out that the commission relates. Now it mated Aircraft Local 683, UAW- the Studebaker organization went deals through wholesale distribu- CIO opened a second office to El Segundo, th rough the financial wringer tors who get 3% discount on the serve North American with total loss to common stock- cars sold to dealers by them. Dis- Interstate, and Northrop factories holders in 1935. • tributors pay the corporation list in the Los Angeles area. ‘The holders of the common prices, less 22 to 30%. Surplus The new' branch office is at stock of the Studebaker Corp. cars after model changes are dis- 11413 Inglewood av, corner Im- Regional Director (New Jersey),” says the report posed of to distributors at further perial. L. H. (p. 800), ‘‘did not receive any discounts. Michener and Aircraft ’ Sub- equity in the new company Advertising expense for the 11- director Wyndham Mortimer in- formed in 1935 with the name year period 1927-37 equals 4.46% m jU& ' vite all workers to drop in and The Studebaker Corp. (Dela- of total net sales, the commission get acquainted with the union and ware).” This means they were reports. Subsidies to finance com- Fifi d’Orsay refused to go through the picket line in front its purposes. The at frozen out in the reorganization. panies from 1923 to 1932 totaled of ti->o Bowery. Michigan’s biggest night club, until the main' office continues 212 W. 3 st, Los Angeles. Except for Chairman Walter C. $5,728,427. management settled with the unions. She’s a union gal. Teagle of Standard Oil of New The UAW-CIO warns all work- Jersey, the largest in ers in other parts of the country stockholders chop suey 1938 were chiefly Wall Street unionism. that there is a big surplus of Norwood Workers Tired of Some the stock brokerage houses, the com- of officers and trained workers already un- mission reports. committeemen are sending out employed in California. Anybody feelers on coming back to the going out to coast in hope of HISTORY OF COMPANY Rump, Switching to CIO the UAW-CIO. The sincere union an aircraft factory job is pretty The Studebaker Corp. and its The CTO dues payments at the John They Eldon. are back to the men among them are facing the sure to be disappointed, and predecessors first began experi- Fisher and Chevy plants in Nor- days “Get ’em of or get out.” The issue and have the courage to tell California is pretty hard on the menting with “horseless car- wood, O. and the failure of the AFL complain officers that all us of their convictions. unemployed, as the book Grapes nages” in 1897 when an AFL leadership to adjust griev- they big is electric get from the boss There will be no problem in of Warth has pointed out. auto was built. In 1902 production ances show that the rump is well chilly receptions. “What’s the Norwood regarding the labor of gasoline arutos was begun. on the way out. use?” the men ask in despair. board election. The way the men “Studebaker is now one of the The workers are taking a terri- The concessions won in con- are paying dues to the UAW-CIO Midland Steel mo r e important independent fic shellacking from the manage- tinuous negotiations by the UAW- indicates that the AFL will be of days, Inti. Rep. manufacturers motor vehicles,” ment these reports CIO with top officials of GM stand dead by election day. The men Local Certified the report continues. out in bold contrast. are settling the issue now by pay- announced in baker’s sales of motor vehicles The labor board The men are realizing AFL ing dues to the UAW-CIO. 11: increased from 15,300 cars in 1910 Anti-Labor that Washington Jan. Court Local 131 is practically the same finding objections to a maximum of 145,167 passen- “After that as the old company works the election did ger cars in 1923, which was Ruling Criticized council. Buckeye to the conduct of All men got from the works Tackle any and slightly more than 4% of the the not raise substantial The anti-labor decision of the council was “the works.” organizing drive at Buck- today national sales. In 1938 approxi- The material issues, the NLRB U. S. circuit court of appeals at Some days ago one of eye Bumper, Springfield, O. is in of Local mately 2. nr;, of new passenger the local announced certification Chicago that the Wagner act does officers made an appeal charge of Inti. Rep. Paul Pruett, as sole collect- car registrations were Studc- to the 410, UAW-CIO, the not require signed contracts is Spring & by bakers.” men to give the new assistant president of the Gen. ive bargaining agency selected poor law, labor lawyers agree. The manager full cooperation, who in Bumper Pruett majority the production and When the Corp. was Local 332, Detroit. a of Studebaker court set aside a labor board order return “would and stay on job till it is employes of Midland formed in 1911 almost $20,000,000 make Fisher will the maintenance that the Inland Steel Co. must a good place finished, UAW-CIO competi- Co., engaged at the of water was pumped into the Chevrolet to work the Steel Products sign an agreement with the SWOC boys call this shop department announces. pressed division, De- concern, according to the com- in.” The Norwood tive Detroit steel (CIO). An oral agreement had following a secret mission. troit, Mich., been reached. Dec. 12, 1939, The company’s purchase of ballot election held “Iwould say that the NLRB has FORD AUTHORIZED ATTACK ON resulting in a count of 711 votes Pierce-Arrow in 1928 caused an full power order re- the 529 votes eventual loss of $8,740,244 before to affirmative for UAW-CIO and lief, finding prac- UNION MEN, NLRB MAINTAINS UAW-AFL, with 29 for it got rid of the white elephant in after unfair for the tices,” said Boudin of New 1933. Its acquisition .of White Louis The Ford Motor Co. impliedly defense plea “a sham and unten- neither.” board in a much company is bargaining Motor stock at a cost York. “The is authorized its agents to attack able.” The now of almost position exclusively 410, UAW- $27,000,000 was another loss bc- better than the courts to union organizers at the River In secret deals with Ford lieu- with Local say constitutes necessary re- as Local 486, cau.se it was given to creditors in what Rouge plant on May 26, 1937, the tenants a former UAW officer CIO, the same with lief.” UAW-CIO, in Cleveland, where the receivership proceedings that NLRB charges in a brief filed in tried to get injured unionists to A.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Thesis Remembering the 1936-37 Uaw-Gm Sit-Down
    THESIS REMEMBERING THE 1936-37 UAW-GM SIT-DOWN STRIKE: STRATIFICATION OF A UAW MEMBER‘S IDENTITY IN SITDOWNERS MEMORIAL PARK Submitted by: Aaron Keel Department of Communication Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Fall 2011 Master‘s Committee: Advisor: Karrin Vasby Anderson Greg Dickinson Kenneth J. Kirkland i ABSTRACT REMEMBERING THE 1936-37 UAW-GM SIT-DOWN STRIKE: STRATIFICATION OF A UAW MEMBER‘S IDENTITY IN SITDOWNERS MEMORIAL PARK In 1937, the United Automobile Workers (UAW) won recognition from General Motors (GM) through the historic sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. This strike marked the beginning of the labor movement and the battle for worker‘s rights that is continuing into the present day. Sitdowners Memorial Park (SMP), located in Flint, remembers and commemorates the striker‘s great achievements in 1937. It is also a place where citizens encounter compelling narratives of the past, pay tribute to those who have come before them, build community, negotiate identity, and receive instruction for the present and future. In this thesis, I explore SMP as an experiential landscape. In exploring the park, I answer two questions. First, how does SMP construct a UAW member‘s identity? Second, how does SMP represent female gender roles and, more specifically, what kind of agency is attributed to women as members of the UAW in this counterpublic space? I argue that SMP enlists memories of the sit-down strike and its impacts on society to reinvigorate a dying community and offer visitors rhetorical resources justifying pro-union perspectives.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Use the Digital History Reader
    Module 06: "Which Side Are You On?" The Flint Sit-Down Strike, 1936- 37 Evidence 7: The Settlement, February 11, 1937 Introduction On February 1, 1937, more than four weeks into the strike, the UAW attempted to break the stalemate by going on the offensive. Union leaders spread rumors that they planned to stage a sit-down strike at Chevrolet No. Nine, drawing company police to the plant. The move, in fact, was a diversion that allowed workers to occupy the real target: Chevrolet No. Four, the producer of Chevrolet engines and "the most important single unit" in the GM complex. Following the capture of Chevrolet No. Four, GM obtained a court injunction ordering the UAW to evacuate the two Fisher Body plants, but the sit-down strikers refused to budge. Although Governor Murphy had moved National Guard troops to Flint in mid-January, he was anxious to avoid bloodshed and refused to order the troops to enforce the injunction. Facing determined strikers, the takeover of Chevrolet No. Four, and the continued restraint of the governor, GM finally sat down at the bargaining table. Following a series of marathon negotiating sessions involving Knudsen, Lewis, and other company and union officials, GM agreed to bargain solely with the UAW for six months after production resumed (although they were allowed to refrain from stating such a concession in the formal agreement the two sides signed). Claiming victory, the strikers marched triumphantly out of the factory late on the afternoon of February 11, 1937. After six weeks, the historic Flint strike was finally over.
    [Show full text]
  • Maurice Sugar Papers
    THE MAURICE SUGAR COLLECTION Papers, 1907-1973 58 1/2 Linear Feet Accession Number 232 Maurice Sugar was one of the first American lawyers to become what is now known as a "Labor Lawyer." Before he was made Chief Legal Counsel of the United Automobile Workers, a post he held between 1937 and 1948, he had practiced as a labor lawyer and defender of the poor since 1914. Born in Brimley, Michigan in 1891, he was educated in the Detroit school system. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School where he was Editor of the Michigan Law Review. In 1914 he and Jane Mayer were married. She later became Supervisor of Elementary School Physical Education for the City of Detroit. Sugar's first client in 1914 was the Detroit Typographical Union (AFL), and before his work with the UAW he represented nearly all Detroit area unions including the Detroit and Wayne County Federations of Labor (AFL) and various AFL international unions. During the Tool and Die Makers Strike of 1913 he handled over two-hundred cases in the courts. During World War I Sugar was indicted and convicted in a conspiracy trial (1917-1918), as he was a pacifist, but he was subsequently readmitted to the bar and pardoned. Active during his youth in the Socialist Party he later became an important spokesman for what were then considered "left wing" causes, including civil rights and racial equality. He was one of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild and an early advocate of pensions, unemployment compensation, social security and other such measures.
    [Show full text]
  • CALIFORNIA RED a Life in the American Communist Party
    alifornia e California Red CALIFORNIA RED A Life in the American Communist Party Dorothy Ray Healey and Maurice Isserman UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS Urbana and Chicago Illini Books edition, 1993 © 1990 by Oxford University Press, Inc., under the title Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party Reprinted by arrangement with Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, New York Manufactured in the United States of America P54321 This book is printed on acidjree paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Healey, Dorothy. California Red : a life in the American Communist Party I Dorothy Ray Healey, Maurice Isserman. p. em. Originally published: Dorothy Healey remembers: a life in the American Communist Party: New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Includes index. ISBN 0-252-06278-7 (pbk.) 1. Healey, Dorothy. 2. Communists-United States-Biography. I. Isserman, Maurice. II. Title. HX84.H43A3 1993 324.273'75'092-dc20 [B] 92-38430 CIP For Dorothy's mother, Barbara Nestor and for her son, Richard Healey And for Maurice's uncle, Abraham Isserman ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is based substantially on a series of interviews conducted by the UCLA Oral History Program from 1972 to 1974. These interviews appear in a three-volume work titled Tradition's Chains Have Bound Us(© 1982 The Regents of The University of California. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission). Less formally, let me say that I am grateful to Joel Gardner, whom I never met but whose skillful interviewing of Dorothy for Tradition's Chains Have Bound Us inspired this work and saved me endless hours of duplicated effort a decade later, and to Dale E.
    [Show full text]
  • The Strike Files of the U.S
    A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of RESEARCH COLLECTIONS IN LABOR STUDIES General Editor: Melvyn Dubofsky The Strike Files of the U.S. Department of Justice Part 1. 1894-1920 UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of RESEARCH COLLECTIONS IN LABOR STUDIES General Editor: Melvyn Dubofsky THE STRIKE FILES OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Part 1.1894-1920 Associate Editors: Randolph Boehm and Gregory Murphy Guide compiled by Martin Schipper A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA An Imprint of CIS 4520 East-West Highway • Bethesda, MD 20814-3389 LCCN 92-39073. Copyright® 1990 by University Publications of America. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55655-219-X. TABLE OF CONTENTS Scope and Content Note vii Source Note x Editorial Note x Abbreviation List xi Reel Index Reels 1-3 RG 60•Classified Subject File Casefilel6-1 1 Reel 4 RG 60•Classified Subject File cont. Casefile 16-1 cont_ 6 Casefilel6-2 7 ReelS RG 60•Classified Subject File cont. Casefile 16-4 8 Casefiles 16-7 and 16-7-0 8 Casefile 16-8 8 Casefile 16-9 8 Casefile 16-10 8 Casefile 16-16 9 Casefile 16-19 9 Casefile 16-19-0 9 Casefile 16-20 9 Casefile 16-22 9 Casefile 16-23 9 Casefile 16-24 10 Casefile 16-25 10 Casefile 16-26 10 Casefile 16-26S-0 10 Casefile 16-28 , 11 Casefile 16-29 11 Casefile 16-30 11 Casefile 16-31 11 Casefile 16-32 12 in Reel 6 RG 60•Classified Subject File cont.
    [Show full text]
  • Walter Reuther's Affiliation with the Communist Party and Something of Its Meaning — a Document of Party Involvement, 1939 Victor G
    Document generated on 09/27/2021 1:40 a.m. Labour/Le Travailleur Reassessing The Historical UAW: Walter Reuther's Affiliation with the Communist Party and Something of Its Meaning — A Document of Party Involvement, 1939 Victor G. Devinatz Volume 49, 2002 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt49not02 See table of contents Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History ISSN 0700-3862 (print) 1911-4842 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Devinatz, V. G. (2002). Reassessing The Historical UAW: Walter Reuther's Affiliation with the Communist Party and Something of Its Meaning — A Document of Party Involvement, 1939. Labour/Le Travailleur, 49, 221–244. All rights reserved © Canadian Committee on Labour History, 2002 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Reassessing The Historical UAW: Walter Reuther's Affiliation with the Communist Party and Something of Its Meaning — A Document of Party Involvement, 1939 Victor G. Devinatz Walter Reuther's close connection to the Communists, including a possible brief member­ ship, has a meaning and legacy that is of more man sectarian interest To most of his conservative opponents, Reuther's sojourn in the Soviet Union and subsequent alliance with the Communists sustained the accusation that he was simply a red.
    [Show full text]
  • February 2021
    FEBRUARY 2021 UAW Local 31 President’s Article Executive Board Dear Heavenly Father, thank you ful. Wishing all of you and your Hello Brothers and Sisters of President for bringing this local from 2020 families. Health, happiness, and the Great “31”!! Clarence E. Brown to 2021 in solidarity together. As prosperity in the new year. I thought I might share a beautiful we begin the year of 2021, forced Christmas story with you. It was Vice President In Solidarity, to change the way we live our C.B. just weeks before Christmas and Dontay M. Wilson lives and the way we do our jobs. I the pandemic virus was in full Recording want to say thank you to this CHANGE!!! force. It cancelled the Adopt-A- membership, active and retired for Sometimes change comes and you Family program at UAW Local 31. Secretary a job well done during a pandemic do not even know it is coming or For our new members, this is an Jakara Humphrey that none of us saw coming. I will what it is about. When that hap- annual program where we as a Financial tell anyone who will listen. I be- pens, we can make the best of it plant bring in families and their lieve this membership has a bright or the worst of it. I hope we as a children into the plant from the Secretary future ahead of it and 2021 is no membership learn to see each surrounding community. These Cindy Crable different. I am not going to try and other differently and be able to families are in need and would Trustees paint you a pretty picture of the smile while doing it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Automobile Strike
    THE GREAT AU TOMOBILE STRIKE BY \1\IILLIAM WE INSTONE Lessons of the Maritime Strikes ROY H UDSOJ\' The Rubber Front in Akron JAMES KELLER Party Mobilization in Ohio JOHN WILLIAMSOJ\' Trial of Trotskyite Agents of Fascism I. AMTER Trotskyism in the United States C. A. HATHAWAY Struggle Against Criminal Syndicalist Laws ANNA DAMON <<<<~<<<<<<<<<~(((~((((((~(( TWENTY CENTS Looming on tile Horizon! Tile Big Steel Strike of 1937! WHAT MEANS A STRIKE IN STEEL BY WILLIAM Z. FOSTER A brilliant exposition on strike tactics and strategy by the leader and master strategist of the great steel strike of 1919, ana­ lyzing the present favorable outlook in the giant industry which today constitutes the fountainhead of American imperialism, the vital issues at stake, affecting the lives and welfare of millions, and the political significance and probable effects of the gigantic strike which is looming in steel. What Means a Strike in Steel covers in detail the problems of strike preparation and organiza­ tion, democratic strike leadership, strike relief, strike defense, strike publicity, strike forces and reserves, and the steps neces­ sary to consolidate the victory when won. It is not only an indis­ pensable handbook on strike strategy but an inspiring guide to action in the big struggles which lie ahead. OPINIONS "Whenever Foster writes a new "We should distribute 100,000 copies pamphlet one can be sure he has an of this pamphlet." important message. But when Foster -Jack Johnstone. writes on steel, no active worker or student of labor problems can afford "Foster's pamphlet emphasizes the to miss it." important role of the Negro worker in -Jack Stachel.
    [Show full text]
  • Solidarity Forever: the Story of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the Communist Party from The
    East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2012 Solidarity Forever: The tS ory of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the Communist Party from the Perspective of the Rank and File Autoworkers Brandi Nicole McCloud East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Political History Commons Recommended Citation McCloud, Brandi Nicole, "Solidarity Forever: The tS ory of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the Communist Party from the Perspective of the Rank and File Autoworkers" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1416. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1416 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Solidarity Forever: The Story of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the Communist Party from the Perspective of the Rank and File Autoworkers ____________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of History East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in History ____________________ by Brandi McCloud May 2012 ____________________ Dr. Emmett Essin, Chair Dr. Henry Antkiewicz Dr. Dale Schmitt Keywords: autoworkers, Sit-Down Strike, Communist Party ABSTRACT Solidarity Forever: The Story of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the Communist Party from the Perspective of the Rank and File Autoworkers by Brandi McCloud The subject of this thesis is the Sit-Down Strike in Flint, Michigan in 1936-1937.
    [Show full text]
  • Len and Caroline Decaux Papers
    THE LEN AND CAROLINE ABRAMS DECAUX COLLECTION Papers, 1325-1370 (Predominantly, 1340-1960) 8 Linear Feet 2 Cversize Boxes Accession Number 332 L.C. Number MS Len DeCaux placed his papers in the Archi es of Laoor History and Urban Affairs in May of 1977. They were opened for research in August of I37S Leonard Howard DeCaux was born in Westport, New Zealand on October !4, 1899, the son of an Anglican vicar He was educated at Harrow and Oxforc where he studied classics. The poverty and slum conditions wnich he saw during his adolescence while his family was living in Belfast caused him to begin to question the traditional upper-class British values and those of the Church of England in which he had been raised. World War I in which he served intensified this rejection. Instead he moved to socialism and an identification with the working class in his search for some solution to social and economic inequities. In 1921 he emigrated to the United States where he felt he would be better able to become a member of the industrial working class than would be possible in England. He toured the country riding the rails and earning a meager living taking jobs as a laborer and merchant seaman. During his time he joined the IWW. From 1922 to 1924 he attended the Brookwood Labor College where he met his future wife, Caroline Abrams. Having gotten some experience writing for IWW paoers, DeCaux was hired in 1925 by Carl Haessler of the Federated Press, a news service for the labor press, who sent him to England and Germany as a foreign correspondent.
    [Show full text]
  • Wyndham Mortimer Papers
    Wyndham Mortimer Collection Papers, 1934-1973 (Predominantly, 1940-1962) 2 linear feet Accession #1171 OCLC # The papers of Wyndham Mortimer were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs by his daughter Irma M. Stewart in March of 1984 and were opened for research in February of 1985. The papers include a few documents given to Mortimer by John M. "Scotty" Orr. Wyndham Mortimer was born March 11, 1884 in Karthaus, Pennsylvania. His father, an immigrant English miner, and his Welsh mother were both supporters of the Knights of Labor. Mortimer, who entered the mines at the age of twelve, continued this tradition by becoming an active member of the United Mine Workers. When he left the mines at twenty-two, he worked in a steel plant and as a railway worker. He married Margaret Hunter in 1907, and in 1908 he joined the Socialist Party. He became an autoworker in 1917, when he joined the White Motor Co. in Cleveland. In 1932 he formed an independent union there, which became AFL Federal Local 18463. He was elected president of the local and also president of the Cleveland Auto Workers Council in 1934. Mortimer soon became critical of the AFL's reluctance to organize industrial workers and participated in the effort to establish a national industrial union for auto workers. He was a member of the bloc which succeeded in removing Francis Dillon from the presidency of the United Automobile Workers Union at the South Bend convention in 1936 and was elected First Vice President at that convention. Mortimer, who was somewhat older than his fellow UAW officers, was then sent to Flint, Michigan to begin an organizing drive among GM workers at the Fisher Body Co.
    [Show full text]
  • People's World Photograph Collection
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8pz5fz6 No online items Finding Aid to the People's World Photograph Collection Finding aid prepared by Labor Archives staff. Labor Archives and Research Center 2012, Revised 2017 San Francisco State University 1630 Holloway Ave San Francisco 94132-1722 [email protected] URL: http://www.library.sfsu.edu/larc Finding Aid to the People's World larc.pho.00091986/073, 1990/013, 1992/003, 1992/049, 1 Photograph Collection 1994/037, 2011/015 Title: People's World Photograph Collection Date (inclusive): 1856-1992 Date (bulk): 1930-1990 Creator: People's World. (San Francisco, Calif.). Extent: 22 cubic ft. (45 boxes) Call number: larc.pho.0009 Accession numbers: 1986/073, 1990/013, 1992/003, 1992/049, 1994/037, 2011/015 Contributing Institution: Labor Archives and Research Center J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460 San Francisco State University 1630 Holloway Ave San Francisco, CA 94132-1722 (415) 405-5571 [email protected] Abstract: The People's World Photograph Collection consists of approximately 6,000 photographs used in People's World, a grassroots publication affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). The photographs, along with a small selection of cartoons and artwork, highlight social and political issues and events of the 20th century, with the views of the newspaper aligning with the CPUSA's policies on topics such as civil rights, labor, immigration, the peace movement, poverty, and unemployment. The photographs, the bulk of which span the years 1930 to 1990, comprise predominantly black and white prints gathered from a variety of sources including government agencies, photographic studios, individual photographers, stock image companies, and news agencies, while many of the cartoons and artwork were created by People's World editor and artist Pele deLappe.
    [Show full text]