SEIU Executive Office: John Sweeney Records 177.5 linear feet (178 SB) 1921-1995, bulk 1980-1995 Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI Finding aid written by Louis Jones on December 21, 2010. Accession Number: 1542 Creator: Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Acquisition: The Executive Office of the Service Employees International Union Records were first deposited by SEIU at the Reuther Library in 1993. Subsequent deposits occurred in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2005 when SEIU shipped additional material to the Archives. The Reuther Library serves as the official repository for SEIU. Language: Material entirely in English. Access: Records are open for research. Use: Refer to the Walter P. Reuther Library Rules for Use of Archival Materials. Notes: Citation style: “Service Employees International Union Executive Office: John Sweeney Records. Box [#], Folder [#], Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University” Other Access Aids: Many photographic images are available online in the SEIU Image Gallery on the Reuther’s Web site (www.reuther.wayne.edu). Related Material: Reuther Library Collections: SEIU Executive Office Microfilm Records, SEIU Executive Office: William McFetridge Records, SEIU Executive Office: David Sullivan Records, SEIU Executive Office: George Hardy Records, SEIU Historical Records, SEIU/International Jewelry Workers’ Union Records, SEIU International Vice-Presidents Records, SEIU Secretary- Treasurer’s Office: International Executive Board Records, SEIU Local 32B-32J Records, SEIU Research Department Historical Records, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer’s Office: Constitutions and By-Laws Records, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer’s Office: Affiliate Officers Records.” The “SEIU Charter Book,” which contains the dates of charters, dissolutions, charter revocations, and mergers of SEIU affiliates, is located behind the reference desk in the reading room of the Walter P. Reuther Library. Some photographs and oversize items such as posters and banners were transferred to the Reuther’s Audiovisual Department. Guides or inventories are available in hardcopy at the Archives or online at www.reuther.wayne.edu. Copies of SEIU publications were transferred to the Reuther’s Library Department. Records associated with Sweeney’s tenure as AFL-CIO President should be located at the George Meany Memorial Archives in Silver Spring, MD, home of the records of the AFL-CIO. 2 History For many, John Sweeney is known as the now former head of the AFL-CIO, a position from which he retired in 2009 after 14 years of service. For most of the previous 35 years, though, he was a member turned officer of the Service Employees International Union, having served 15 of those years as its President. Sweeney’s tenure with SEIU began as a cemetery worker with Local 365, but he left SEIU for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) before returning and rising through the ranks of SEIU Local 32B located in New York City. Ultimately, he was elected that local’s president, which, under his leadership, merged with Local 32J. With this background, he moved into the office of SEIU International Secretary- Treasurer in 1980, a position he would hold for only six months before ascending to the office of International President upon the retirement of George Hardy. His initial years as SEIU President coincided with the presidency of Ronald Reagan whose tax cuts and dismissal of Air Traffic Controllers marked him and his presidency as anti labor. Similarly, the Reagan-controlled National Labor Relations Board worked against the efforts of SEIU and organized labor generally. Even as the ranks of organized labor suffered declines during Sweeney’s tenure as SEIU President, the union reached the million-member mark eleven years into his presidency, a milestone Sweeney had vowed to make. Nowhere did SEIU’s ranks grow more rapidly than in the ranks of its public sector membership where a number of independent public employee unions and associations affiliated with SEIU. Membership among healthcare employees also increased during his presidency. Sweeney reorganized the union in 1984, creating building service, healthcare, clerical, public and allied and industrial divisions in order to better accommodate its diverse membership. These divisions benefited from expanded research and organizing departments that Sweeney established and with this support, the union pursued campaigns that allowed SEIU to grow in strength during an era characterized by antagonism toward unions. 3 Scope and Content The collection contains an assortment of correspondence, internal memorandum, telegrams, speeches and testimony, agenda and programs to events, meeting minutes, press releases, newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, constitutions and by-laws, internal reports, studies, resolutions, merger/affiliation agreements, grievances, press releases, National Labor Relations Board decisions and orders, bulletins, newsletters, draft legislation, financial statements, publications, trusteeship orders and reports, flyers, organizing plans, questionnaires, surveys, talking points, death gratuity claims, per capita tax forms, convention/conference proceedings, legal documents, strike sanctions among other records. The SEIU Executive Office: John Sweeney Records is the largest SEIU collection housed at the Reuther Library with some records spanning back to the inception of the union in 1921. It contains files documenting the activities of local unions, joint councils and other SEIU affiliates. These files contain material to and from the international and affiliates in addition to material the international kept about affiliates. In addition, the files of SEIU executive board members, vice presidents, divisions, departments and staff members are also found within the collection, often within series identified in this manner. SEIU’s departments and divisions are documented within Series VIII, which contain files of SEIU’s departments and the key people that work within them. Researchers can also review records documenting the meetings, hearings, conventions and conferences Sweeney attended and at which he often spoke or testified, which are located in series IX, although draft speeches are also located in Series XVI. Also located in the collection are records reflecting Sweeney’s interest in healthcare reform (Series XII) as well as material documenting most of the conventions SEIU held during and before Sweeney’s tenure as president (Series XI). The Convention Series documents some of the major policy shifts that transpired within the organization during Sweeney’s presidency, including the 1984 reorganization where the Sweeney administration established a division structure. The convention series also contains material regarding another significant initiative: the Committee on the Future, a committee initiated to make the union a more effective voice for working people. However, this initiative is also documented in a series of its own (Series X). The General Files Series XVI will interest those researchers interested in SEIU’s external relationships with the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations, amongst other groups. Labor historians and others interested in either John Sweeney, the history of SEIU and related subjects, will benefit from conducting research within these records. 4 Important Subjects: AFL-CIO Municipal employees AFSCME Collective labor agreements – Civil Rights Nurses Civil Service Collective labor agreements – Collective bargaining – County Service industries employees Financial statements Collective bargaining – Grievance arbitration Government employees Industrial relations Collective bargaining – Health Janitors Facilities – United States Labor laws and legislation Collective bargaining – Hospitals Labor unions – law and –United States legislation Collective bargaining – Labor unions – organizing Municipal Employees – Nursing homes United States Public service employment Collective bargaining – Race tracks Physicians Service Employees International Collective bargaining – Police Union Collective bargaining – Service Service industries industries Social workers Collective bargaining – State Strike votes government employees – Strike and lockouts United States Trade-unions – consolidations Collective labor agreements Trade-unions – Service industries Collective labor agreements – workers Government employees – Unfair labor practices United States United States. National Labor Collective labor agreements – Relations Board Hospitals – United States Veterans’ hospitals Collective labor agreements – Welfare funds (Trade-union) 5 Important Names: Asher, Lester Hearn, Albert Roscoe, Stanley Bednarczyk, Kirkland, Lane Roscoe, Ted Betty Lerner, Stephen Roselli, Sal Bevona, Gus Lyons, Kenneth Ruff, Jackie Blake, Martell Mayer, Leo Solari, Yolanda Buckley, Joseph McFadden, Stern, Andrew Burger, Anna Ophelia Stodghill, Butler, Walter Moats, Eugene William Cordtz, Richard Monahan, Sweeney, John Dale, Alice Patrick Thomas, Patricia Donahue, Moore, Robert Trump, Thomas Murphy, Joseph Rosemary Duvall, Louis Murphy, Richard Twomey, Earls, Marc Nussbaum, Timothy Ford, Patricia Karen Varacalli, Paul Gohier, Aime Ottley, Peter Welsh, Robert Hardy, George Policicchio, Paul Woodruff, Tom 6 Series I: Local Union Files, 1980-1995 The series contains correspondence, memos, internal reports, clippings, handwritten notes, constitutions and by-laws, agenda, meeting minutes, programs to events, pleadings, merger/affiliation agreements/authorizations, telegrams,