Special Collections and University Archives: Labor and Consumer Rights

General office files (1947-1956), election campaigns file (1948-1954), county organizations file (1949-1953), financial records (1947-1956), and miscellaneous records.

Labor-management arbitration files relating to grievance cases heard in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Included in the files are labor contracts, correspondence, grievance reports and copies of personnel documents, hearing transcripts, briefs, notes, arbitrator's opinions and awards, bills for arbitrator's services, and related papers.

General correspondence, financial correspondence and vouchers, official correspondence of union executives Arthur Chapin, Carl Holderman, Joel Jacobson, Harry Krantz, Paul Krebs, and Victor Leonardis, mailings to the legislature and to local unions, material relating to CIO Political Action Committee, 14th Constitutional Convention, New Jersey CIO, and CIO Women's League of New Jersey, and miscellaneous records.

The bulk of the papers relate to Mary T. Norton’s career as a Congresswoman (1925-1950). Included are correspondence, speeches, statements and press releases, writings, photographs, certificates of election, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and letters of condolence on her death. Also included are various types of biographical material, including magazine articles and her legislative and voting records, and various documents relating to organizations of which she was a member.
Speeches and public statements made in Congress and elsewhere concentrate on the issues of labor, women’s role and status, and child care. Her writings deal with some of the same issues. Included among the topics treated in the subject files are the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Advisory Committee on Defense Manpower (material from 1951 to 1953 concerning workforce issues and the employment of women) and a 1952 "National Equal Pay Conference" sponsored by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Containing over 1,500 cubic feet of textual records and non-textual material (audio tapes, films, photographs, and labor ephemera), the archives of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine & Furniture Workers, AFL-CIO (IUE) constitutes one of the most significant and comprehensive labor history collections existing anywhere in the United States.
Chartered as a Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) affiliated international union in 1949 after a split with its predecessor organization the United Electrical Workers (UE), the IUE evolved into one of the most influential trade unions in the world in terms of membership and in its legacy to the modern labor movement and society. Dating from 1949 through the early 2000s, the archives document the full range and scope of IUE institutional activities and contain historical records highlighting intensive organizing campaigns, strikes, negotiations and collective bargaining, contracts and wage agreements, district, local, and national elections, litigation, legislative, political, and social action programs, international labor affairs, and research and educational activities. The papers of four IUE presidents, James B. Carey (1949-1965), Paul Jennings (1965-1976), David J. Fitzmaurice (1976-1982), and William H. Bywater (1982-1996), and records generated by the union's other officers, including those of Secretary-Treasurer Ed Fire, who would become the IUE president in 1996 and who oversaw the merger with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), are also included. Records from IUE Districts One and Three are also part of the collection.

Records pertaining to governance, local organizing, contract negotiation and compliance, lobbying, public relations, and policing the membership. Document types include constitutions, minutes, correspondence, contracts, speeches and testimony, reports, press clippings, personnel records, case files, publications, photographs, and audiovisual recordings. The case files derive in most instances from charges of misconduct brought against an individual by his fellow crew members; they date from the 1940s to the 1960s. Subjects documented by the photographs include U.S. Congressional hearings, union functions, union officials, strikes, ships, ship conditions, crews, a post-war wage campaign, and seafaring women.

Correspondence, notes for speeches, reports, magazine articles, clippings, pamphlets, and other papers on labor-management relations.

A union official who helped found the National Negro Labor Council, Ernest Thompson (1907-1971) was also a community activist who helped bring about political and economic gains for African Americans in Orange, N.J., and nearby communities. His papers consist of files on the National Negro Labor Council, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America's National Fair Practices Committee, Citizens for Representative Government (Orange, N.J.), files relating to various northeastern New Jersey citizens' groups, photographs, and notes, correspondence, and draft chapters of Homeboy Came to Orange (1976) by Thompson and his daughter, Mindy Thompson, and of The National Negro Labor Council (1978) by Mindy Thompson. The papers consist of correspondence, notes, speeches, memoranda, resolutions, minutes, reports, position papers, court and other legal documents, budgets and program proposals, press releases, printed matter, press clippings, photographs, drafts of writings, resumes, lists of names and addresses, and scripts of radio programs and plays.

The papers consist of primarily textual records that chronicle Chernick's career as an arbitrator, educator, labor commissioner, and researcher over a period of more than 30 years. They document Chernick's accomplishments as a mediator for the American Arbitration Association, his professional interest in, and efforts in support of, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, and his service with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission. The papers also underscore Chernick's contributions to the development and growth of the Rutgers University School of Labor and Management Relations (SMLR), where, as a professor of industrial relations and a member of key faculty committees, he oversaw both graduate and research programs and helped design a collective bargaining curriculum.

The papers comprise the professional records of Meisler's mid-20th century career as a labor advocate, consultant, editor, educator, mediator, researcher, and student. Among the activities represented in the papers are Meisler's efforts as a proponent of civil rights and his affiliation with various governmental and professional organizations, such as the Association of Labor Mediation Agencies, the New Jersey State Board of Mediation, and the Retail Clerks International Association. The papers are composed primarily of textual records such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, organizational records, publications, research files, and reports.

Alan Reitman was a civil liberties writer, researcher, and advocate. He joined the staff of the C.I.O. Political Action Committee in 1944 and subsequently served the organization as director of public relations (1946-1948). He joined the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1949 and served as publicity director, director of public relations, assistant director, and associate executive director. The papers consist chiefly of Reitman's speeches and writings from throughout his career.

The Sol Stetin Papers chronicle Stetin's career as an educator and proponent for organized labor over a period of more than 50 years. They document Stetin's personal and professional association with various divisions and programs at Rutgers University, among them the Rutgers Oral History Project, the Livingston Labor Studies Association, and the Labor Education Center at the Institute of Management and Labor Relations, where Stetin served as the first labor leader in residence. Also represented in the papers are Stetin's work as an independent labor consultant and researcher, his tenures as a trustee and teacher at William Paterson College, and his role as a founder of the American Labor Museum at the Botto House in Haledon, N.J. In addition, the papers commemorate a campaign that Stetin led on behalf of the Textile Workers Union and, later, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, to organize employees of J.P. Stevens & Co. at the firm's manufacturing plants in the American South.

The Joseph H. Vertrees Papers document the legacy of a notable American educator and authority on industrial relations. In particular, the papers chronicle the contributions that Vertrees made to the Rutgers University Extension Department and to the University's Institute of Management and Labor Relations (IMLR), now the School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR). Also represented in the papers are materials that Vertrees compiled during a 30-year corporate and government career that predated and overlapped his employment at Rutgers. The collection contents are primarily textual materials such as correspondence, publications, and reports.

The Lewis M. Herrmann Papers consist of primarily print and photographic records that document Herrmann's personal life and professional career as an educator, publisher, researcher, trade unionist, philanthropist, and New Jersey state legislator. Spanning a period of more than four decades, the papers chronicle key contributions that Herrmann made to the development of the Labor Education Center at Rutgers University's Institute of Management and Labor Relations (IMLR). Also represented in the papers are Herrmann's work with the International Labor Press Association, his affiliation with the International Typographical Union, and his tenure as editor of the New Jersey Labor Herald newspaper. The papers also trace Herrmann's political involvement on behalf of various candidates and causes.

The Norman Eiger Papers consist of primarily textual records that chronicle Eiger's 26-year career as an educator and student of labor movements throughout the world. In particular, the papers document Eiger's faculty and administrative affiliation with the Rutgers University Institute of Management and Labor Relations (IMLR), now the School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR), where Eiger served as chair of the Department of Labor Education and director of the Labor Education Center. Also represented in the papers are records of Eiger's extensive research and writings in the field of comparative labor studies. A selection of course materials compiled by Eiger's students and colleagues at the IMLR is included among the papers as well.

Textual materials gathered and created by James P. Begin that document the establishment and early history of faculty collective bargaining and the establishment of a chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at Rutgers University.

The files document the activities of Sue Kozel and Chris Berzinski as activists, the issues that concerned them, and the groups in which they became active, including the Committee to Organize Student Workers (COSW), a Rutgers student-based organization committed to improving the working conditions and protecting the rights of student workers. Other organizations documented in the files include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Chemical Workers Union, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (IUE), and the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE).
The files also contain documentation of Kozel's interest in and dedication to labor issues relating in particular to the rights of women and minority workers. Her PhD research materials deal with aspects of organized labor, including minority and Jewish women workers and workers' rights and safety and an unfinished project to document the ethnic and labor history of New York City’s East Village. Also included is an unpublished manuscript by labor historian Alice Cook.

Papers relating to Prince's activities in New Jersey as regional head of State, County, and Municipal Workers of America, including correspondence (1941-1946), financial reports (1945-1946), union organizational materials (1944-1946), writings, clippings, and scrapbook of clippings.

Correspondence, research note cards, and other papers relating to a projected history of the New Jersey State Federation of Labor.

The current-day Laborers’ International Union of North America was founded in 1903 and its New Brunswick Local 156 in 1915. Records of the international and local unions detail their history. Based on the collection and his history as a member, vice president, and president of Local 156, John Clancy wrote a thesis and later developed an exhibition at Rutgers University Libraries, Who Built New Brunswick? The History of the International Hod Carriers Union Local 156. The exhibition was showcased April 8-July 31, 2002. Clancy’s works and collected documents focus on the local union, especially its members and construction projects. Documents and publications from the International Union discuss reorganization and reform efforts in the late 1990s through 2000.

Documents and newspaper clippings related to the 1969 strike at the Ford Motor Company in Mahwah, N.J., organized by the United Black Workers.

Transcript of a dispute between the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company and the Telephone Workers Union of New Jersey, with exhibits.

Includes minutes of North Jersey Joint Board (1940-1945).

Correspondence, reports, memoranda, monographs, copies of magazine articles, and other records of the Institute of International Labor Research and its branch organizations, the Center of Social Studies and Social Documentation and the Inter-American Institute of Political Education, pertaining to Latin America. Places represented include New York, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

Papers documenting Rutgers University Professor Robert J. Alexander's life and work and research materials collected by him. The papers contain notes on interviews he conducted with prominent Latin American leaders, including union leaders, which record the political and economic situation of countries worldwide, with a focus on labor relations. Letters from Alexander to Jay Lovestone when Lovestone was head of the International Department of the American Federation of Labor and later the AFL-CIO describe conditions in Latin America, including the general political and economic situations and the trade unions, and make recommendations about how to counter communist influence in the labor unions. Alexander’s Latin America country files document common markets, cooperatives, and labor relations, and his subject files cover socialism and labor in countries throughout the world, but particularly in the United States, as well as the cooperative movement. Published works by Alexander document Latin America, left-wing political movements, economic theory, trade policy, labor movements, and labor relations. Included among his unpublished works is the monograph “Labor in Franco Spain.” The papers also include materials on the International Institute for Labor Research, Inc., of which Alexander was a board member.

Materials on the Inter-American Association for Democracy and Freedom (IADF), of which Grant served as Secretary General, are a rich source of information about political parties, labor movements, and social and economic conditions in virtually every Latin American country. Includes letters and related documents received from prominent individuals associated with the IADF and copies of letters sent by Grant. The correspondence documents cooperation between the IADF and other groups, including the Institute of International Labor Research. Prominent correspondents include Serafino Romualdi, American Federation of Labor Deputy in charge of Latin America and founder of the Organización Regional Interamerica de Trabajadores (O.R.I.T.). His files document the efforts to organize anti-communist unions in Latin America during the late 1940s and 1950s. The papers also contain an address by Romualdi of the U.S. Labor Delegation to Argentina about the exploitation of the labor movement by the Perón government.

The collection contains Nakao's writings and research materials on Sen Katayama, a founding member of both the American and Japanese Communist parties, as well as, in Japan, a pioneer of the socialist movement, a leader in the early trade union movement, and the editor of Japan's first labor newspaper. It also includes photographs of Nakao’s trip to San Francisco in order to meet Karl G. Yoneda, a Communist and Katayama researcher, as well as photographs of Katayama's hometown.

Partial records (1928-1950) of the Affiliated Schools for Workers (from 1940 the American Labor Education Service), which coordinated the activities of several summer schools for workers, together with incomplete records (1921-1951) of several of the schools. The largest part of the collection consists of records of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry. Additional, but less thorough, documentation present in the collection consists of records of the Hudson Shore Labor School (the co-educational successor to the Bryn Mawr School), records of the Barnard Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, and records of the Vineyard Shore Workers' School.