The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Labor

AFL-CIO Hampshire-Franklin Central Labor Council

AFL-CIO Hampshire-Franklin Central Labor Council Records

1977-2007
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1074

The Hampshire-Franklin Central Labor Council is a democratically-elected body drawn from among AFL-CIO-affiliated unions in Hampshire and Franklin Counties, Mass. The Labor Council advocates for workers’ interests at the state and local level and works with its members and communities on social and economic justice issues.

This slender collection consists of the minutes of monthly meetings of HFCLC for three decades beginning in 1977, with some brief gaps in the latter years.

Gift of Dale Melcher, Aug. 2016

Subjects

Labor unions--Massachusetts

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Allen, Theodore W., 1919-2005

Theodore W. Allen Papers

1946-2005
47 boxes 64 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1021
Part of: Jeffrey B. Perry Collection
Depiction of Theodore W. Allen
Theodore W. Allen

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

An anti-white supremacist, working class intellectual and activist, Theodore W. “Ted” Allen was one of the most important thinkers on race and class in the twentieth century. He developed his pioneering class struggle-based analysis of “white skin privilege” beginning in the mid-1960s; authored the seminal two-volume The Invention of the White Race in the 1990s; and consistently maintained that the struggle against white supremacy was central to efforts at radical social change in the United States. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Allen was raised in Kentucky and West Virginia, where he was “proletarianized” by the Great Depression. A member of the American Federation of Musicians and the United Mine Workers, and a member of the Communist Party, Allen moved to Brooklyn after injuring his back in the mines, and spent the last fifty years of his life at various jobs including factory work, teaching, the post office, and the Brooklyn Public Library. In the 1960s, having broken from the Communist Party, Allen set out on his own independent research course. Inspired by the work of W. E. B. Du Bois he wrote on the “white blindspot” and “white skin privilege” and began what became forty years of work focused on white supremacy as the principal retardant of class consciousness among European-American workers. Over his last thirty years, Allen wrote hundreds of published and unpublished articles and letters challenging white supremacy, capitalist rule, sexism, and U.S. Imperialism, as well as numerous poems.

The Theodore W. Allen Papers are a comprehensive assemblage of correspondence, published and unpublished writings, audio and video materials, and research by one of the major theorists on race and class of the twentieth century. The Papers offer important insights on the Old and New Left and their relation to the labor and Civil Rights/Black Liberation Movements and have much to offer students, scholars, researchers, and activists.

Gift of Jeffrey B. Perry, May 2018

Subjects

Communists--New York (State)Historians--New York (State)Labor movementRaceRacism

Contributors

Ignatiev, NoelSojourner Truth Organization

Types of material

Photographs
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. New England Joint Board

ACTWU New England Joint Board Records

1974-1987
8 boxes 12 linear feet
Call no.: MS 241

Records of the New England Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union include union administration files, company files, and publications. Company files document interactions between the union and companies such as Best Coat Co.; Healthtec, Inc.; Image Wear; M & M Pants Co.; Soloff & Son, Inc.; and Wear Well Trouser Co.

Subjects

Clothing trade--Labor unions--New EnglandLabor unions--New EnglandTextile workers--Labor unions--New England

Contributors

Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Boston Joint Board

ACWA Boston Joint Board Records

1926-1979
8 linear feet
Call no.: MS 002

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America originated from a split in the United Garment Workers in 1914 and quickly became the dominant force for union in the men’s clothing industry, controlling shops in Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, and New York. The Boston Joint Board formed at the beginning of the ACWA and included locals from a range of ethnic groups and trades that comprised the industry. It coordinated the activities and negotiations for ACWA Locals 1, 12, 102, 149, 171, 172, 173, 174, 181,183, 267, and 335 in the Boston area. In the 1970s the Boston Joint Board merged with others to form the New England Regional Joint Board.

Records, including minutes, contracts, price lists, and scrapbooks, document the growth and maturity of the ACWA in Boston and the eventual decline of the industry in New England. Abundant contracts and price lists show the steady improvement of conditions for workers in the men’s clothing industry. Detailed minutes reflect the political and social influence of the ACWA; the Joint Board played an important role in local and state Democratic politics and it routinely contributed to a wide range of social causes including the Home for Italian Children and the United Negro College Fund. Minutes also document the post World War II development of industrial relations in the industry and include information relating to Joint Board decisions to strike. Minutes also contain information relating to shop grievances, arbitration, shop committees, and organizing. The records largely coincide with the years of leadership of Joseph Salerno, ACWA Vice President and New England Director from 1941 to 1972.

Gift of the New England Regional Joint Board, through Edward Clark, Nov. 1984

Subjects

Boston (Mass.)--Economic conditions--20th centuryClothing trade--Labor unions--MassachusettsLabor unions--Massachusetts--BostonTextile industry--MassachusettsTextile workers--Labor unions--Massachusetts--BostonTextile workers--Massachusetts--Economic conditions--20th century

Contributors

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Boston Joint BoardSalerno, Joseph, fl. 1907-1972

Types of material

ContractsFinancial recordsMinutes (Administrative records)Scrapbooks
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Journeymen Tailors Union. Local 115

ACWA Journeyman Tailors Union Local 115 Records

1945-1984
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 025

Local 115 of Connecticut was comprised of branches from Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury, and affiliated with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.

The ACWA records consist of minutes of meetings, correspondence, reports, and contracts. Also included are a number of agreements between local businesses and the union identifying the union as the bargaining representative of their employees.

Subjects

Clothing trade--Labor unions--ConnecticutLabor unions--Connecticut

Contributors

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Local 125

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Local 125 Records

1928-1984
16 boxes 8 linear feet
Call no.: MS 001

Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Local 125 was a chapter of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) that worked to improve wages and hours of work, to increase job security, to provide facilities for advancing cultural, educational, and recreational interests of its members, and to strengthen the labor movement. Key figures in Local 125 included Aldo Cursi who, with Mamie Santora, organized the Connecticut shirtworkers and served as Manager from 1933 to 1954; John Laurie who served as Business Manager from 1933 to 1963; and Nick Aiello, Business agent in 1963 and Manager from 1964 to 1984.

The collection includes constitution, by-laws, minutes, contracts, piece rate schedules, accounts, subject files, scrapbooks, newsclippings, printed materials, photographs and a phonograph record. These records document the history of Local 125 from its founding in 1933 to 1984, when the Local office in New Haven was closed. Included also are correspondence and case materials pertaining to grievance and arbitration proceedings (access restrictions apply).

Subjects

Clothing trade--Labor unions--ConnecticutLabor unions--ConnecticutLabor unions--MassachusettsTextile industry--ConnecticutTextile workers--Labor unions--Connecticut

Contributors

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Local 125

Types of material

PhotographsScrapbooksSound recordings
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. New England Joint Board

ACWA New England Joint Board Records

1939-1976
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 193

Organized in Chicago in 1914, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was formed after a split in the United Garment Workers, and quickly became the dominant force for union in the men’s clothing industry. Within a decade of its founding, ACWA had more than 100,000 members across the U.S. and Canada.

Records of the New England Joint Board of ACWA consist of general correspondence, membership lists, press releases, and collective bargaining files for companies such as Arlan’s Department Stores, Bedford Shirtmakers Corporation, Ethan Ames Company, Holyoke Shirt Company, Lawrence Clothing Company, and Whitney Shirt Company.

Subjects

Clothing trade--Labor unions--MassachusettsLabor unions--MassachusettsTextile industry--MassachusettsTextile workers--Labor unions--New England

Contributors

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. New England Joint Board
Ambellan, Harold

Harold Ambellan Memoir

2005
1 item (75p.)
Call no.: MS 855

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., the expatriot sculptor Harold Ambellan was a participant in the Federal Art Project during the 1930s and a figure in the radical Artists’ Union and Sculptors Guild. After naval service during the Second World War, Ambellan left the United States permanently to escape the hostile climate of the McCarthy-era, going into exile in France. Although a friend of artists such as Pollock, de Kooning, and Rothko, Ambellan’s work was primarily figurative and centered on the human form. His work has been exhibited widely on both sides of the Atlantic. He died at his home in Arles in 2006 at the age of 94.

In 2005, Victoria Diehl sat with her friend, Harold Ambellan, to record his memories of a life in art. Beginning with recollections of his childhood in Buffalo, N.Y., the memoir delves into the impact of the Great Depression, Ambellan’s experiences in the New York art scene of the 1930s and his participation in the leftist Artists’ Union, his Navy service, and his expatriate years in France from the 1950s-2000s. Ambellan’s memoir also includes extended discussion of his views of democracy, patriotism, and art, and his career as a sculptor.

Subjects

Artists--20th centuryDemocracyDepressions, 1929Expatriate artists--FranceNew Deal, 1933-1939Sculptors--20th centuryWorld War, 1939-1945

Contributors

Diehl, VictoriaGuthrie, Woody, 1912-1967

Types of material

MemoirsOral histories
American Federation of Teachers. Local 1359 (Amherst, Mass.)

AFT University of Massachusetts Faculty Records

1963-1964
1 box
Call no.: MS 152 bd

The first faculty union at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) AFL-CIO, was established largely in response to the administration’s reluctance to recommend raises in faculty salaries (1958-1964) and due to the faculty’s desire for self-governance. The union was short-lived on the campus, but served to raise the consciousness of faculty to issues of faculty autonomy.

The collection includes historical sketches, memoranda, correspondence, resolutions, and treasurer’s reports.

Subjects

Collective bargaining--College teachers--Massachusetts--AmherstCollective labor agreements--Education, Higher--Massachusetts--AmherstLabor unions--MassachusettsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty

Contributors

American Federation of Teachers. Local 1359 (Amherst, Mass.)
Barkin, Solomon, 1907-

Solomon Barkin Papers

1930-1988
11 linear feet
Call no.: FS 100

Born in 1902, Solomon Barkin was an economist, education director for the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA ), and from 1968 to 1978 a professor at the University of Massachusetts and research associate at the Labor Center.

The bulk of the Barkin collection, over 10.5 linear feet, consists of bound notebooks containing speeches, typescripts, and printed versions of articles, book reviews, congressional testimony, forewords, and introductions — nearly 600 in all — written by Barkin. One box (0.5 linear foot) contains correspondence, bibliographies, tributes and awards, and a biography. Generally, the collection illustrates Barkin’s life as both a union organizer and an economist. His writings reflect his attempts to create “a system of trade union economics” as a counterpoise to standard “enterprise economics,” as well as his belief that labor should not be viewed as a commodity.

Subjects

Labor unions--MassachusettsTextile Workers Union of AmericaUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Labor Relations and Research Center

Contributors

Barkin, Solomon, 1907-