CASE FILES, COMMITTEE ON LABOR & HUMAN RESOURCES,, 1970-1981.
Dates
- 1970-1981.
Scope and Contents
CASE FILES, COMMITTEE ON LABOR & HUMAN RESOURCES includes case files referred (or "bucked") by HAW's office to the Committee staff for consultation and resolution. These cases concern pension benefits, employment discrimination, compensation, occupational safety, unfair labor practices, union organizing, black lung benefits, and other matters that fell within the scope of HAW's committee. Correspondents from many states are found in this series. The concerns of individuals about union, railroad, corporate, and other private pension plans are particularly well-represented, with perspectives from the periods both before and after the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974. The series documents economic and social injustices and inequities centered on the workplace as perceived and described by individual correspondents.
The typical case file includes original correspondence to HAW stating the matter and a carbon copy of HAW's response. Cases were often referred to the relevant government department/agency for comment; the original response from the department/agency is commonly in the case file. Cases involving pension benefits often include copies of the pension plan documents, including summary plan descriptions.
Language of Materials
Undetermined .
Physical Description
(11 cubic feet)
Restrictions
Casework of individuals will be made available only to researchers that agree not to use names or other personally-identifiable data in their work.
Arrangement
A set of cases which were stored at the Federal Records Center is followed by a set of cases which were held in HAW's office. Both sets are arranged alphabetically by correspondent. The first set retains the original order of the folders found in the Records Center boxes. The second set, which was found in some disorder during processing, was arranged alphabetically by the archivists. All case files discarded (see above) were from the HAW office set.
In addition to the name of the correspondent, many of the original folder labels included additional, sometimes lengthy, references to the nature of the case (e.g., "job discrimination," "pension benefits," etc.). The full label information was recorded during processing onto the new folders, but was not recorded in the Container List folder name (but see Index Terms below).
In the original files, each case was foldered individually. Given that most cases are comprised of only a few documents, during processing multiple slender cases were placed within a single folder. In these instances, the paperwork for a case was sleeved together. The original, extended folder label information was recorded on the sleeve.
Dates used in the container list are generally from the original folder label, not from the documents in the folder.
Container 135 includes those files with legal size documents that were separated from the rest of the sub-series.
Appraisal and Discard Information
Approximately two cubic feet of case files from this series was discarded because of severe staining from water or animal scat. All other case files in this series were retained. The bulk of the discarded material involved matters well-represented in the retained cases. Any substantive discarded cases not well-represented elsewhere were photocopied for retention.
General
Index Terms
Key index terms were used for all cases. This term refers to the nature of the case (e.g., "equal employment," "sex discrimination," "pension," "ERISA," "occupational safety," etc.). This term was derived from the reference, when present, on the original folder label. Otherwise, the term was determined from a review of the case documents.
For cases which include pension plan documents (e.g., copies of the plan itself, informational brochures given to employees, etc.), the index term "summary plan description" was used.
The additional term "railroad" was used for cases involving railroad labor matters, often pension-related.
Part of the New Brunswick Special Collections Repository