XIX. AFL-CIO AND INDUSTRIAL UNION DEPARTMENT FILES OF PRESIDENT JAMES B. CAREY, 1955-1965

Grouped in two subseries: AFL-CIO Files and Industrial Union Department (IUD) Files. Arranged alphabetically by subject name and organized chronologically within extensive subject groupings.

This series houses AFL-CIO records and the files of its Industrial Union Department (IUD) generated and compiled by IUE President James B. Carey during his tenure as an AFL-CIO Vice-President, Executive Council member, and Secretary-Treasurer of the IUD from 1956-1965. Carey's AFL-CIO and IUD records document his myriad activities as an AFL-CIO officer, including his service on many of the federation's key committees and special subcommittees. Carey served as Chairman of the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Committee 1956-1957 and was a member of the following AFL-CIO standing committees: Economic Policy, Public Relations, and International Affairs. This series offers insight into the early institutional history of the AFL-CIO, the machinery that led to the integration of the CIO within the federation, and the functioning of the AFL-CIO's inner councils.

Moreover, this series highlights the uneasy and tenuous relationship existing between the craft unions and the former CIO affiliates aligned under the banner of the Industrial Union Department. As the AFL-CIO's largest department--with a total membership of seven million--the IUD handled organization and collective bargaining issues endemic to industrial unions and their respective industries and manufacturing sectors. In terms of power and prestige within the IUD, Carey was second only to IUD President, Walter Reuther. Carey was frequently called upon to represent the IUD before congressional committees and government agency hearings on a variety of social, economic, and industrial-relations issues confronting labor.

The bulk of the series consists of records and files generated by AFL-CIO Executive Council Meetings, AFL-CIO Constitutional Conventions, the AFL-CIO Civil Rights Committee, special committees and bodies convened by the federation to deal with outstanding jurisdictional and collective bargaining issues, financial audit records (certificates), and subject files. Though records of other key standing AFL-CIO committees (Legislative, Committee on Political Education (COPE), Public Relations, Education, and Research) are included, they are less voluminous and comprehensive in scope.

The Executive Council Meeting and Convention files are the most important records tracing the early institutional history of the AFL-CIO. They contain the following items: correspondence, memoranda, resolutions, policy statements, addresses, agendas, minutes, reports, news releases, publicity material and publications. Principal correspondents include George Meany, William Schnitzler, Walter Reuther, Boris Shishkin, A. Philip Randolph, and George L-P. Weaver. These files focus on the activities of organized labor's inner council and most powerful policy and decision-making body. Interspersed within the files are Carey's handwritten notes and research material compiled by his staff for the meetings. Also included are Carey-Meany correspondence files (three files dating from 1956 to 1965) and issues of the official AFL-CIO bulletin News From the AFL-CIO (1956-1962).

Carey's AFL-CIO and IUD records contain rich primary source material on those fissure points and ideological differences which divided craft and industrial unionists within the House of Labor after the merger. IUD affiliates and the leadership of the AFL-CIO clashed over such issues as civil rights, resolution of jurisdictional disputes, organization priorities, ethical practices, legislative and political action programs, international labor affairs, and integration of local unions into the new state and central AFL-CIO Labor Councils. Carey's personality and ideological differences with AFL-CIO President George Meany not only mirrored the gulf between the craft unionists and industrial unions, but also fueled many of the internal debates within the AFL-CIO Executive Council.

Among the major subjects confronting the AFL-CIO Executive Council none loomed larger than resolution of the jurisdictional and organizational conflicts existing between the craft unions (represented by the Building and Construction Trade Department) and IUD affiliates. There is ample material highlighting the AFL-CIO's internal debate over the implementation of a No-Raiding Agreement and formulation of the machinery to resolve jurisdictional disputes among affiliates and departments. Particularly vexsome to Carey and IUD affiliates were the raids conducted by the Sheet Metal Workers, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers), and Teamsters and their attempt to boycott goods produced by IUD affiliates. The IUE-Sheet Metal Workers' dispute over representation rights to the optical instruments' employees of the Belock Corporation (Long Island, NY) epitomized the IUD's struggle and led Carey to the brink of disaffiliation with the Federation after an unfavorable ruling in the case.

Carey's extensive Civil Rights Committee files chronicle organized labor's internal debate over the implementation of civil rights policies and programs. As committee chairman Carey rallied labor's civil rights activists (including A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther, and George L-P. Weaver) and spearheaded the internal campaign to eliminate job discrimination and prejudice among the AFL-CIO's affiliated departments--chiefly the Building Trades and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers--where patterns of discrimination had been entrenched. Carey's Civil Rights Committee files document committee efforts to educate AFL-CIO members through the creation of educational programs (conferences and workshops), publicity campaigns, and effective enforcement provisions for the Subcommittee on Compliance. The files detail Carey's strong commitment to civil rights not only as a moral issue, but as an important linking issue to successful union organization in the Southern region during the late 1950s. Disillusioned with Meany's questionable commitment to civil rights and his inability to enforce compliance among craft unions, Carey resigned as chairman in 1957. He continued to push for stronger compliance measures and publicly denounced efforts by AFL-CIO Executive Council in 1961 to censure A. Philip Randolph for critical reports and comments regarding racial discrimination within the ranks of organized labor.

Carey's IUD files, which form a distinct subseries, are less voluminous than the AFL-CIO files but contain important primary source material and evidential information relating to the administrative operation of the department and its main decision-making bodies--the Executive Committee and Executive Board. The IUD Executive Committee met semi-annually and was composed of the president, secretary-treasurer, director and fourteen vice-presidents appointed from among the presidents of the department's affiliated unions. The department's 85-man Executive Board (composed of one representative from each affiliated union plus the IUD executive committee) met once a year to carry out policy decisions between the department's biennial conventions. Minutes, summaries, and excerpts of Executive Committee and Board meetings, coupled with records and proceedings of IUD Conventions (1955-1963) are the best sources for examining the IUD's institutional history.

Carey, as Secretary-Treasurer, corresponded frequently with other IUD Executive Committee and Board Members, departments heads, staff assistants, and presidents of affiliated unions. Among the principal correspondents are: Walter Reuther (IUD President), Benjamin Man (IUD Research Assistant), Albert Whitehouse and Jack Conway (IUD Executive Directors), James Gildea (Carey's IUD executive assistant), and Nicholas Zonarich (IUD Organizational Director).

Jurisdictional and organization issues are amply documented within the Building and Construction Trades Department and Metal Trades Department files, as well as the Organization and Internal Disputes files. Correspondence, internal memorandums, and reports highlight Carey's and the IUD's efforts to protect affiliates from the raiding activities of craft unions affiliated with the BCTD. The organizational files of the IUD also contain research information on NLRB election results and organizational demographic data by regional and manufacturing sectors.

Additional subjects covered by the series include: IUD legislative programs, social action conferences (women's and civil rights), and support for President Kennedy's Fair Employment Practices and Anti-Discrimination in Labor Pledge in 1962. There is extensive material pertaining to labor corruption and internal AFL-CIO hearings leading to the suspension of the Bakery Workers, Laundry Workers, United Textile Workers and Teamsters (David Beck). The AFL-CIO's opposition to various labor-reform bills in the wake of the McClellan hearings also is well-documented. Efforts to defend and extend common-site picketing; the defeat of right-to-work legislation; extension of the minimum wage and fair labor standards; and political action activities and campaign contributions are among the more prominent legislative and political topics covered by this series.