XXII. IUE CONVENTION FILES OF PRESIDENT JAMES B. CAREY, 1950-1964

Arranged chronologically by year of convention

Contains collated convention files generated and maintained by IUE President's Office during the tenure of James B. Carey. This series documents the activities of Carey, Secretary-Treasurer Albin Hartnett, IUE department heads, executive board members, conference board chairmen, and local union delegates in conjunction with IUE conventions for the period 1950-1964.

The IUE convened annual conventions from 1950 to 1954. Adoption of a constitutional amendment mandated biennial conventions beginning in 1956. Carey's convention files are not definitive, as gaps exist within the convention proceedings after 1954. These files do not contain any records or material documenting the IUE's founding convention in 1949. This series is supplemented by convention material contained within two other subgroups and series: the Reference Files of Executive Assistant Les Finnegan, President's Office) and the General Files of Albin Hartnett, Secretary-Treasurer's Office. A complete set of the IUE's published convention proceedings (1949 to present) have been retained by the Secretary-Treasurer's Office at the Philip Murray Building, Washington, D.C.

The bulk of Carey's convention files include drafts, transcripts and excerpts of convention proceedings; departmental and officers' reports, committee reports, resolutions and constitutional amendments; addresses and statements; correspondence and memoranda regarding arrangements, schedules, invitations, and greetings; convention related publications (Convention Highlights), bulletins, and press releases; credential lists and delegation information; district and local union correspondence requesting adoption of proposed resolutions and action on specific issues and grievances; and tabulations of delegate voting for officers, constitutional amendments, and resolutions.

Important subject areas include: the IUE's constitutional convention (1950); litigation and organizational strife involving the IUE and UE; anticommunism, domestic security, and the McCarthy Era; the Korean War, defense mobilization, and wage stabilization programs; the debate over periodic per capita dues increases that became a highly volatile and politicized issue; implementation of civil rights education programs, civil rights committees, and non-discrimination provisions within local union contracts; regional organization drives and efforts to extend union membership to professional, salaried, technical, and white collar occupations; political action committee activities during the 1950s and 1960s; legislative action including opposition to right-to-work laws and the Landrum-Griffin Act; employment security (guaranteed annual wage and supplemental unemployment benefits) and various domestic issues during the 1950s; resolutions on foreign policy and international trade; negotiations and conference board activities; national and local strikes involving major electrical manufacturing corporations; charges of financial corruption involving the padding of travel and expense accounts by IUE field representatives; the removal of Secretary-Treasurer Albin Hartnett (1962); and the Carey-Jennings election debacle of 1964.