The IUE Labor Archives Project
Records of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine & Furniture Workers, AFL-CIO (IUE)

Subgroup: Research and Education Department
ca. 1938-1961, bulk 1950-1957
Quantity: ca. 40.25 linear feet


Special Collections and University Archives
Rutgers University Libraries

Table of Contents

1. Outline of Series
2. Provenance
3. Administrative History
4. Scope and Content

Series Descriptions and Container Lists 1

Outline of Series

Subgroup: Research and Education Department

1. IUE and UE Local Union Contracts
2. Contract Files of Other Unions
3. Wage Rate Research Files
4. IUE District and Local Union Files
5. Lamp Industry Research Files
6. General Electric and Westinghouse Research Files
7. Wage Stabilization Board Files
8. Wage and Hour Division Hearings--Increase of Minimum Wage in Puerto Rican Industries
9. Correspondence and Memoranda Files
10. Defense Production and Mobilization Files
11. Research and Reference Files

Provenance

In October, 1965, Rutgers University received the Records of the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO (IUE), in accordance with the agreement between the IUE and the University Library designating Rutgers as the official repository for the archives of the union. The first accession group of IUE Archives contained approximately 495 linear feet of material and was transferred to Rutgers in the original office transfiles formerly stored at the union's international headquarters in Washington, D.C. These transfiles contained records and documents generated and collected by IUE President James B. Carey and other union officers, the various IUE Departments and their heads, and the constituent district offices and local unions from 1949 (the inception of the union) to 1962.

The records of the IUE Research and Education Department, comprising 40.25 linear feet, constitute one subgroup within Record Group I of the IUE Archives. They were generated by Research Director David Lasser (1950-1961), Assistant Director Earl Kipp, staff members William Gary and Gloria Johnson, and Charles Kimble who succeeded Lasser as Director in 1961. Individual and general research files were eventually merged and incorporated within the central filing system maintained by the Secretary-Treasurer's Office. However, original order had not been maintained when the Research Department records were shipped to Rutgers University. Following an initial survey and inventory, Labor Archivist William Miller and his staff rearranged the collection into major subject groups--generally in chronological order. Further refinement of Miller's arrangement scheme was initiated by the IUE Project Archivist and his assistant. Though much of the original accession remained intact in terms of content, duplicate wage and contract agreements were discarded and 6.0 linear feet of corporate financial report deaccessioned.

Arrangement, processing, and description of the Research and Education Department Records-Record Group I, IUE Archives, was initiated and completed in 1993 after the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Rutgers University Library received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and additional financial support from the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine & Furniture Workers, AFL–CIO.

Administrative History

At the Third Annual Convention of the International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers-CIO (IUE- CIO) held in 1951, the Committee for Collective Bargaining and Education unanimously sponsored a resolution calling for the establishment of an IUE-CIO Education and Research Department. The resolution outlined the conditions necessitating the creation of a Research Department headed by a full-time director with expert staff assistants to carry out its many functions:

The once simple conditions to which collective bargaining applied have also been expanded and diversified. Employer techniques have confronted our people with problems which call for highly specialized training and knowledge if they are to be effectively handled. A working knowledge of the more involved questions of time- study, production standards, incentive systems, etc. have become absolutely essential for efficient union functioning. In addition, employer tactics are constantly changing and present our locals and leaders with an increasing need for knowledge of how their sister locals are coping with the same problems.

As outlined in the committee resolution, the Education and Research Department assumed primary responsibility for planning, directing, and implementing a comprehensive educational program for the IUE modeled after the CIO's Research and Educational Department. The union envisioned the creation of programs, workshops, and conferences to train and develop district and local union leaders in important technical and specialized areas of labor-management relations. A six-point program enumerated the department's most important research- oriented functions. Foremost, the IUE Research Department assisted locals, districts, conference boards, and the national organization in preparing economic statements and collective bargaining material for contract negotiations and cases before various federal agencies directing the defense mobilization programs (i.e. Wage Stabilization Board Cases).

Pursuant to these tasks the Research Department became a vital information center, gathering and disseminating economic, collective bargaining, and corporate data for the department and other branches of the union. The department analyzed all IUE agreements and provided standard and model contracts to locals in an effort to promote greater uniformity in the negotiation of contract provisions. Staff economists and researchers compiled and analyzed comparative data on wages and fringe benefits (health insurance and pension plans), cost-of-living statistics, employment and unemployment figures, and prices and profits for all segments of the electrical and electronics industries. Much of the information was gained from extensive wage and contract surveys undertaken by the union--often in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union-sponsored studies on productivity, time studies, job evaluation, and incentive systems were also published in concise form and distributed to locals to keep members fully informed of the latest developments in these fields.

The IUE Research Department monitored national and global economic trends and prepared reports to the IUE President and Executive Board on a variety of trade and tariff issues--chiefly the impact of imports on domestically manufactured electrical goods and appliances. The Research Director assisted the IUE President and officers in formulating the union's overall economic program and attended important Conference Board negotiations with the major electrical chain corporations. Staff members collated much of the essential research and statistical material used by international officers in statements, addresses, and briefs before congressional committees and various government agencies. Other ancillary responsibilities included aiding organizing drives and providing support material for IUE legislative initiatives and litigation.

The IUE-CIO Research Department was formally established on January 11, 1952, with David Lasser named the first director. Trained as an industrial engineer, Lasser had acquired extensive knowledge on labor productivity and collective bargaining issues as a result of his service on various war boards during World War II. Prior to his appointment as IUE Research Director he had served in the Office of Labor Production (War Labor Board), as Assistant Director of the Civilian Production Administration, and special labor consultant to the European Cooperation Administration (Marshall Plan). Lasser had actually assumed many of the de facto duties of research director as early as 1951, taking an active part in assisting the IUE-CIO conference boards in their initial negotiations with GE, Westinghouse, and General Motors.

To Lasser fell the task of evolving a professional research department and assembling a staff to cope with the increasingly complex nature of collective bargaining and labor-management relations in the post-war period. His Assistant Director, Earl Kipp, handled Wage Stabilization Board Cases and became a specialist in pension and insurance matters. Staff researchers William Gary and Gloria Johnson (the first minority appointees achieving professional staff positions in the IUE) conducted wage and corporate research. Charles Kimble became the department specialist on industrial engineering and industry and national economic trends.

One of the initial tasks of the department involved the implementation of a centralized records-keeping system to codify contract, wage, pension, and employment information for use in negotiations. This information came from surveys and questionnaires involving IUE district and local offices. Research staff members compiled extensive comparative data on UE and IUE contracts and wages for use in organizing campaigns and NLRB representation elections. In 1952, the department gave primary attention to the preparation of economic programs for President Carey and the various IUE Conference Boards.

Another major undertaking was a comprehensive study and review of incentive systems which concluded that GE and Westinghouse had failed to implement wage increases for workers proportionate to productivity gains. Revision of the incentive plans became one of the key demands of the IUE in 1952 negotiations with both chains. A lockout of Westinghouse IUE-CIO members at Bowling Green, Kentucky, coupled with that corporation's attempt to circumvent the minimum wage provisions of the Walsh-Healy Act, necessitated the gathering of wage data to support the union's cases before the NLRB and Labor Department. The IUE Research Department provided various types of assistance for local contract negotiations with RCA, Philco, International Resistance, P.R. Mallory and others. In early January 1953 the department began to publish a monthly bulletin, Facts of the Month, to provide IUE members with a summary of economic trends and developments impacting upon the electrical and electronics industries.

With the advent of the Korean War, Lasser and his staff assumed additional responsibilities associated with the impact of defense mobilization and implementation of economic stabilization programs. The union gathered vital statistical and research material to comply with orders and regulations issued by various war production and labor agencies. The focus of research covered numerous areas: labor productivity within the electrical industry; defense procurement contracts; and material and manpower allocation. IUE research staff aided the United Labor Policy Committee, a "watchdog agency" established to monitor inequities and corporate abuses stemming from defense-related programs--particularly the government's tax amortization and plant expansion program. The department devoted significant resources to studying the impact of unemployment consumer credit restrictions on the Radio, TV and parts industries. Pertinent information on wage and price stipulations mandated by the Wage Stabilization Board and Office of Price Administration (OPA) was disseminated to districts and locals. Moreover, Research Department staff aided the Legal Department in the preparation of WSB wage petitions and cases involving the union.

The IUE Research Department provided much assistance to the organized labor's campaign to increase and extend coverage of the minimum wage (revision of the Fair Labor Standards Act) and enforcement of the provisions of the Walsh-Healey Act (payment of union scale on federal contracts). Lasser represented the union at hearings conducted by the Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Department on the determination of minimum wage rates within the Lamp and Battery industries. The union's primary target was the elimination of the wage differential existing in Southern electrical companies--including GE and Westinghouse divisions. Between 1954-1955, the department compiled economic data and prepared statements for President Carey pursuant to Labor Department hearings in support of a minimum wage increase for Puerto Rican electrical workers. In addition to reducing an existing wage differential among its own membership, the IUE sought to prevent corporations from using Puerto Rico as an export platform for the shipment of cheap electrical goods and appliances.

Lasser served as the IUE's representative on the National Committee For Equal Pay, an organization seeking enactment of comparable worth legislation at the state and federal levels. Composed of a broad coalition-- woman's organizations, labor representatives, academics, progressive political groups--the committee lobbied for an equal rights amendment, sponsored educational conferences, and compiled data on inequities in wage rates and job classification within the workplace. Lasser and his staff provided research material to the committee and monitored IUE contracts for the inclusion of equal pay clauses.

Between 1954-1960, the Research Department assisted the union's campaign to increase workers' wages and benefits (pension and health insurance), secure union maintenance agreements, and capitalize on organization gains within the GE and Westinghouse chains. The department supplied detailed quantitative data used by the GE and Westinghouse Conference Boards and negotiating committees to formulate bargaining demands. Lasser and his staff also assisted the Publicity Department in preparing organization and strike literature leaflets used in the GE and Westinghouse strikes of 1955-1956. A variety of research information was gathered on such issues as: "Boulwarism," corporate anti-union publicity campaigns; runaway shops; and employer-induced jurisdictional disputes involving with the UE, IBEW, and IAM. The department devoted considerable time and resources to the study of unemployment relief legislation (the recession of 1957) and helped to frame novel proposals such as guaranteed annual wage and supplemental unemployment benefits.

Lasser's participation on the AFL-CIO's Labor Advisory Council during the 1950's facilitated the coordination, collection and analysis of labor statistics--both within the electrical industry and on an intra-industry basis. The council cooperated with the U.S. Labor Department and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to devise accurate indices and efficient methods of compiling data on labor productivity, employment, and unemployment. Research Directors' educational conferences, sponsored by the AFL-CIO, promoted professionalism within the field and greater cooperation among the research departments of member unions. Standardized methods of gathering labor research data enabled unions to undertake coordinated collective bargaining and joint action on a number of legislative and economic initiatives.

The IUE Research and Education Department was subsequently reorganized as the Research and Economics Department during the late 1950's to reflect its orientation toward economic, corporate, and collective bargaining research. During the mid 1960's the Economics and Collective Bargaining Services Department was established to assist the national office and locals in collective bargaining and negotiations. The Research Department continued to handle general economic, wage, and corporate research. In 1966 Lasser was appointed as an assistant to IUE President Paul Jennings for economics and bargaining.

Scope and Content

The records of the IUE Research and Education Department contain approximately 40.25 linear feet of textual material documenting the history and scope of activities undertaken by the Research Director and department staff members from 1950 to 1961. This subgroup also provides evidential information on the evolution, operation, and administration of the IUE Research Department. Functioning as a staff for the International Officers, the department provided numerous services to the national office and IUE districts and locals. Among its responsibilities were: the gathering and dissemination of economic, corporate, and wage data pursuant to collective bargaining and negotiations; assisting local unions in the negotiation of contracts and supplemental agreements; contract and wage analysis; the preparation of economic statements and wage briefs for the Wage Stabilization Board cases and federal agencies concerned with national defense mobilization; assisting the IUE President and Executive Board in the formulation of the union's overall economic program; and researching national and international economic trends and their implications for the electrical and electronic industries.

The records of the IUE Research and Education Department consist of eleven distinct series arranged and organized by subject content and format. They constitute one subgroup within Record Group I of the IUE Archives. As original order was not maintained, final organization of the Research Department records represented a refinement of an initial arrangement scheme begun by William Miller (Rutgers Labor Archivist) during the late 1960's. File contents span the date 1944-1962, with the bulk of material dating between 1951- 1961. Among the principal originators were: David Lasser (Research Director), Earl Kipp and Charles Kimble (Assistant Directors), and staff members William Gary and Gloria Johnson. Because the department functioned as a staff for the international office, the records contain a significant amount of material (correspondence, memoranda, reports, circulars) generated by IUE President James B. Carey, Secretary-Treasurer Albin Hartnett, and other department heads.

The most extensive series (quantity-wise) contained within the subgroup document the primary work of the IUE Research Department--contract and wage rate analysis. There are nearly 10.0 linear feet of national agreements, local union contracts, and supplements (in typescript and booklet form) contained in the Research Department's IUE and UE Local Union Contracts series. These files constituted the department's primary reference tool to assist the national office and locals in negotiations and collective bargaining activities for the period 1949-1960. Staff members compiled and coded essential comparative data on contractual clauses governing seniority, grievance, and union maintenance provisions. Files dating from 1950-1953 provide a rich source for comparing IUE and UE agreements covering the same local. The series also includes the important GE and Westinghouse national (master) contracts, and local supplemental agreements. There is very little accompanying administrative correspondence contained within the files.

Contracts negotiated by other unions are also deposited within the subgroup and complement the preceding series. The Research Department analyzed and compared wage and contract agreements negotiated by other unions active within the same chain, or bargaining unit, as the IUE. An analysis of the contracts of jurisdictional rivals enabled the IUE to formulate an effective strategy for organizing campaigns and bargaining demands. In some instances, these agreements provided a basis for pattern bargaining and the evolution of coordinated bargaining. Representative unions include: the United Auto Workers (UAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the United Steelworkers of America.

Wage Rate and job classification analysis became an integral component of the Research Department's work, complementing the department's research and reference work on contracts. The IUE's Wage Rate Research Files constitute an essential series for documenting the methodology by which the department gathered statistical information on rates, occupational grades, and incentive pay systems within the electrical and electronics industries. The Research Department undertook extensive wage and occupational surveys within the major electrical chains by forwarding questionnaires to local union officers. Job classification tables and wage rate sheets were prepared on a plant-by-plant basis to assist IUE locals in their negotiations with management. This service was extended to the locals of smaller electrical manufacturers as well. The IUE Wage Rate Research files provided support material for IUE-WSB petitions and briefs, (for rate increases) and Walsh-Healey hearings pertaining to enforcement of the minimum wage and elimination of the regional rate differential existing in the South. These records also enabled the IUE to monitor compliance with the equal pay provisions of its contracts.

The IUE Research Department maintained District and Local Union Files which complement the contract and wage series. Consisting of correspondence, memoranda, and clippings, this series documents the department's administrative and service work to IUE locals for the period 1951 to 1953. Much of the department's correspondence with district and local officers entails requests for data on current contracts, job classification, and rate and employment figures. The files of the larger GE and Westinghouse locals contain extensive wage survey materials as a prelude to contract negotiations. These records supplement the GE and Westinghouse Research Files series. Staff members also forwarded newspaper and financial clippings to IUE locals, keeping them informed on corporate, industry, and economic developments affecting their members.

There are additional series devoted to special research work undertaken by the department in conjunction with federal agency (Walsh-Healey) hearings. The IUE Research Department prepared rate data, statements, and briefs supporting the establishment of a fair and uniform minimum wage covering workers in the lamp and battery industries. Minutes of IUE Lamp Workers Conference meetings provide a source for documenting the special wage problems inherent in this industry. The department also prepared statements for Lasser and Carey in Labor Department (Wage and Hour Division) hearings to raise the minimum wage standard for Puerto Rican industrial workers.

The evolution of pattern bargaining within the electrical industry during the 1950's, with GE and Westinghouse master agreements setting the model for local negotiations and independents, can be traced in the GE and Westinghouse Research and Reference files. There is extensive material--conference board and negotiating committee minutes and reports, wage survey and corporate financial data, employee newsletters, and Lasser's research notes--relating to the formulation of the union's bargaining position during the period 1951 to 1954. This series is particularly insightful in tracing the complexity of collective bargaining within the major chains, and the reliance of the union upon the Research Department's ability to collate, analyze, and disseminate information vital to negotiations. The GE files are more extensive in quantity and scope than the Westinghouse records. Both, however, highlight such IUE gains as wage increments tied to cost of living indices, the advancement of pension, insurance, and health agreements, union security provisions, and efforts to further unemployment compensation through supplemental unemployment benefit plans and a guaranteed annual wage.

The IUE Research and Education Department records contain primary source material for studying the impact of defense mobilization and economic stabilization programs on labor, industry, and the public during the Korean conflict. Wage Stabilization Board Case Files and a series on Defense Production and Mobilization capsulate IUE compliance with the myriad wartime labor and production agencies designed to stem wage and price inflation, and promote harmonious labor-management relations.

The WSB Case files contain case files and petitions for wage adjustments filed by unions and companies, minutes of WSB regional Board meetings, case analyses, board and review committee decisions, and supporting case documents. In addition to wage petitions, the board reviewed cases involving pension and insurance provisions of contracts, sick and holiday benefits, and proposed revisions of incentive pay systems. There is also accompanying correspondence between the Research Department and IUE locals regarding Board decisions and the status of pending cases.

Among the agencies represented in the Defense Mobilization and Production series are: The National Production Authority (NPA), Defense Production Administration (DPA), Office of Price Administration (OPA), and Office of Labor Requirements. Lasser and his staff maintained files containing correspondence, releases, bulletins, reports, regulations, and ordinances issued by the economic regulatory agencies. Extensive research material pertaining to the administration and operation of the programs, especially cost-overruns and mismanagement, is also contained in the series. Research Department staff prepared statements and addresses for President Carey, critical of corporate abuses and influence in administering the defense mobilization program. Major topics covered by the records include: price and wage control programs; consumer credit restrictions; manpower and material procurement and allocation; and tax amortization and plant expansion. The Research Department forwarded circular letters, informational literature, and clippings to districts and locals to inform them on compliance-related issues. This series specifically illuminates organized labor's campaign to gain greater leverage and input over defense production and the rise of the modern corporate state and economy buttressed by defense-related industries.

The IUE Research Department Correspondence and Memoranda series consists largely of carbon tissues of outgoing correspondence generated by Lasser and his staff. Because most of the department's correspondence is interspersed throughout the constituent series of the subgroup, the centralized office correspondence and memoranda files are relatively small (1.10 linear feet). The series chiefly documents the routine administrative tasks and research work handled by Lasser and his staff--assisting the national office and locals in contract negotiations; handling research and reference requests; and making arrangements for the inclusion of research material in prepared statements, briefs, and addresses; and requesting wage and contract data from district, locals, and field representatives. Much of the department's incoming correspondence contains research requests from scholars and journalists, the AFL-CIO Research Department, other unions, corporations, from governmental agencies. The files also contain letters to field representatives, district officers, and local union presidents, requesting wage survey information as a prelude to contract talks.

Internal memoranda generated by the Research Department staff, coupled with Lasser and Kipp's memoranda to various IUE officers and department heads (the bulk addressed to President Carey and Secretary-Treasurer Al Hartnett), highlight the department's total integration and immersion in the affairs of the IUE. Particularly insightful is the Earl Kipp memoranda file of 1953, which provides a summary of the department's weekly activities.

The IUE Research and Education Department maintained an extensive research and reference series (11.24 linear feet) to aid staff members and national officers in the analysis of general economic trends, specific wage and contract issues, and legislative developments impacting upon collective bargaining within the electrical and electronics industries. Items include correspondence, memoranda, clippings, bulletins, and leaflets, and statistical bulletins published by the Labor Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics. File contents document the full scope and range of the department's activities during the 1950' and contain the bulk of the department's correspondence with affiliated AFL-CIO departments, federal agencies and outside organizations. Because the research files cover virtually every phase of the Department's work, many subject areas supplement records and material covered by the other series--especially with regard to defense mobilization and economic stabilization programs.

Major topics covered include: unemployment and employment security; equal pay and comparable worth legislation (National Equal Pay Committee); guaranteed annual wage proposal; right-to-work legislation;revision of the Taft-Hartley and Fair Labor Standards Acts; automation and technological displacement; atomic energy; runaway shops; extension of social security benefits and minimum wage provisions. Lasser's service with the Joint Labor Research Advisory Committee is also documented in two files. Proceedings, reports, and comparative wage data pertaining to the IUE's Radio, T.V. and Parts Conference Board are also contained within this series. In addition, the department maintained files of circular letters and bulletins issued by affiliated departments of the AFL-CIO and the IUE.

1. IUE AND UE LOCAL UNION CONTRACTS , Date Span: 1944-1960, Bulk Dates: 1949–1953, 1955-1957, 9.90 LN.FT.

Grouped in two chronological sequences, 1944-1953, and 1954-1960, and arranged alphabetically by corporate name. Separate folders maintained for IUE and UE locals under the same corporate heading, or, sharing the same local number.

Consists of IUE and UE local union contracts, national labor-management agreements, and contractual supplements in typescript, mimeographed, and booklet format. These reference files were maintained by the IUE Research and Education Department to assist the union in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements and the analysis of wage-rate patterns in various segments of the electrical and electronics industries. The bulk of the first sequence, dating from 1949 to 1953, contains IUE contracts negotiated after the UE's expulsion from the CIO, the inception of the IUE-CIO, and NLRB-mandated elections in which the IUE won exclusive bargaining rights at the expense of its chief rival. This sequence includes the important national (master) agreements which the IUE concluded with the General Electric Corporation, General Motors, Westinghouse, and Sylvania during the period. The second sequence covers the period from 1954 to 1960 and includes new labor pacts as well as local union supplements to national agreements.

IUE Research and Education Director David Lasser and his staff used the contracts reference files to analyze and compare existing IUE and UE wage rates, job classification systems, and contractual clauses governing seniority, grievance procedures, union security provisions. Such information was instrumental in planning organizing campaigns and representation elections against the UE and other rival labor organizations. The department collated agreements negotiated by other unions (UAW, IBEW, IAM, and USWA) with the major electrical manufacturers. The contracts files provided an important reference source to promote greater uniformity in the negotiation and drafting of local union supplements to national agreements.

2. CONTRACT FILES OF OTHER UNIONS , Date Span: 1945-1954, 0.60 LN. FT.

Arranged alphabetically by corporation and labor organization.

Contents include local union agreements (booklet and typescript format), contract supplements, and wage rate and job classification data generated by non-IUE labor organizations. The IUE Research Department analyzed and compared rates, benefits, work rules, and seniority provisions negotiated by other unions in order to monitor collective bargaining practices, particularly among the major electrical corporations effecting its own locals. In addition, the department maintained reference lists regarding the expiration date of United Electrical Workers' contracts the critical disaffiliation period from 1949 to 1951.

3. WAGE RATE RESEARCH FILES , Date Span: 1941-1953, Bulk Date: 1950-1952, 2.50 LN. FT.

Arranged alphabetically by corporate name and by local union number within the major electric chain corporations. Separate filing sequences maintained for the following subseries: Office Workers, Other Unions, Service Shop Employees, and Skilled Trades.

Under the direction of IUE Research Director, David Lasser, and Assistant Director, Earl Kipp, the Research Department compiled statistical data on job classification and occupations, wage rates, and incentive pay within the electrical industry. This information was periodically requested from local unions to assist the IUE in the analysis of rate patterns within the electrical industry pursuant to negotiations with management and the preparation of petitions before the Wage Stabilization Board for rate increases. The Research Department undertook a comparative analysis of rates in an effort to eliminate regional rate differentials existing within the same occupation or job classification (particularly in the South). Such information was crucial for the negotiation of more uniform wage rates among IUE locals within the major electrical chains.

The bulk of the series, dating from 1950 to 1952, covers the critical period of the IUE's assumption of collective bargaining rights and agreements formerly held by the UE. As the IUE entered into negotiations with many electrical manufacturers for the first time, the union used the former UE rates as a preliminary point of bargaining. Wage data vital to the IUE's initial contract negotiations with GE, GM, and Westinghouse (1950-1951) is contained within the series, as well as pre-1950 occupation and wage material for other electrical firms.

Items include: job classification tables, wage rate sheets and data, occupational and wage survey forms and questionnaires, Wage Stabilization Board Petitions, and supporting administrative correspondence and memoranda generated by Lasser and Kipp. The series also contains correspondence from local union presidents and business agents reporting on wage rates implemented under new bargaining agreements.

4. IUE DISTRICT AND LOCAL UNION FILES , Date Span: 1938-1954, Bulk Date: 1951–1953, 3.0 LN. FT.

Grouped by district and arranged by ascending local Union number. A small number of corporate files, encompassing correspondence and research material from several locals within a district, have been filed under the designated district number.

Correspondence and reference files created by the IUE Research and Education Department to assist district and local union officers in their collective bargaining activities. The department analyzed local union contracts and compiled and disseminated important occupational, time study, and wage-rate data central to contract negotiations and the functioning of the IUE Conference Boards. Such information aided IUE efforts to ensure greater uniformity in the negotiation of wage provisions, particularly among locals of the major electrical chain corporations. Staff members of the Research Department collected corporate reference material and monitored important economic and financial developments within the electrical and electronics industries affecting the interests of the IUE membership.

The bulk of the series consists of office memoranda and correspondence generated and received by David Lasser, Earl Kipp, William Gary, and IUE President, James B. Carey. Much of the department's outgoing correspondence includes requests to district and local officers for contract, job classification, and wage rate information, as well as progress reports on the status of current negotiations with management. The Research Department forwarded clippings from major financial, trade and investment periodicals (i.e. The Wall Street Journal) to locals pertaining to the economic performance of the company(s) within the jurisdiction of the respective bargaining unit. Lasser and his staff prepared memoranda and reports to President Carey detailing the status of current wage and contract negotiations, Wage Stabilization Board petitions, and resolution of internal local union disputes. Much of the substance of this material was distilled from correspondence and reports forwarded to the department by district officers, local union presidents, and field representatives.

In addition to these subjects, the series documents the IUE-UE schism within several locals during the early 1950's--particularly in District 8 (St. Louis) and local 901 (Evansville, Indiana). IUE contract negotiations with Westinghouse and GE for period 1950-1954 are extensively covered in several of the files of the larger locals of the respective corporations. A substantial amount of GE material pertains to the union's extensive wage survey prior to the contract negotiations of 1953-1954.

5. LAMP INDUSTRY RESEARCH FILES , Date Span: 1952-1955, Bulk Date: 1954-1955, 0.80 LN. FT.

Arranged alphabetically by subject heading.

IUE Research Director David Lasser maintained research files on wage patterns within the lamp industry pursuant to hearings and conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division for the determination of a prevailing minimum wage on government contracts under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. Lasser spearheaded the IUE's fight to force Westinghouse, GE, and Sylvania to pay the prevailing average wage within its southern lamp factories. Items include: correspondence, memoranda, circular letters, press releases, wage survey material and questionnaires, reports, notes and minutes of Lamp Workers Conference meetings, briefs and research notes. Correspondents include James B. Carey, Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, Walter Reuther, and William R. Mc Comb, Administrator for the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division. Lasser represented the IUE at lamp industry hearings and meetings and served as a member of the labor-management panel responsible for conducting a survey of wage rates in the electric lamp industry. Lasser's IUE Lamp Worker's Conference files document efforts by the Research and Education Department to gain the cooperation of IUE locals in gathering wage data for its own wage survey independent of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

6. GENERAL ELECTRIC AND WESTINGHOUSE RESEARCH FILES , Date Span 1948–1954, Bulk Date: 1952-1954, 3.50 LN. FT.

Organized in two main sequences: General Electric and Westinghouse Research Files. Grouped chronologically by year and arranged alphabetically by subject name

The IUE Research Department maintained GE and Westinghouse research files to assist officers and conference board chairmen in collective bargaining and negotiations with the two largest electrical manufacturers. The bulk of the series consists of Conference Board material--reports, statements, minutes, notes--and memoranda generated by Lasser and staff to President James B. Carey, John C. Callahan (GE Conference Board Chairman), and Robert Nellis (Westinghouse Conference Board Chairman), documenting the formulation of IUE contract demands and the union's bargaining strategy vis a viz GE and Westinghouse from 1951-1954. Among the records are: transcripts and Lasser's notes of bargaining sessions; corporate-generated correspondence, newsletters and advertisements; wage rate and occupational data; local union correspondence; union-issued circulars and publicity material; and Wage Stabilization Board (WSB) petitions and briefs. Lasser and his department also compiled research material on GE and Westinghouse's financial and investment profile pursuant to wage negotiations. There is also research data on unemployment within the major chains compiled from questionnaires sent to IUE locals and material pertaining to the negotiation of local supplements to the GE national agreement.

The GE research files are more extensive in quantity and scope than the Westinghouse records. Primary coverage is given to GE conference board activities and negotiations for the period 1951-1953. In addition to documenting IUE gains--wage increments and favorable rules governing work conditions--these files chart the union's ground-breaking efforts to negotiate, implement and re-open pension agreements, and secure union shop arrangements at the local level. This series highlights IUE efforts to achieve wage gains in the face of government-mandated wage controls (implemented during the Korean War and administered by the Wage Stabilization Board), charges of GE and UE collusion, and a recalcitrant GE management led by Lemuel Boulware, Vice-President for Labor Relations. Corporate-issued employee newsletters and publicity material chronicle Boulware's public relations campaign to discredit the IUE and bolster right-to-work legislation. The impact of favorable contracts won by other CIO unions within their respective industries (i.e. autoworkers and steelworkers), and its impetus to IUE-GE negotiations, is also documented in the series.

The Westinghouse Research Files chiefly cover negotiations, conference board activity, and WSB cases for the period 1951-1953. Conference board reports, minutes, and memoranda document the IUE's use of contract "reopeners" to advance wage rates, amend the pension program, and include an "equal pay for equal work" provision to the national contract. IUE efforts to influence government councils and agencies regulating defense production are amply documented throughout the subseries. While favoring the expansion of Westinghouse plants to aid the Korean war effort, the union sought to prevent the wholesale relocation of plants to low-wage and non-unionized regions. The IUE further proposed the establishment of Employment Security Fund to buffer electrical workers from the economic and employment dislocation arising from the exigencies of defense production in Westinghouse plants. This subseries also contains files documenting IUE strikes and lockouts at the Westinghouse plants of Bowling Green, Kentucky and Buffalo (Cheektowaga) NY and efforts to mediate the dispute by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

7. WAGE STABILIZATION BOARD FILES , Date Span: 1951-1953, Bulk Date: 1951–1952, 5.00 LN. FT.

Grouped in three main sequences: Wage Stabilization Board (WSB) Regional Minutes, (filed chronologically under region number); WSB Case files (organized alphabetically by corporate name); and WSB research and correspondence files.

Creation of the Wage Stabilization Board accompanied enactment of federal legislation to control spiraling price and wage inflation associated with defense mobilization during the Korean War. The board's primary functions entailed the regulation of wage rates, incentive systems, and vacation, holiday, and sick-leave guidelines within defense-related industries. Thirteen regional tri-partite panels (composed of representatives of the Public, Industry, and Labor) implemented policies and resolutions mandated by the national board and reviewed cases and petitions filed by manufacturers and labor organizations within their respective geographic jurisdiction. The WSB regional minutes consist largely of case and petition review decisions rendered by the board's review committee in the course of its daily sessions. A synopsis of the case or wage proposal is followed by the board's vote to approve, deny, or refer the proposed wage adjustments to the review and appeal committee for further action.

The IUE Research and Education Department maintained WSB case files and petitions submitted by IUE locals and their respective manufacturers for the modification of wage rates. Case analyses prepared by the board's Case Analysis Division predominate. Memoranda generated by WSB analysts assigned to the IUE cases provided the board with case background information, statistical data, and an analysis of proposed rate adjustments filed by petitioners. The case files contain petitions and supporting material prepared by the IUE and manufacturers pursuant to board hearings and WSB-generated correspondence to local unions and corporations regarding board decisions and the status of pending cases.

The series also contains a small amount of correspondence and research material generated by the IUE Research Department which administered the WSB cases for the union. Correspondence from Lasser and Earl Kipp to IUE locals and field representatives provides detail on the status of pending cases and the ramifications of board decisions. The department collated WSB petition forms, regulations, defense production data, and clippings concerning economic trends and the WSB program.

8. WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION HEARINGS--INCREASE OF MINIMUM WAGE IN PUERTO RICAN INDUSTRIES , Date Span: 1954- 1955, 1.20 LN. FT.

Arranged chronologically by date of hearings and supporting documentation.

Between 1954-1955, the Wage and Hour Public Contracts Division of the U.S. Department of Labor established special industrial committees to investigate working conditions in various Puerto Rico industries and consider proposals to increase the minimum wage. Under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division authorized hearings to consider committee recommendations for proposed minimum wage increases. Lasser and his staff garnered statistical data and research information to prepare briefs and statements on behalf of the IUE and CIO. The IUE argued for an increase in the Puerto Rican minimum wage (from $0.45 to $0.75) to electrical and electronics workers to stem unfair labor competition resulting from the lower wage-rate structure. The bulk of the series consists of bound proceedings of the industrial committee's investigations of the electronics, electrical, instrument, and related manufacturing industries in Puerto Rico. Items include: transcripts of the hearings; exhibits, and supporting briefs, memoranda, statements, and releases generated by the union and manufacturers.

9. CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMORANDA FILES , Date Span: 1949-1957, Bulk Date: 1953-1957, 1.10 LN. FT.

General Correspondence arranged chronologically with inclusive files for GE and Congressional correspondence.

Contains general and administrative correspondence, memoranda, and form letters sent and received by the IUE Research and Education Department. The bulk of the series consists of carbon copies of outgoing letters and memoranda generated by David Lasser (Research Director), Earl Kipp and Charles Kimble (Assistant Directors), and staff member, William Gary. The Research Department correspondence files document the full range and scope of departmental activities and provide important evidential information pertaining to the department's central role in assisting the IUE departments and locals in the negotiation of national agreements and local contract supplements.

A significant portion of the general correspondence files include requests for research material from students, academic researchers, government agencies, and other labor organizations. The department functioned as a clearinghouse for statistical and research data on wage patterns, collective bargaining agreements, employment, and economic trends within the electrical and electronics industries. It provided this information to correspondents in order to negate corporate misinformation and as a public service gesture. Lasser and his staff frequently corresponded with IUE field representatives and local union presidents to obtain information for wage, contract and employment surveys and to analyze and compare local union agreements--particularly local supplements to national agreements. These letters supplement correspondence deposited within the district and local union files of Series #2. Administrative office correspondence and memoranda files document the department's compilation of research material for speeches and statements by IUE President James B. Carey, Secretary-Treasurer Al Hartnett, and Lasser. Memoranda generated by Earl Kipp in 1953 provides a summation of the Research Department's weekly activities.

Major subjects covered by the correspondence files include: IUE-GE relations for the period 1949-1951; the IUE response to defense mobilization and plant expansion programs during the Korean War; governmental regulations regarding prices, wages, and manpower allocation imposed by the Defense Production Act and the Wage Stabilization Board; IUE endorsement of a Guaranteed Annual Wage and proposals for the creation of a Supplemental Unemployment Board during the recession of 1957.

10. DEFENSE PRODUCTION AND MOBILIZATION FILES , Date Span: 1950-1953, 1.40 LN FT.

Arranged alphabetically by subject heading

The IUE Research and Education Department maintained extensive research and reference files devoted to national defense mobilization programs and the regulatory industrial production agencies created under the Defense Production Act 1950-1952. The National Production Authority (NPA), Defense Production Administration (DPA), Office of Price Administration (OPA), and Office of Labor Requirements are among the representative defense agencies which generated records included in this series. Items include: IUE-generated memoranda and releases regarding compliance with defense regulations; correspondence sent and received by Lasser and his staff: releases, reports, regulations, bulletins, and circulars issued by the various defense boards; statements and testimony by James B. Carey; cost of living and consumer price statistics and indices; and newspaper clippings on economic issues and defense production.

The IUE Research Department collated regulations and research material charting the impact of defense production programs within the electronics industry. Lasser and his staff gathered data and research information for Carey's statements, speeches, and testimony before Senate and House committees pertaining to the administration and operation of defense mobilization programs. The IUE president advocated broader representation on the various defense boards and an expanded role for labor and the public in planning domestic mobilization. Carey played a prominent role in establishing the United Labor Policy Committee, a "watchdog" labor organization which monitored corporate abuses and economic inequities stemming from defense production and economic stabilization programs.

This series extensively documents the problems associated with the conversion to a defense-based economy buttressed by core industries such as electronics and electrical manufacturing. Major subjects include: the implementation and impact of price and wage controls and tightening of consumer credit; the conservation and rationing of vital war material (copper, aluminum, steel); tax amortization (depreciation allowances granted to corporations) and plant expansion programs; manpower allocation and labor shortages. The IUE lobbied vigorously for greater copper allocation to the electrical industry and the relaxation of Federal Reserve restrictions on consumer credit in order to spur employment and the sale of consumer electrical goods and appliances.