Abstract:

Ernst R. Habicht (1902-1987) was the general manager of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's ammonia production plant at Belle, West Virginia. His papers include newspaper clippings, correspondence, a long memorandum, and a humorous poem by Habicht relating to the 1947-1948 strike at the Belle plant.

Abstract:

This diary's author is not given; however, many details indicate that the writer is likely Thomas R. Robinson (1889-1972), a thirty-two-year-old farmer mainly working as a coal miner, lumberman, and railroad worker. This item is a manuscript handwritten diary. The entries are dated February 20, 1922, through April 9, 1923; these include the weather, who the author worked beside each day, his duties and responsibilities, and other tasks he took upon himself to fulfill. This item will be of significant interest to labor historians wanting a view of daily life from the worker's point of view.

Abstract:

John Zimmermann & Sons, Inc. was a manufacturer of upholstery fabrics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for more than fifty years. This collection consists primarily of financial records from the company's founding through its sale to Merion Securities, Inc. It contains rich payroll and pension data of potential interest to labor historians. The collection also contains records from Zimmermann Mills, Inc. and J-Z, Inc., a division of Merion Securities. These materials are also primarily financial in nature.

Scope and Contents: PLEASE NOTE: employees who were retained from company to company maintained their files and did not start new file arrangements. To aid researchers, the change in company name from Ransome Airlines to PAE to TWE appears before the original file title. The Joseph "Joe" C. McGhee, Director of Personnel, papers series contains materials related to labor relations, labor union contracts and agreements, personnel benefits, and labor law. McGhee served in this position from 1986 to 1992, working for Pan Am Express and Trans World Express. Ethel Boyd was McGhee's predecessor in this position at Ransome Airlines, and McGhee inherited some of Boyd's files. The series is arranged into five subseries: Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) files; Independent Union of Flight Attendaents (IUFA) files; International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) files; General files; and Grievance and arbitration files [RESTRICTED].The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) files subseries documents the process of collective bargaining or labor contract negotiation. During this process, the union submits a series of proposals on the employees' behalf. An agreement draft is submitted. The labor union and employer correspond concerning the draft, making revisions. Eventually, both sides will sign off on the draft, and a final agreement letter will be composed, signed, and officially published. The agreement letter, or contract, includes sections that cover pay, sick leave, vacation, overtime, benefits, and all policies and procedures. The materials in the subseries include contract drafts, final agreements, correspondence, wage rates, and pay scale analysis. A major issue between ALPA and PAE was compensation and seniority. As the regional carrier, the PAE pilots were paid at a lower rate than their Pan American World Airways counterparts, known as "B-scale." ALPA and PAE negotiated a promotion system that allowed pilots to go from PAE to the parent company, where PAE wouldn't lose too many pilots. Of significant interest among the TWE and ALPA materials are the Union Leave of Absence (ULOA) materials. The subseries is arranged chronologically and dates from 1983 to 1994. The Independent Union of Flight Attendants (IUFA) files subseries contains primarily PAE agreements. There are some materials related to a Ransome Airlines agreement negotiation on April 1, 1985, and some correspondence between IUFA and TWE during the transition from PAE in...

Abstract:

Organized in Philadelphia in 1869 as a general labor organization to protect and promote American laborers, the Knights of Labor began a strike against the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company in December 1887 after members were fired for refusing to switch cars to a non-union grain elevator in Philadelphia. The handbill, "An appeal to the wage-workers and businessmen of New York," appeals for donations to aid the striking Coal and Iron Company miners and appeals to the public to attend a sympathy and fundraising meeting on February 12, 1888.

Abstract :

The National Industrial Conference Board, later renamed The Conference Board, formed in 1916 as a response by the business community to continued labor unrest and growing public criticism. Their records are an important source for understanding the business community's response to most political and socioeconomic issues. NOTE: The box inventory for this finding aid is not yet online, a full inventory is available onsite in the Reading Room only.

Abstract:

NVF Company was a manufacturer of laminated plastic plates and sheets composed of only cellulose; the material is called vulcanized fibre. Initially named the National Vulcanized Fibre Company, it was formed in 1922 by Israel Way Marshall (1850-1911) and Thomas Elwood Marshall (1855-1929) in Yorklyn, Delaware. NVF Company was one of the three largest fibre companies in the country and eventually dissolved in the early twenty-first century. The NVF Company collection consists of records beginning in the 1870s, before the official creation of the company, and continues until the dissolution of the company. These materials include the history of the Marshall family, the formation of the National Vulcanized Fibre Company, administrative and presidential papers, publications and reports, marketing and publicity materials, subject files, labor contracts, employee grievances, and arbitration cases.

Abstract:

The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they compete in the National League. The team was founded in 1883 by Alfred J. Reach (1840-1928), who purchased the Worcester, Massachusetts, professional baseball club and moved it to Philadelphia. The records of the Philadelphia National League Club document the Philadelphia Phillies professional baseball organization, and includes various papers and records from the National League and Major League Baseball in general, primarily dating from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Abstract:

United Mine Workers of America is a labor union that represents coal miners. It was founded in 1890 and continues to be active. This color transparency of the United Mine Workers of America membership certificate that has various images along the boarders that depict coal miners' handshakes and rites of passage.

Abstract:

William Douglass (1849-1925) worked his entire professional life in the steel industry. He was an educated steel worker and spent many years as foreman or superintendent at various jobs site, the majority being in Birmingham, Alabama. The papers are a collection of items partly documenting Douglass' career as a foreman in the steel industry in the Pittsburgh and Birmingham Districts from 1889-1915.

Abstract:

The International Fur and Leather Workers Union of the United States and Canada was a labor union that represented workers in the fur and leather trades. This small collection of union items relating to the International Fur and Leather Workers Union, Local #201 of Wilmington, Delaware.