STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-ST. LOUIS
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS

Rosemary Feurer donated the records of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-St. Louis on April 20, 2007.

The United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) was founded in 1936 as a labor union, and affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) until 1948. As anti-Communist tensions escalated in post-WWII years, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. The Act required union officers to sign an affidavit disavowing their ties to the Communist Party. Several UE officers refused to sign the affidavit and, as a result, the CIO expelled the UE from the union and created the International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (IUE) in its place.

Many of the papers and artifacts contained herein come from the personal collection of Lloyd Austin, a former employee of Emerson Electric in St. Louis. Austin’s collection contains original copies of the Emerson Equalizer, a newsletter published by the Local 1102 UERW-CIO during the Emerson Electric sit-in of 1937. The sit-in lasted 53 days, and sought to gain recognition from Emerson President Joseph Newman. When the strike finally ended, Newman conceded and agreed to recognize worker’s rights under the Wagner Act of 1935.

The remainder of this collection consists of World War II worker propaganda, pro/anti Communist literature, news clippings pertaining to the Emerson strike, and a second scrapbook by Emerson employee William C. Reidel. There is also one signed copy of Rosemary Feurer’s Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950 (University of Illinois Press, 2006). Her work “examines the fierce battles between Midwestern electrical workers and bitterly anti-union electrical and metal industry companies during the 1930s and ‘40s.”

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers Records contain one series consisting of 20 folders and one box. Please note that for preservation purposes, several folders contain copies of news clippings and scrapbooks. Consult the original documents only when necessary.

This collection contains (4) photographs. They are located in folders 1, 6, and 7 in order to preserve the context in which they were found.

FOLDER LIST

BOX 1 (OVERSIZE)

1. Abfall, Frank: Correspondence and (1) Photograph, 1937-1955
2. Austin, Lloyd: Ceremonies and Awards, 1936-1978
3. Austin, Lloyd: Emerson Literature, 1929-1973
4. Austin, Lloyd: Employment Materials, 1931-1945
5. Austin, Lloyd: Local 1102, 1936-1995
6. Austin, Lloyd: Personal Memorabilia and (1) Photograph, 1925-1983
7. Austin, Lloyd: Box w/ Pins, Cards, Identification, and (2) Photographs, 1938-1945
8. Austin, Lloyd: Strike Bulletins/”Emerson Equalizer,” 1937 (COPY)
9. Austin, Lloyd: Strike Bulletins/”Emerson Equalizer,” 1937 (ORIGINAL)
10. Austin, Lloyd: Union Hat
11. Communism Materials, 1946-1958
12. Glady’s Slat Scrapbook: Emerson Strike, 1937-1938 (COPY)
13. Glady’s Slat Scrapbook: Emerson Strike, 1937-1938 (ORIGINAL)
14. Newsclippings: “The Paris Post-Intelligencer,” 1964
15. Newsletters: “The Voice of Emerson,” 1946-1949
16. Other Strike and Organization Materials, 1936-1945
17. Paul, Jean and Eugene: Newsletters/“The Voice of Emerson,” 1938-1942
18. “Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950,” 2006
19. Reidel, William C.: Scrapbook, 1937-1981 (COPY)
20. Reidel, William C.: Scrapbook, 1937-1981 (ORIGINAL)
21. World War II Literature, 1939-1944

16mm Film, V756.1 "Help Wanted",IUE AFL-CIO, on decentralization, directed by F. William Hart, Washington, DC, 1959 (16mm film, optical sound, and DVD) 29:34

INDEX

Anti-Communism, f. 11, 15, 18
Austin, Lloyd, Photographs (2), f. 6, 7
Austin, Lloyd, Poems, f. 6
Coal Mines, f. 15
Communism, f. 11, 14, 18
Conservation (Water), f. 15
Electricity, History of, f. 15
Emerson Electric Catalogues, f. 3
Emerson Electric Retirees, f. 2, 6, 15
Emerson Electric History, f. 3, 15
Emerson Electric Strike (1937), f. 1, 8, 9, 19, 20
Gun Turret Plant, f. 6, 17
Huffman, James, f. 14
International Heating and Ventilating Exposition (Ohio), f. 14
Iron Curtain, f. 14
Labor, f. 1-21
Meissner, Edwin, f. 19, 20
NATO, f. 14
Nazis, f. 19, 20
Photographs, f. 1, 6, 7
Picket Schedules, f. 16
Political Cartoons, f. 8, 9
Quality Control, f.15
Queen of the CIO, f. 17
Safety, f. 17
Sentner, William, f. 11, 18, 19, 20
Songs, f. 8, 9
Spain, f. 15
Spying, f. 19, 20
Tow Missile Launcher, f. 3
Training School, f. 14, 15
Union Membership Books, f. 7
Vietnam War, f. 3
War Bonds, f. 15
World War II Propaganda, f. 2, 15, 21

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER-ST. LOUIS
222 THOMAS JEFFERSON LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
ONE UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD
ST. LOUIS, MO 63121

(314) 516-5143

whmc@umsl.edu