Greater Buffalo Industrial Union Council Records, 1939-1964
Collection Number: 5254

Include general administrative records, materials relating to labor legislation, relations with member organizations, relations with New York State Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the national CIO, relations with international labor organizations and with the public.

General administrative records (1938-1958) include correspondence, publications, resolutions, reports, minutes and ballots concerning the sentiment of the GBIUC on various state and federal legislative proposals, political endorsements, veterans' affairs, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations relations, local strikes, and various other local union matters. Specific issues covered in these records include employment stabilization after World War II; unemployment insurance and workmen's compensation; industrial safety and hygiene; jurisdictional disputes and raiding between the Niagara, N.Y. locals of the United Automobile Workers and the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers; strikes at Remington Rand, Bell Aircraft, and the National Carbon Company; and the merger of American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) unions in Buffalo.

A resolutions file (1939-1958) includes matters coming before the GBIUC for its endorsement or opposition. These include proposed new or amended federal, state, or county legislation and public issues of interest to organized labor. Among the issues acted upon were the Hatch-Ball-Burton Bill, S.1171; a national health bill; the Taft-Hartley Act, the St. Lawrence power project; time-and-a-half provisions for county workers; and the imposition of state sales tax in New York. The GBIUC also expressed its opinion on the issues of runaway shops, social security, unemployment, a guaranteed annual wage, slum clearance and low rent housing, World War II defense issues, and the anti-communist campaign of the 1950's, among others.

The collection contains files relating to the Council's relations with its member organizations, including correspondence, reports, resolutions, surveys, legislative materials, and publications (1939-1959). These records concern financial matters, and affiliated local activities, including strikes, contract negotiations, and arbitration. Also included is a survey of the thirty-five affiliated member organizations on the impact of post World War II reconversion and employment.

GBIUC relations with the New York State CIO Council are documented in resolutions, reports and correspondence between the two organizations. Discussed are right-to-work laws, the New York State Disability Benefits Law, a rent control bill, unemployment insurance, and workmen's compensation, among other issues.

The Council's varied political activities are recorded throughout the collection but particularly in its legislative action files (1940-1959). These include correspondence, resolutions, legislative materials, statements, and surveys. Municipal correspondents include Bernard J. Dowd (mayor of Buffalo), Francis E. Franczak (Buffalo Department of Health), and Leo J. Hagerty (district attorney, Erie County) as well as officials of the Buffalo Common Council, the Buffalo Policemen's Organization, the Buffalo Port Authority, the City of Lackawanna, the Erie County Board of Supervisors and County Department of Social Welfare. New York State correspondents include Stanley J. Bauer (senator), Frederick T. Devlin (assistant attorney general), Charles W. Halloran (acting industrial commissioner, Department of Labor), Averell Harriman (governor), and Walter J. Mahoney (senator), as well as other representatives of the State Assembly, Department of Labor, and Public Services Commission. National legislative correspondents include Homer E. Capchant (senator), Chester C. Gorski (congressman), Irving M. Ives (senator), Jacob K. Javits (senator), James M. Mead (senator), John R. Pillion (congressman), Edmund P. Radwan (congressman), and Anthony F. Tauriello (congressman).

Subjects discussed in this correspondence include workmen's compensation, the Condon-Wadlin Bill, apprenticeship standards, New York State health and safety legislation, unemployment insurance, anti-discrimination and anti-labor legislation, civil rights, conservation, housing, wage legislation and price control, taxes, social security, the Missouri Valley Authority and the St. Lawrence Seaway project.

Also included in these records are correspondence and other documents relating to the GBIUC's activities with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, labor groups around the world and various Buffalo, N.Y. and regional social organizations (ca. 1940's-1950's).