Membership Files, 1910-2007 and undated

Series 2 consists of membership applications, change of status files, clearance cards, day books, dues, officers and trustees meeting night book, roll call books, suspended books, and miscellaneous files. The bulk of this series contains applications for membership to Local 132. These files are an important part of the collection because they give insight into who was part of the local union and when they joined. The applications give information about date and place of birth, marital status, whether or not the applicant previously worked in the trade, where they lived, the price of application, and if an applicant had been a part of the union before. From 1949 to 1974, the union required applicants to divulge communist party membership on their local union applications.

Membership applications date from 1910 to 2000. Within the folders, the local chose to file the bulk of the applications chronologically by month instead of alphabetically by last name. Thus, it will prove challenging to find an application if one does not know the date or a date range when an individual member applied for membership into the union. However, applications from 1998 to 2004 are arranged alphabetically within each folder and can be searched easily by last name.

This series also includes change of status files from 1979 to 1989 and dues files from 2001 to 2007. The change of status files look much like the applications as the members of the union had to request a change of status for several reasons. These reasons include: achieving the rank of Journeyman, retiring, or changing the benefit schedule. Members could retire when they were part of the union for thirty years or when they turned 65, whichever came first. The dues files from 2001 to 2007 show what the members paid between those years. Another portion of the series contains books of suspended members in 1994.