Scope and Content of the Collection
This collection is significant not for the uniqueness of its contents (there are very few original documents; almost all are actual or indirect copies), but rather because the material in it is arranged chronologically by union. This arrangement facilitates research into a particular union's jurisdictional history. A volume on a particular union may also contain jurisdictional records pertaining to other unions prior to a merger or amalgamation with that union (e.g., the volume on Railway Clerks also contains material on Railway Patrolmen, Railroad Telegraphers, Sleeping Car Porters, etc.). This collection seems to have been originally created in the late 1950s, perhaps to document for constitutional compliance purposes the no-raiding agreements at the time of the merger between the AFL and CIO. Researchers will readily note additions made to particular volumes in the 1960s and 1970s.
