This is a ten volume collection of charter books that was maintained by the AFL Office of the Secretary-Treasurer from 1891-1966. These volumes record the chartering of federal labor unions, newly chartered state and local central bodies, and in some cases national and international unions affiliated with the AFL. The New York City Truck Drivers Union, as well as Canadian locals have some representation in these records.
The AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department and its predecessor organizations were formed with the goal of eliminating discrimination in employment, and the department was charged with processing and tracking discrimination complaints. This collection documents the department's work from 1956-1984 and consists of case files, compliance dockets, summary reports, correspondence, conference and meeting records, and subject files.
This collection primarily documents AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department director Boris Shishkin's civil rights activities, particularly his participation on federal government committees. Shishkin was also the civil rights spokesperson for the AFL prior to the merger, when it had no civil rights department. Document types include correspondence, surveys, and press clippings.
The AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education (COPE) was founded in 1955 to encourage workers to participate in political life. While COPE may have compiled voting statistics and published some of the printed material, this collection contains mostly secondary material issued by others and collected by office staff. The materials consists of correspondence, voting statistics, printed materials, and clippings pertaining to election campaigns, politicians, and political issues.
The Department of Organization and Field Services for AFL and CIO and then AFL-CIO was responsible for promoting cooperation between national and local union bodies, as well as advocating for union victories in National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections. These records document the relationships between local central bodies and their parent federation. Types of materials include charters and local documents.
The Information Department was the publishing and press release arm of the AFL-CIO. This collections contains printed record copies of the major news publications issued by the AFL, CIO, and AFL-CIO, including The C.I.O. News, A.F. of L. Reporter, AFL-CIO News, and American Federationist.
The AFL, CIO, and AFL-CIO scrapbooks were created by different departments of the AFL, CIO, AFL-CIO, and affiliated unions. They depict and commemorate various events in labor history, such as conventions, cornerstone ceremonies, and special dinners. Materials within the scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, photographs, and advertisements.
Anne Draper was a staff member and economist of the AFL-CIO Economic Research Department, specializing on issues of wages and prices. Her work shows the interest of the Federation on issues such as credit unions, consumer problems, and the women's movement. The Economic Research Department specialized on providing information about economic issues to the AFL-CIO. This collection consists of material created and collected by Anne Draper.
