Guide to the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 101, Pittsburgh, Pa. Records, 1937-1976 AIS.1997.19
- Repository
- ULS Archives & Special Collections
- Title
- Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 101, Pittsburgh, Pa. Records
- Creator
- Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 101 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Collection Number
- AIS.1997.19
- Extent
- 0.44 Linear Feet (1 box)
- Date
- 1937-1976
- Abstract
- This collection consists mainly of minutes of the Executive Board of Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 101 (Pittsburgh, Pa.), 1937-1976. The Local represented warehouse and sales employees at the city's largest department stores. Copies of contracts negotiated between 1938-1976 with Kaufmann Department Stores (afterward May Department Stores) are also present.
- Language
- English .
- Publisher
- ULS Archives & Special Collections
- Address
- University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
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History
The United Department Store Employees Union, Local 101 of the United Retail Employees of America, CIO, was chartered on June 1, 1937. In 1940, the name of the parent organization was changed to the United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees of America, and later shortened to Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
The Local 101's first success was the unionization of Rosenbaum's Department Store in downtown Pittsburgh. A first contract, providing for a forty-hour week, took effect November 29, 1937. The union then organized Frank and Seder's Department Store and, in September 1938, warehouse and non-sales employees at Kaufmann's Department Store. Subsequently, the sales employees at Kaufmann's were also brought into the local, although some sales departments were organized by the local's AFL rival, the Retail Clerks International Association (RCIA). In 1940, a three-week strike of wrappers, packers, and warehouse workers at Kaufmann's earned a new contract with across-the-board increases. During World War II, the War Labor Board mandated some limited wage gains, but in 1946, Local 101 again struck Kaufmann's demanding additional increases to keep pace with inflation.
As a CIO affiliate, Local 101 was a member of the Steel City Industrial Union Council and the Pennsylvania Industrial Union Council. For many years, Milton Weisberg, business agent, was spokesperson and leader of the local. Other significant figures included Ernest Burberg and Howard Fedor. Women were widely represented on the executive board, as officers, and on the stewards councils, reflecting their large numbers in the retail sales workforce.
The international RWDSU went through a series of crises in the late 1940's. Some of the locals seceded and went into the RCIA, AFL. The Pittsburgh local, however stayed within the RWDSU up to and after the AFL and CIO merger in 1955.
Scope and Content Notes
The minutes, originally contained in loose-leaf binders, give an outline of the activities of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 101 between 1940 and 1974. Most of the minutes are of meetings of the executive board, with occasional membership meetings, stewards council meetings and various special meetings. The local's contracts with Kaufmann Department Stores, Inc. from 1938-1976 illustrate evolving gains in compensation and benefits. An arbitration case, 1949-1950, shows the Local joining forces with its AFL rival, the Retail Clerks International Association Local 1365, to seek retroactive increases for commission salespeople at Kaufmann's. At some point, post-1958, the local put together a twenty-page compilation on its history, consisting primarily of copies of documents and newspaper articles reflecting its struggles and achievements during the first twenty years.
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Acquisition Information
Deposited by Thomas Scheid, June 9, 1997.
Preferred Citation
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 101, Pittsburgh, Pa. Records, 1937-1976, AIS.1997.19, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Previous Citation
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 101, Pittsburgh, Pa. Records, 1937-1976, AIS.1997.19, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Records of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, Local 101 (Pittsburgh, PA), 1937-1976, UE/Labor 97:19, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Sarah Cranstoun in 1997 and David Rosenberg in 2004
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Dan Horvath on June 22, 2004. Information about the collection title and the controlled access terms was extracted from the MARC record in the University of Pittsburgh catalog Voyager ID number: 4364083
Copyright
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Subjects
- Kaufmann's Department Store -- Officials and employees -- Labor unions
- Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 101 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Department stores -- Employees -- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Labor