The BMPIUA Original Collection dates from 1954 through 1970 and is divided into three series: GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, LOCAL UNION CORRESPONDENCE, and LOCAL UNION MONTHLY REPORTS. The latter two series contain material solely on Wisconsin locals.
The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE is a central file of incoming and outgoing letters of all four primary officers. Organization of the series is by fiscal year (July-June), and alphabetical thereunder. Most correspondence is filed according to the individual or organizational name of the correspondent, although some subject-related files are also included. The filing system employed by the union was very inconsistent. For example, letters which were filed under Labor Department in one year, might, in the next year be under Department of Labor. In processing the records an effort was made to standardize the filing, but it is unlikely that all inconsistencies have been eliminated. Records are included for each fiscal year from 1954/1955 through 1969/1970, but those for 1964/1965, 1965/1966, 1967/1968, 1968/1969, and 1969/1970 are very incomplete.
The series covers all facets of the union's activities. It includes correspondence with individual union members, industry and trade organizations, the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations, government agencies, and others. Among the particularly interesting types of correspondence are those of the vice presidents, special deputies, and special organizers. These officers and staff devoted a substantial amount of time to helping locals implement international union policies, and in assisting locals with jurisdictional, organizing, and other types of problems. Their letters and reports form a good record of the international's relations with its locals, and of local situations and problems. Informally at least, the vice presidents and special deputies seemed to have regional responsibilities. Thus it is possible to focus on a particular local, or on locals in a specific region, by determing the name of the officer or staff member who was responsible for that area.
Also significant is correspondence with employer organizations such as Associated General Contractors, the Marble Dealers National Association, the Mason Contractors Association, the Terrazzo and Mosaic Association, and the Tile and Mantel Contractors Association; and with joint union- employer bodies such as the National Bureau for Lathing and Plastering, the Structural Clay Products Institute, and the Unit Masonry Association. The BMPIUA has traditionally believed that the prosperity of its membership depended largely on the general health of the construction industry. The correspondence with the above mentioned organizations documents the union's efforts toward improving the condition of the construction industry, their efforts to promote the use of plaster and masonry materials, and their desire to solve labor-management problems without resorting to strikes.
The disposition of jurisdictional disputes is also thoroughly documented. For disputes on the local level, the letters of the vice presidents, special deputies, and special organizers are important. For the national level, the series includes correspondence and minutes of the National Joint Board for Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes, a body consisting of appointees of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department and of employers' associations. Correspondence directly with the Building and Construction Trades Department, with the Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons', and with other national unions also touches on this area.
Several other types of files are worthy of mention. Letters concerning the apprenticeship program (filed under “Apprenticeship Program,” “Apprenticeship Contest,” “Labor Department -- Apprenticeship Bureau” and “National Joint Commission on Apprenticeship”) document another of the union's main concerns. The “Initiations” folders contain monthly printed lists of new members. The files on the various state and provincial conferences of bricklayers often contain copies of the proceedings of the conference's annual convention in addition to correspondence.
LOCAL UNION CORRESPONDENCE contains only correspondence with Wisconsin locals of the BMPIUA. It is organized by fiscal year (July-June), and by local union number thereunder. Files date July 1954 - June 1964, although no correspondence for the 1959/1960 fiscal year is included. Most of the letters are between local officers and the international secretary, and concern membership transactions and other routine matters. Also included is correspondence from vice presidents and special deputies to the international office reporting on visits to the locals and on local problems they were sent to investigate. Copies of vice presidents' and special deputies' letters are also found in the General Correspondence filed under the name of the individual officer or staff member.
Of particular interest are the files on local 8 of Milwaukee for 1957/1958 and the surrounding years. Those files document a long controversy over the admission of blacks to the union and a related state supreme court ruling that unions could legally exclude individuals on the basis of race.
The Society originally received local union correspondence covering all locals in the United States and Canada. Due to the routine nature of most of the letters and the fact that most of the more substantive letters were duplicated in the General Correspondence, only the correspondence with Wisconsin locals was preserved. Files on all other locals were destroyed.
Wisconsin Locals
- La Crosse
- Superior
- Green Bay
- Kenosha
- Milwaukee
- Racine
- Janesville
- Milwaukee
- Oshkosh
- Appleton
- Sheboygan
- Manitowoc
- Madison
- Waukesha
- Eau Claire
- Ashland
- Wausau/Mosinee
- Marshfield
- Menomonie
- Milwaukee
- Watertown
- Beloit
- Wisconsin Rapids
- Rhinelander
- Antigo
- Marinette
- Tomah/Camp Douglas
- Lake Geneva
- Bloomer (Chippewa, Barron, Sawyer & Rusk Counties)
- Clear Lake/Amery
- Neenah
- Fond du Lac
- Stevens Point
- Portage/Baraboo
LOCAL UNION MONTHLY REPORTS covers only the period of July 1954 through June 1955, pertains only to Wisconsin locals, and is organized by local union number. The reports show membership statistics and changes, local employment conditions, and prevailing wage rates.
Like the Local Union Correspondence, the Society originally received reports of all locals for 1954/1955. Due to the brief time span covered by the series, the data in the reports was considered to be of limited value and the reports of all but the Wisconsin locals were discarded.
