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James McNamara Papers

Call Number

WAG.129

Dates

1945-2010, inclusive
; 1980-2010, bulk

Creator

McNamara, James
McNamara, James (Role: Donor)

Extent

9 Linear Feet in 10 record cartons.

Language of Materials

Materials are mostly in English.

Abstract

James McNamara was an organizer and served in a number of staff positions for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He then went on to hold a variety of positions at the New York City and state levels in which he engaged in negotiations, enforcement and investigative activities in relation to the building trades and the construction industry. He worked on investigations for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force and the New York County District Attorney's Office (Labor Racketeering Unit) before his retirement in 1992. The collection contains background material and legal files relating to investigations of the Carpenters, Mason Tenders, Painters, Plumbers, Service Employees (Local 32 B-J), Operating Engineers, Elevator Constructors and New York area Teamsters unions. Also included are files on jurisdictional matters relating to the Building Trades Employers Association and files on the investigation of Brian McLaughlin as president of the New York City Central Labor Council.

Historical/Biographical Note

A native of New York City, James McNamara grew up in a working-class family. His father worked for the MTA as a motorman and was a member of the Transport Workers Union. Young McNamara attended Cooperstown Academy, in Cooperstown, New York, but was expelled from the Academy after organizing a student protest. McNamara worked at Yankee Stadium where he operated the turnstile to admit people into the stadium. He organized the vendors at the ball park into Local 153 of the Office, Professional Employees International Union, whereupon he was "promoted" and promptly fired. He graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx and then attended Brooklyn College and the City College of New York. His first position in the labor movement was as an unpaid organizer for Local 155 of the ILGWU. He subsequently went to work for the hatters union. His first experience as a $50 per week organizer led to his once again being fired while trying to organize a shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. Moving across the river, he took up new duties for the hatters union in New York City.

He later served in a variety of capacities for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, including International Representative, Director of Research and Education, Director of Organization; Manager of Local 102, Novelty Hat Workers Union; Administrator of the Local 3 Health Benefit Fund; and Trustee of the Local 80 Health Benefit and Retirement Funds. His responsibilities included organizing and servicing new locals in sixteen states and Puerto Rico, negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, and the drafting and implementation of contracts. In 1966 McNamara left union work to begin his second career as a civil servant.

Mayor John Lindsay recruited McNamara to work in his new administration as the Director of Community Relations for Labor and Industry in the Human Resources Department. In March 1968 McNamara took up new duties as Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Model Cities in the Human Resources Department (MCDA/HRA). In this capacity, he represented the Mayor's office in negotiations with the building trades (unions and employers associations), community groups and city agencies in launching pilot projects in Model Cities areas. In July 1970, McNamara took on the position of Director of the Building Trades Training Department in New York City's Manpower and Career Development Agency, part of the Human Resources Administration (HRA, now the Department of Employment). He conceived and implemented Mayor's Executive Order #20, which required on-the-job training of minority workers in all city-assisted construction.

In October 1973 McNamara took up the position of Director of the Office of Contract Compliance, and Deputy Director of the Bureau of Labor Services, Office of the Mayor, New York City. Here he was instrumental in creating and expanding the new office of C.C./Construction, and in developing rules, regulations, and contract language for New York City's affirmative action programs. In March 1977 he became the Assistant Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights. Here he supervised the implementation of the Governor's Executive Orders on Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, as well as serving as the Director of the Office of State Contract Compliance Programs (E.O.45) and Affirmative Action in State Agencies (E.O. 40). He supervised the administration of state contracts with the Recruitment and Training Program, Inc., for minority recruitment in the building trades.

From September 1981 to January 1983, McNamara served as the Director of the Mayor's Office of Construction Industry Relations. Reporting directly to the Mayor, he coordinated the City's activities in combating employment discrimination and extortion in the construction industry. In February 1983, he became a consultant to the New York State Commission of Investigation in connection with a study of the building trades and construction industry practices. He served as an expert witness in public hearings which were conducted as part of the investigation.

In October 1985 he was assigned to the New York State Organized Crime Task Force by the Mayor's Office and the Commissioner of Investigation to assist in an investigation of the New York building trades and construction industry. In April of 1990 he was assigned to the construction industry project of the New York City Commission of Human Rights and the New York City Office of Labor Services. The investigation focused on race and gender discrimination, and McNamara carried out research in preparation for the public hearings.

In March 1993 McNamara became a consultant to the District Attorney's Office, County of New York, in the Labor Racketeering Unit. Again, he performed research for investigations of labor racketeering in the construction industry. In 1992 James McNamara retired after a twenty-five year career. In addition to his official duties, McNamara has been active in numerous organizations. He serves on the boards of the Workers Defense League and the Association for Union Democracy. He also serves as the Research Director for the AUD. He is the Secretary and Member of the Board of Directors of the Sixth Avenue Credit Union, Past President of the Gouverneur Gardens Housing Cooperative, a former member and Treasurer of the Board of Directors, Lower Eastside Neighborhood Association, the former Vice Chairman of Local School Board #3 and the Chairman of the Site Selection and Construction Committee. McNamara has also worked as spokesman for the International Longshoremen Association.

He has served as an expert witness in numerous cases involving discrimination and corruption in the building trades and construction industry. He has been at the center of the major struggles for the last quarter century in New York City involving the effort to open up the building trades unions to minority workers and to women, along with the repeated efforts of government agencies to clean up corruption in the industry. His wife, Ann Cadmus McNamara, an attorney, was General Counsel, New York City Department of Employment.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in eight series:

Series I: United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
Series II: Mason Tenders Local of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA)
Series III: International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council
Series IV: United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, Plumbers Local 2 (Manhattan)
Series V: Service Employees International Union, Local 32 B-J
Series VI:. International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Series VII:. Building Trades Employers Association
Series VIII: 2002-2011 Addenda

Scope and Content Note

The James McNamara Papers holds background material and legal files relating to investigations of the Carpenters, Mason Tenders, Painters, Plumbers, Service Employees (Local 32 B-J), Operating Engineers, Elevator Constructors, AFSCME District Council 37, International Longshoremen's Association, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Teamsters, mostly in the New York City area. The bulk of the materials in the collection date from the 1980s up until 2010. The materials reflect his work as an investigator, but also as the research director for the Association for Union Democracy. The documents in this collection are made up of clippings, court proceedings, testimonies, transcripts, correspondence, handwritten notes, newsletters--especially those published by the AUD ($100 Plus Club and the Union Democracy Review), reports, articles written by McNamara, press releases, and other materials.

The collection is rich in research materials related to corruption within New York City local labor unions; union leaders were prosecuted for racketeering, bribery, embezzlement, no-show jobs, vote-fixing, and organized crime involvement. They were often indicted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act or by the Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF). The materials also reflect investigations of discrimination of minorities in unions. The materials show how the media covered the scandals, as well as demonstrating how McNamara was involved in the prosecution. There is little personal materials related to McNamara and the collection mostly contains his work compiling research materials on the union.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by James McNamara were transferred to New York University in 2002 by James McNamara. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, (212) 998-2630.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; James McNamara Papers; WAG 129; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu at least two business days prior to research visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

James McNamara sent a gift of his papers in several installments in 1996. The accession number associated with this gift is 1996.022. Tamiment Library received an additional two boxes of James McNamara's papers in 2011. The accession number associated with this gift is 2011.138.

Separated Materials

In 2011, five bound volumes of the "Union Democracy Review" spanning from 1959 to 1996. A copy of Local 32B-32J : Sixty Years of Progress was separated to the library collection in 2013.

Related Archival Materials

Carl Blum Papers (WAG 100)
Interview with James McNamara in Burton Hall Union Democracy Project Oral History Collection (OH 034)
Carpenters for a Stronger Union Records (WAG 066)
Daniel French Papers (WAG 101)
Burton Hall Papers (WAG 087)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 282, Fear of Reprisal Ends (FORE) Records. (WAG 107)
Frank Schonfeld Papers (WAG 027)
United Tradeswomen Records (WAG 102)
Association for Union Democracy: Women's Project Records (PE 041)
Association for Union Democracy: NY Area Files (WAG 302)

McNamara also worked for the Association for Union Democracy. Their archived website can be found here: http://webarchives.cdlib.org/site/spec%3A0000001c9

Collection processed by

Ted Casselman and Jane LaTour, 1999; Craig Savino, 2007; Nicole Greenhouse, 2013

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 16:31:54 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

In 1999, the collection was initially processed. It appears that in 2007, materials were integrated into the first seven series from a later accession.

In 2013, the collection was updated in compliance with DACS. Accessions dating from 2002-2011 (Series VIII) were rehoused in new, archival quality legal folders and given a box level inventory. Original folders were photocopied and discarded. The majority of the folder titles were supplied by the archivist, based on McNamara's original labelling. Although the materials were rehoused, the folders reflect the original arrangement by McNamara.

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012