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Transport Workers Union of America Records

Call Number

WAG.235

Dates

1911-2023, ongoing, inclusive
; 1937-1966, bulk

Creator

Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America (Role: Donor)
Quill, Shirley, 1918- (Role: Donor)

Extent

153 Linear Feet
(153 boxes)

Extent

5 Cassettes
5 VHS cassettes

Extent

10 Reels
10 8mm open reel films

Extent

3 Reels
3 16mm open reel films

Extent

1 Reels
1 35mm open reel film

Extent

12 DVDs

Extent

10 websites
in 10 archived websites.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

The Transport Workers Union of America, founded in 1934 and led until 1966 by charismatic Irish-American radical Mike Quill, initially organized subway workers and bus drivers in the New York City area. Eventually the union chartered locals in cities and towns across the country, and it branched out to include taxi drivers, railway employees, airline workers and utility workers among its members. This collection is comprised of administrative records of the Transport Workers Union of America. The Michael J. (Mike) Quill files document the trade-union and political activity of Quill, who served as TWU president from 1935 to 1966. The collection also contains records of Quill's three successful campaigns for the New York City Council (on the American Labor Party ticket and as an independent) and his work as a councilman. Other series contain files of Quill's successor, Matthew Guinan, other TWU officers and staff, TWU divisions, and national conventions. Included are incoming and outgoing correspondence, financial records, reports, speeches, bargaining files, arbitration and mediation decisions, publicity materials and clippings.

Historical Note

The Transport Workers Union of America, founded in 1934 and led until 1966 by its charismatic Irish-American leader, Michael J. (Mike) Quill, initially organized subway workers and bus drivers in the New York City area. Eventually the union chartered locals in cities and towns across the country, and branched out to include taxi drivers, railway employees, airline workers and utility workers among its members.

Transit workers employed on New York's Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) began organizing a union in 1934; the effort soon spread to the other two private transit companies in the New York system, the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company (BMT) and the Independent Subway System (ISS, later IND). After a brief period of affliation with the International Association of Machinists, the TWU was chartered by the fledgling Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in May 1937, with jurisdiction over "all workers employed in, on, or about any and all passenger and other transportation facilities and public utilities." The union's early activists were mostly Irish immigrants who came to the United States after the Irish Rebellion of 1916. The men who led the TWU organizing campaign brought the radical legacy of Irish labor leaders James Connolly and James Larkin to the New York transit system.

The Irish leadership of the TWU first approached fraternal associations in the Irish community and the Catholic Church for support, with little success. They finally accepted the assistance of the Communist Party, which had targeted New York City's transit workers as one of several large industrial workforces it wanted to bring under its political influence. The Party provided funds and an office, printed leaflets and brought in volunteers who could distribute them without facing loss of their jobs. Most important, it provided talented organizers who brought the infant union to maturity. Maurice Forge, Austin Hogan, and Harry Sacher became full time TWU organizers on the Party payroll. Forge, a commercial artist, handled the TWU's publicity and developed the Transport Workers Bulletin, the union's newsletter. Harry Sacher, an attorney, handled the TWU's legal affairs. Hogan took charge of day to day organizing efforts. Douglas McMahon, a BMT worker, was also hired as a full time organizer. In 1935 Mike Quill, a Kerry native and former ticket agent who had led early organizing efforts among Irish transit workers, became the first president of the TWU. Quill's charisma and leadership abilities quickly made him a key player in both the labor and political arenas in New York. He ran for City Council three times (1937, 1939 and 1943), first n the American Labor Party ticket and then as an independent. As a Council member Quill sponsored or supported a variety of measures designed to improve working conditions, housing and health care for for workers, and progressive legislation in general.

The unification of the New York City subway system under one transit authority in 1941 greatly improved the union's bargaining position. Aggressive organizing campaigns soon resulted in the formation of TWU locals across the country -- sometimes competing with or supplanting older American Federation of Labor transit unions.. By the 1950s the union boasted a membership of more than 100,000, and had organized the municipal bus lines and most of the private bus companies in the New York Metropolitan region.

In an atmosphere of Cold War suppression of radical influence in the labor movement, Mike Quill broke sharply with the Communist Party in the late 1940s, drove the most prominent Communist sympathizers from positions in the union, and took the TWU into new fields of organizing. TWU locals were established among railroad and airlines workers, utility workers and taxi drivers, among others. In the 1940s and 50s the TWU was a pioneer within the labor movement in its innovative and extensive use of bith radio and television to get its message across to the general public. With a strong anti-discrimination tradition, the TWU pioneered in the formation of integrated locals in the South, and participated actively in the Civil Rights movement.

After a long period of relatively amicable relations between the Union and the City (especially under Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.), Quill came under increasing pressure to improve wages and benefits, and finally called a city-wide transit strike as John V. Lindsay took office as mayor in January 1966. The bitter strike lasted for twelve days, and the Transit Authority secured an injunction against the Union in an effort to end it. Quill and other TWU officers were charged with contempt for ignoring the injuction (and some were jailed). Quill himself suffered a heart attack, was hospitalized and died, at the age of 61, shortly before a settlement was reached.

TWU Secretary-Treasurer (and President of NYC Local 100) Matthew Guinan immediately succeeded Quill as president. Mild-mannered Guinan was the antithesis of the colorful Quill with his heavy brogue and combative manner, but the new president soon established his credentials as an effective negotiator. He engineered the New York City settlement, and re-negotiated all 27 of the TWU's contracts within his first two years in office. He was noted for his grasp of economic data and the other statistical details involved in hammering out contracts. Guinan expanded TWU organizing efforts in the airline industry and took a special interest in the union's railroad locals. Irish-born, like Quill, he closely followed nationalist politics in Ireland, and was a devotee of Irish culture.

Under succeeding presidents Sonny Hall, John Lawe and James C. Little the union has continued to diversify in membership. As of this writing the TWU has four main divisions: Railroad; Gaming; Airline; Transit; and Utility, University and Service. The Union has 114 autonomous locals representing over 200,000 members and retirees in 22 states around the country. But transit workers, numbering some 130,000, are the still the core group of TWU members. The international union remains based, and its membership concentrated, in the New York area, and New York Local 100 has remained the largest in the TWU. The history of Local 100 is closely bound up in the labor and municipal history of New York City, with the Local facing tough opposition from several mayors, from private employers, and, in recent decades, from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In New York, as in the rest of the country the transit workers have faced severe challenges posed by recession and municipal budget cuts, and downsizing through automation.

Sources:

Freeman, Joshua B. In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933-1966. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Marmo, Michael. More Profile than Courage: The New York City Transit Strike of 1966. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1990."Michael J. Quill," Current Biography, March 1953, pp. 37-39.Quill, Mike: Obituary. New York Times, January 29, 1966, pp. 1, 30.Quill, Shirley. Michael Quill, Himself: A Memoir. Greenwich, CT: Devin-Adair, 1985.Whittemore, L. H. The Man Who Ran the Subways: The Story of Mike Quill. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.

Arrangement

Series are arranged alphabetically by topic, except Series IV, arranged chronologically; Series VII, unprocessed; Series IX, a website; and Series X, other formats.

Organized into ten series:

  1. Series I: Files of Michael J. Quill, 1928-1970
  2. Series II: Files of Matthew Guinan, 1935-1978.
  3. Series III: Files of Other Officers and Staff, 1911-1990.
  4. Series IV: Convention Records, 1937-1969
  5. Series V. Records of the Air Transport Division, 1945-1983.
  6. Series VI: Records of the Air Transport Division, Addendum, 1945-1975.
  7. Series VII: Unprocessed Material: Railroad Division Records, General Files, and Ledgers
  8. Series VIII: Photographs, Glass Negatives, and Slides
  9. Series IX: Archived Websites
  10. Series X: Other formats

Scope and Content Note

This collection is comprised of administrative records of the Transport Workers Union of America. The Michael J. (Mike) Quill Files document the trade-union and political activity of Quill, a founding member of the TWU and its president from 1935 to 1966. The collection also contains records of Quill's three successful campaigns for the New York City Council (on the American Labor Party ticket and as an independent) and his work as a councilman. Other series contain files of Quill's successor, Matthew Guinan, other TWU officers and staff, TWU divisions, and national conventions. Included are incoming and outgoing correspondence, financial records, reports, speeches, bargaining files, arbitration and mediation decisions, publicity materials and clippings.

Series I: Files of Michael J. (Mike) Quill. Subseries I:A: TWU Presidential Files, 1928-1970, consists, for the most part, of files from the TWU President's Office during Quill's tenure, including incoming and outgoing correspondence documenting the full range of union activity. Notable are the extensive files of correspondence with TWU officers and staff; with officers and staff of the CIO at the national, state and city levels; with officers of other unions; with TWU members, including members serving in the military during World War II and members approving or condemning Quill's break with the Communist Party; with individuals in Ireland; and from the general public -- including letters of support, complaints and hate mail. Among the prominent correspondents represented are Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Governor Herbert Lehman, U.S. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, CIO presidents John L. Lewis and Philip Murray, Walter Reuther, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr. The series documents Quill's close contacts with TWU organizers and field offices across the country, and the key role he always played in the affairs of TWU Local 100 (New York City). Also documented are Quill's early and continuing support for civil rights, Irish nationalism, anti-fascist campaigns, and other progressive social and political causes, as well as his close ties to the Communist Party and his dramatic break with the Party in 1948-49. Publicity materials illustrate his pioneering use of radio and television to convey the TWU's message to the public. A separate section of files is devoted to Mike Quill's personal life, including his family, his finances, his illnesses and death, and memorial gatherings honoring him.

Subseries I:B: New York City Council Files, 1937-1948, provides a detailed record of Mike Quill's political activity, beginning with his successful 1937 campaign, on the American Labor Party (ALP) ticket, for a seat on the New York City Council representing a district in the Bronx. Flyers, brochures, reports, correspondence, financial records and voter lists from this and his subsequent Council campaigns, and accompanied by material documenting the campaigns of other ALP and ALP-endorsed candidates (notably Congressmen Vito Marcantonio and Leo Isaacson, and Mayor William O'Dwyer). Also included are files of material illustrating Quill's appeals to various ethnic groups (in many languages), letters of support from other CIO unions, documentation of CIO political activity in New York City, and the records of support groups such as the Quill Association, the Independent Citizens Committee to Elect Quill, the TWU's Committee to Elect Quill and various neighborhood groups. Correspondence files and files of bills and resolutions introduced or supported by Quill reflect the range of his political concerns (including housing, health care, working conditions of public employees, immigrant affairs, price controls and other consumer issues and anti-discrimination measures).

Series II: Files of Matthew Guinan,1935-1978.,includes Guinan's files covering his tenure as TWU Secretary-Treasurer and (from 1966) President. The material reflects his interest in leglislative matters, his intense involvement with the Air Transport and Railroad Divisions of the TWU, and his service on various AFL-CIO bodies.

Series III: Files of Other Officers and Staff, 1911-1990., includes files from the offices of Gustav Faber (TWU Secretary-Treasurer); Maurice Forge (Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer and editor, TWU Bulletin); Douglas L. MacMahon (organizer, president of TWU Local 100 and International Secretary-Treasurer); Shirley (Uzin Garry) Quill (legislative secretary and campaign manager Quill City Council campaign, executive assistant to the TWU president); and Frank Sheehan, International Vice-President.

Series IV: Convention Records, 1937-1969.,includes detailed records of TWUA national conventions (correspondence, credentials committee material, transcripts of proceedings, etc.).

Series V: Air Transport Division, 1945-1983, reflects the TWU's expanded organizing efforts in the airline industry in the 1960s and 1970s, and includes extensive files on American Airlines, Pan-American World Airways, Transworld Airlines and other companies' negotiations and ongoing relations with the union. Also included are correspondence files of TWU staff who specialized in airlines organizing and servicing air transport locals of the TWU.

Series VI: Air Transport Division, Addendum, 1945-1975, consists of decisions of the System Board of Adjustment and the National Mediation Board, and other arbitration and mediation decisions. Included are extensive files on the TWU's relations with American Airlines, Pan American World Airways, Transworld Airlines and several smaller companies.

Series VII: Unprocessed Material: Railroad Division Records, General Files, and Ledgers, consists mostly of Railroad Division records, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, including correspondence with TWU railroad locals, reports, minutes of Division presidents' meetings, SBA decisions, and extensive files on general history of and TWU activity relating to the Pennsylvania Railroad. There are also financial ledgers, including dues records from 1944-1955 and expense records from 1935-1937, 1944-1948, and 1952-1955.

Series VIII: Photographs, Glass Negatives, and Slides consists of photographs documenting TWU events and demonstrations, glass negatives and slides from TWU presentations, and a scrapbook of Michael Quill's visit to Israel in 1953.

Series IX: Archived Website for Transport Workers Union of America.

Subjects

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for most materials in this collection, created by the Transport Workers Union of America was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Any rights for motion picture films, motion picture film elements, and videotape (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the Transport Workers Union of America were transferred to New York University in 1991 by George Leitz on behalf of the Transport Workers Union of America. Permission to publish or reproduce film and videotape materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. Please contact special.collections@nyu.edu.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date; Collection name; Collection number; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.

To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Transport Workers Union of America Records; WAG 235; Wayback URL; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by the Transport Workers of Union of America, AFL-CIO in 1985. The accession number associated with this gift is 1985.013.

In 1987, Shirley Quill, Michael Quill's second wife, donated a small amount of papers, which were incorporated into Series I (Files of Michael J. Quill, 1928-1970) in this collection. Additionally, correspondence from Shirley Quill found in the Tamiment Library was added to the collection in 2014; the accession number associated with this correspondence is 2014.070.

http://www.twu.org/ and http://workersrights.twu.org/ was initially selected by curators and captured through the use of The California Digital Library's Web Archiving Service in 2007 as part of the Labor Unions and Organizations (U.S.) Web Archive. In 2015, the website was migrated to Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In 2018, http://veterans.twu.org/ was added to the collection. The accession number associated with this website is 2019.102. In 2019, http://podcast.twu.org/ was added to the collection. The accession number associated with this website is 2019.142. In 2020, http://floc.twu.org/ was added to the collection. The accession number associated with this website is 2020.028. In 2021, https://wayback.archive-it.org/6349/*/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J2lmb3jOkKzBP2x7LYwmUnqEriP9btaYuoE8P_5cBJE/edit was added to the collection. The accession number associated with this website is 2021.015. In October 2020, https://www.youtube.com/user/transportworker/videos/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2021.049. In July 2022, https://www.assaultwontfly.com/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2022.065. In March 2023, https://twitter.com/AMFA2022AA/ and https://twitter.com/SWA4TWU/ was added. The accession number associated with these websites is 2023.035.

Custodial History

The records of the Transport Workers Union of America were donated to the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives by the TWU under an agreement with its president, Sonny Hall, in 1985. Note: A portion of this donation, consisting of a large series of records of TWU locals, including TWU Local 100 (New York City), was catalogued as a separate collection (WAG.234, TWU, Records of Locals).

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact special.collections@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Born-digital materials have not been transferred and may not be available to researchers. Researchers may request access copies. To request that material be transferred, or if you are unsure if material has been transferred, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, (212) 998-2630 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Take Down Policy

Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.

If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to special.collections@nyu.edu.

Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Related Material at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

The following collections ctonain materials related to the Transport Workers Union of America:

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Moving Images Collection (FILMS.001);

Transport Workers Union of America: Records of Locals. (WAG.234);

Maurice Forge Papers. (WAG.106);

Gerald O'Reilly Papers. (WAG.105);

Transport Workers Union, Local 100: S. Goldstein Interviews. (OH.047);

Transport Workers Union, Local 100: Joseph Gayol Files. (WAG.085);

Transport Workers Union, Local 100: Naomi Allen Files. (WAG.295);

Transport Workers Union of America, Executive Board Minutes, 1938-1971 (Microfilm, Reel 7452);

Transport Workers Union of America Oral History Collection. (OH.011);

Transport Workers Union of America, Scrapbooks, 1933-1949. (Microfilm, Reels 7453/1-11);

Transport Workers Union of America and Shirley Quill Photographs (PHOTOS.032).

Collection processed by

Kerri Anne Burke, Ted Casselman, Johanna Blokker and Gail Malmgreen, 2004-2007

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-06 14:07:52 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

Between 2004 and 2007, papers donated by Shirley Quill in 1987, on Michael Quill and his involvement with the Transport Workers Union of America, were added to this collection and incorporated into into its Series I (Files of Michael J. Quill, 1928-1970).

In 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2007 photographs from this collection were separated and placed in PHOTOS.032 (Transport Workers Union of America Photographs). Circa 2012 the photographs separated from the collection and placed in PHOTOS.032 were removed from PHOTOS.032 and reincorporated into the collection; the accession numbers associated with these separated photographs are NPA.1999.026, NPA.2000.316, NPA.2003.036, NPA.2006.061, NPA.2006.095, and NPA.2007.032.

In 2014, the Transport Workers Union of America's archived website was added as Series IX. Additional website was added to the finding aid in 2019-2023.

In 2017, items separated from the original collection and items acquired subsequently from various donors were integrated into the collection as accession 2017.078.

Revisions to this Guide

2014: Revised by Heather Mulliner in May 2014; additional revisions by Erika Gottfried in October 2014.
June 2017: Jasmine Larkin added Series X to incorporate 2 boxes from Accession NPA.1999.026 found during the shelf read of Bobst 10 West.
December 2017: Jacqueline Rider added Series XI: Other formats to incorporate Accession 2017.078, 3 boxes of non-print items.
April 2023: Edited by Nicole Greenhouse for updated administrative information and archived websites.
July 2022: Edited by Rachel Mahre to reflect audio materials added from OH.011.
December 2023: Edited by Rachel Mahre to add to the Related Materials note.

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