George A. Patterson papers

Scope and Content

Correspondence, meeting minutes, grievance reports, membership lists, company-union material, agreements, newsclippings, pamphlets, and other papers regarding George A. Patterson's role as a leader in the unionization of steel workers in the Chicago area in the 1930s, and later organizing activities and service to steel workers' unions in Illinois and Wisconsin as a staff member of United Steelworkers of America (USWA), District 31 and then District 32. Includes items from company unions that predated USWA, United Roll Turners Association, Employee Representation Plan of Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, Associated Employees of South Works, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation itself, the National Labor Relations Board, and the United Steelworkers of America (known as the Steel Workers Organizing Committee until 1946). Topics include union organizing, specific changes and improvements in working conditions sought by laborers, grievances, strikes, and contract negotiations. Also in the collection are some items on Patterson's personal activities with the Y and Boy Scouts. There is an oversize folder primarily containing newspaper clippings about union organizing in 1937.