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Local Lodge History Project

Background:

The Local Lodge History Project, initiated in 2001, is designed to help members learn how to uncover and tell the history of their Local Lodges.  The week-long training, held annually at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center, covers such topics as how to organize a history project, how to do an oral interview, and how to manage and preserve your Local Lodge records.  Workshop participants have completed a number of history projects.   These include collecting oral histories, developing websites, creating historical displays, preserving records, and donating historical materials from Local Lodges to the Southern Labor Archives, the official repository of the IAM.

Workshop participants have contributed to an ongoing IAM Oral History collection at the Southern Labor Archives.  The collection now includes the following oral histories:

Photo: Charlie Micallef and Dorothy Fennell

Oral History Interviews:

Donating Materials to an Archives:

Another workshop participant, Abe Orlofsky arranged to have the records of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) donated to the Southern Labor Archives.

Photo: Abe Orlofsky, NFFE Historian and 2003 Local Lodge History Graduate

National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) to Southern Labor Archives
This collection, which consists of 85-cubic-feet of historical documents, shows the history of twentieth-century federal-sector unionism. Comprised of photographs, convention proceedings, early sound recordings, scrapbooks and correspondence, Executive Council records, as well as a substantial number of publications, the NFFE records were donated in February 2004 to Georgia State University. Established in 1917, the NFFE was the first union in the United States to represent federal employees and for much of the twentieth century served as the leading proponent of the civil service merit system.

If you have materials to donate, please contact the Southern Labor Archives at 404-651-2477 or libsc@langate.gsu.edu

Lodge History Websites:

Paul Turgeon, a Committee Representative, who took the workshop in 2003 developed a Lodge History Website at http://www.local587.com/history/index.htm

IAM Local 587 History
http://www.local587.com/history/index.htm
IAMAW local lodge #587, chartered in 1965, has served it's members and the community for the better part of four decades. Consisting of a variety of professionals including Machinists, Assemblers, Materials Personnel, Electronic Technicians, and Maintenance and Janitorial Personnel, the members of our local have seen many interesting times. With this in mind, we have embarked on this history project to secure our history and share the lessons learned. As time goes on we will be gathering more information in the form of document reproductions, interviews and narrations pertaining to the trials, tribulations, and successes experienced throughout our lodge's history and updating the site as time permits.

For information about the Local Lodge History Project, please contact Project Coordinator Dorothy Fennell at (212)340-2817 or def7@cornell.edu.