About

Georgia State University's Southern Labor Archives, established in 1971, is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available the documentary heritage of Southern workers and their unions, as well as that of workers and unions having a historic relationship to the region.

The largest accumulation of labor records in the Southeast, the Archives holdings include organizational records, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, personal papers of labor leaders, oral histories, collective bargaining agreements, constitutions and bylaws, and convention proceedings from 1888 to the present. The Southern Labor Archives is the official repository for hundreds of local and regional union offices, as well as the national offices of:

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW)
National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE)
United Garment Workers of America (UGWA)
United Furniture Workers of America (UFWA)
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO)
United Textile Workers of America (UTWA)

as well as many other union offices and state federations of labor, including the Georgia State AFL-CIO.

Our holdings are particularly strong in the areas of the textile and clothing industry, furniture and wood products, machinery and aerospace, nursing, airline industry, communications industry and union activities in the Southeast. Individuals whose careers are chronicled in the holdings include Paul Christopher, Carey Haigler, Joseph Jacobs, John Jervis, E.T. Kehrer, Stetson Kennedy, Carmen Lucia, Eula McGill, Claude Ramsay, John Ramsay, M. H. Ross, Stanton E. Smith, and E. Leon Stamey. Significantly, the Southern Labor Archives is also the official repository of the papers of former U.S. Secretary of Labor W. J. Usery, Jr.

Overall, the Archives has over 3,000 feet of materials. From building and construction workers, to service and government employees, from Washington, DC to New Orleans, Louisiana, laborers and mill hands, the Southern Labor Archives holds their history.