Toledo Labor Management Citizens Committee records

The core of the Toledo Labor Management Citizens Committee collection is the completeness of its minutes. The minutes begin with the TLMCC's first meeting on July 3, 1945 and continue uninterrupted through September 21, 1979. It is important to note, however, that the meetings gradually become less frequent in the 1950's and by the 1970's the TLMCC rarely meets more than twice a year. Also interesting, is the switch from a "script-dialogue" minutes to a synopsis summary style after the first meeting. This change in style was agreed to during the second meeting. The reason given is to maintain an off-the-record discussion period about issues concerning the TLMCC. Furthermore, many of the minutes have cover letters giving the date, place, and time of the next meeting. Included also with the minutes is a confidential Bulletin, attached to the minutes of October 8, 1947 and a draft report (undated) found between the minutes of December 11, 1947 and January 8, 1948. The report was prepared by the secretary of the education subcommittee and is a fourteen page outline of TLMCC history as well as a brief summary of its duties and policies. This report was to be distributed to various local high schools. The researcher of labor disputes may also be interested in reviewing the minutes of September 15, 1955 attached to which, is a typed copy of a discussion before the TLMCC on a dispute between building supply dealers and the AFL Teamsters Union.

The membership records of the TLMCC are sporadic, at best. The completeness of the minutes, however, helps to alleviate this somewhat, by providing attendance information at the start of each meeting.

The correspondence includes many letters addressed to and from committee members with a smaller number being addressed to organizations outside of the TLMCC. Researchers who are looking for information pertaining to the development of Labor Management Citizens Committees (LMC) elsewhere (other than Toledo) will find some of this correspondence interesting. The correspondence becomes very sporadic after the year 1947.

The subject files record group includes several record series: charter materials, mediation and arbitration policies, activities, Toledo ordinances, agreements, histories, and U.S. Department of Labor reports.

The charter materials include correspondence drafts, and statements from representatives of labor and management in regards to formation of a charter for the TLMCC. The documents included mostly date from July 2, 1945 to February 13, 1946.

Perhaps most helpful to the researcher will be the history subject file. This file contains a senior college paper and master's thesis as well as several TLMCC commissioned histories.

The reports record group includes a complete series of annual reports up to 1972. These reports provide data concerning man-day losses, reports on activities, arbitration, and disputes, and budget reports. Also interesting to a researcher of U.S. government policy toward LMC's is a series titled "status" report. This series contains a report commissioned by the TLMCC pertaining to the status of the TLMCC under the Taft-Hartley Act. The report is dated September 4, 1947.

This Collection's statistical and financial documents are less impressive and are fairly sporadic.

The Collection's scrapbook material contains sporadic newspaper and newsletter articles on the functions of the TLMCC from a variety of sources. Again, however, there are wide gaps in the dates, sometimes ranging from 2-3 years to over 11 years, during which no articles were filed. The newest concentration of these articles are dated from June 1945 to June 1947 with the second greatest concentration occurring between June 1988 to March 1991.

Printed material is organized into three series: programs, brochures, and awards-commendations. The programs series is unimpressive, containing only 3 programs from meetings and conferences concerning labor-management issues. The awards and commendations series is not much more impressive, with the exception of a typed letter signed by President Dwight Eisenhower, dated May 10, 1955, and addressed to then Toledo Mayor Ollie Czelusta.

Perhaps the most spartan series in this collection is the photographic material. This series contains miscellaneous positive photographs of unknown individuals, a filmstrip produced by the TLMCC education subcommittee for use in Toledo classrooms and a humorous photograph of a company voting booth. None of the items are dated. The researcher should note that additional photographs are contained in this collection under the record group subject files. Numerous black and white photographs were taken of surviving charter members of the TLMCC during the 35th anniversary luncheon/reunion.

Completing the collection are two audio cassette tapes dated 1988 and containing recorded interviews with Dr. Goldberg and Franz Berlather on the history of the TLMCC.