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Finding Aid to the Phyllis Foley Oral History, 1979 MS 3537
MS 3537  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access Restrictions
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Separated Materials
  • Related Collections
  • Indexing Terms
  • Donor
  • Biographical Information
  • Scope and Contents

  • Title: Phyllis Foley oral history
    Date (inclusive): 1979
    Collection Number: MS 3537
    Creator: Foley, Phyllis, 1922-
    Extent: 1 folder (0.1 Linear feet)
    Repository: California Historical Society
    678 Mission Street
    San Francisco, CA, 94105
    415-357-1848
    reference@calhist.org
    Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
    Abstract: Contains a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's 1979 interviews with Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union official Phyllis Foley documenting her experiences and activities as financial secretary-treasurer of Locals 283 and 2 in San Francisco in the 1970s, as well as the labor career of her mother, union organizer and official Bertha Metro.
    Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.

    Access Restrictions

    CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates: https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/  Readers must sign an agreement of use form.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has been assigned to California Historical Society. Materials in these collections are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and may not be used without permission of California Historical Society. Use may be restricted by terms of CHS gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, licensing terms, and trademarks. All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Library and Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Phyllis Foley Oral History, MS 3527, California Historical Society.

    Separated Materials

    The original sound recording from which the Foley oral history was transcribed is stored separately on cassettes 49.1-49.3.

    Related Collections

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's public access catalog:
    Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union. Local 2 (San Francisco, Calif.).
    Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union. Local 283 (San Francisco, Calif.).
    Metro, Bertha, 1899-1976
    Bars (Drinking establishments)--Employees--Labor unions--California--San Francisco.
    Hotels--Employees--Labor unions--California--San Francisco.
    Restaurants--Employees--Labor unions--California--San Francisco.
    Women labor leaders--California.
    Women labor union members--California.
    Oral histories.

    Donor

    This oral history was transcribed from three interviews with Phyllis Foley conducted by Lucille Kendall for the California Historical Society in 1979.

    Biographical Information

    Phyllis Foley was born on September 18, 1922. She moved with her family to San Francisco in the 1930s. A member of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Local 283, Foley was elected financial secretary-treasurer of the local in 1974, assuming an office once held by her mother, union organizer Bertha Metro. Shortly after her election, Local 283, representing hotel workers, was merged into the newly formed Local 2 of the International Union. For the next several years, Foley served as financial secretary-treasurer of Local 2 amidst growing factional strife.
    Foley's mother, Bertha Metro, was a San Francisco labor organizer and longtime officer of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Local 283. She was instrumental in the organization of San Francisco's hotel maids in the 1930s.
    Lucille Kendall was a member and officer of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she conducted interviews of participants in the San Francisco culinary strikes of 1937, 1941-1942, and 1980 for the California Historical Society.

    Scope and Contents

    This oral history collection consists of a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's 1979 interviews with Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union official Phyllis Foley; an interview history; an undated campaign card endorsing Foley for financial secretary-treasurer of the union; and an index to the transcript of the interviews.
    The Foley oral history documents the personal lives and union activities of Phyllis Foley and her mother, Bertha Metro, both of whom served as financial secretary-treasurer of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Locals 283 and 2, in San Francisco. In particular, it sheds light on Metro's successful efforts to organize San Francisco's hotel maids in the 1930s; Foley's activities as a union officer in the 1970s; factional struggles within the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, Local 2, in the 1970s; and the role of women in San Francisco's culinary unions.
    Interviewer Lucille Kendall conducted the Foley interviews as a supplement to the Bertha Metro oral history, which she was unable to complete due to Metro's failing health.