Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Related Material at the Southern Califronia Library for Social
Studies and Resarch
Descriptive Summary
Title: Charles Stirner Papers (Southern California
Waiters Alliance),
Date (inclusive): 1936-1988
Collection number: MSS 059
Creator:
Stirner, Charles
Extent:
4 legal boxes, 2 letter boxes, 1 letter
half-box, and 5 oversized folders
2 1/3 linear
feet
Repository:
Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research
Abstract: The collection documents the Southern
California Waiters Alliance of which Charles Stirner served as
Secretary-Treasurer in the 1950s and early 1960s. It also includes materials
from the Joint Executive Board of the Culinary Workers and Bartenders
International of which the Waiters Alliance was a part, and a few personal
papers. Includes extensive materials relating to the termination of the
Trusteeship imposed by the International on the Waiters Alliance in
1961.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
Donated to the Library by Brigitte Stone on behalf of the Estate of
Charles Stirner.
Access
The collection is available for research only at the Library's
facility in Los Angeles. The Library is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday
through Saturday. Researchers are encouraged to call or email the Library
indicating the nature of their research query prior to making a visit.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Southern California Library
for Social Studies and Research. Researchers may make single copies of any
portion of the collection, but publication from the collection will be allowed
only with the express written permission of the Library's director. It is not
necessary to obtain written permission to quote from a collection. When the
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research gives permission
for publication, it is as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Charles Stirner Papers (Southern
California Waiters Alliance), Southern California Library for Social Studies
and Research, Los Angeles, California.
Biography
Southern California Waiters Alliance
The Southern California Waiters Alliance, Local 17, along with the
Waitress and Cafeteria Union, Local 639, the Bartenders Union, Local 284, Cooks
Union, Local 463, the Miscellaneous Restaurant Employees Union, Local 440, and
the Hotel Services and Club Employees Union, Local 765 make up the Los Angeles
Joint Executive Board of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders
Unions - AFL-CIO. Also associated with the Waiters Alliance was the Los Angeles
Cooks and Waiters Club, Inc. which was chartered in September 1937. The Club,
which owned and ran the building used by the Alliance and other locals had had,
as of July 1950, only one election in 12 years. The club remained in the hands
of officers (Van Hook, Shackleford, Finnegan, and Adair) who had been ousted
from leadership of the local, and charges were made of misappropriation of
union funds, and lack of reporting of income to the club from gambling (cards)
activities at the club.
The General Executive Board of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees
and Bartenders International Union placed the Waiters Alliance under
trusteeship for a year, on October 16, 1950. There was an attempt to extend the
trusteeship but it ended in October 1951. The new union leadership under
Stirner instituted a shop steward system that had formerly been missing from
the local. Stirner's group also claimed an increase in benefits and services
during the ten years they were in office, much of which was lost in 1962 under
the second trusteeship.
The International instituted the second trusteeship in 1961, after
charges of un-democratic running of meetings and the failure of the union to
pay back monies to the International demanded ahead of the original contract
date. Hearings were held in July and August of 1961 challenging the
trusteeship, but it continued into 1953 when Commissioner John Holcombe of the
U.S. Department of Labor declared that "this trusteeship is being maintained
for reasons which are inconsistent with Section 302 of the Labor-Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959."
Charles Stirner
Charles Stirner was a committed and controversial member of the
Southern California Waiters Alliance (Local 17). Stirner joined Local 17 in
April 1939 after moving to Los Angeles from Chicago and Palm Beach where he had
also worked as a waiter. Stirner came into prominence in the Union when he led
the Rank and File Committee's 1951 challenge to the legacy of J.W. Van Hook's
leadership of the union (Van Hook lost the 1950 election to Vincent J. Lawler,
and retired from the union). The challenge centered on the local union's being
put into receivership by the International and questions about the running of
the Cooks and Waiters Club. Stirner and Edward Simpson, who won the Presidency
of the Union in 1953, led the union until a second Receivership was declared
and a trustee appointed by the Union took over in 1961. Stirner again led the
move to have the trusteeship discontinued. This fight took until 1963. During
his tenure Stirner wrote a column in the Los Angeles Citizen on the activities
and philosophy of Local 17. Stirner and Simpson seem to have generated a lot of
controversy and strong language from their challengers but they remained in
charge of the union for at least a decade.
In later years Stirner was concerned about nuclear disarmament and
the Soviet Union (clippings), he also corresponded with and sent gifts to
family members in Romania.
Scope and Content
The collection contains correspondence, legal/court documents, hearing
transcripts, minutes, bylaws, constitutions, contracts, election materials,
photographs, newspapers clippings, and ribbons.
The collection primarily documents Stirner's union involvements
including both his service as Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern California
Waiters Alliance and his service on the Los Angeles Joint Executive Board of
Culinary Workers and Bartenders Unions, AFofL. A small number of personal
materials, from the 1970s and 1980s, include a series of letters in German from
Stirner's relatives in Romania and clippings on the Soviet Union and nuclear
disarmament. The bulk of the material concerns Stirner's 1961-1963 challenge of
the trusteeship of the Waiters' Alliance instituted by the International. These
are the complete transcript (1705 pages) of the hearing and various legal
documents, including correspondence and notes prepared by Stirner's lawyers.
Other materials refer to other lawsuits to which Stirner was party as well as
materials related to the filing and resolution of various grievances filed by
members of the union. The lawyers who worked on these cases include Robert
Kenny and Stanley Mosk. Election materials include sample ballots, ballots with
vote totals written in and campaign materials from Stirner's group and other
factions. A small amount of materials relating to campaigns and controversies
in the allied Waitress, Cooks, and Bartenders Locals also appear in the
collection, including a series of political cartoons. Minutes include both
Waiters Alliance minutes and minutes from meetings of the Joint Executive
Board.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into 3 series:
PERSONAL PAPERS,
UNION
MATERIALS
, and
PHOTOGRAPHS AND CLIPPINGS
Related Material at the Southern Califronia Library for Social
Studies and Resarch
Title: Robert W. Kenny Papers,
Date: 1823-1975,
Physical Description:
17 boxes