Charles Stirner Papers (Southern California Waiters
Alliance),
1936-1988
Processed by Julia Bazar
Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research
6120 South Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90044
Phone: (323) 759-6063
Fax: (323) 759-2252
Email: archives@socallib.org
URL: http://www.socallib.org/
© 2001
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. All
rights reserved.
Register of the Charles Stirner Papers (Southern California
Waiters Alliance),
1936-1988
Collection number: MSS 059
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Los
Angeles, California
Contact Information:
- Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research
- 6120 South Vermont Avenue
- Los Angeles, CA, 90044
- Phone: (323) 759-6063
- Fax: (323) 759-2252
- Email: archives@socallib.org
- URL: http://www.socallib.org/
- Processed by:
- Julia Bazar
- Date Completed:
-
June 2001
- Encoded by:
- Julia Bazar
© 2001 Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research. All rights reserved.
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
A copy of the collection register is kept in the first box of the
collection (1/0).
Boxes 1-4 are legal-sized, Boxes 5-7 letter-sized. The oversize
material labeled Box 8 is filed in the joint Oversize Box for collections MSS
055-MSS 061.
Series 1.
Personal Papers,
1940-1980, n.d.
Physical Description:
3 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series is composed of correspondence, clippings and union
dues books. The correspondence includes letters in German from Stirner's
relatives in Romania (1978) and newspapers clippings on the Soviet Union and
nuclear disarmament issues (1972-1980, n.d.). Also included in this series are
Stirner's union dues books from the 1940s. See also Stirner's personal copy of
the 1938 Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union
Constitution in the Minutes/Bylaws/Constitution subseries (which contains
information on his joining the union), and also the Correspondence subseries of
the Union Materials Series.
Box-folder 5/1
Membership Dues Books,
1940-1948
Box-folder 5/2
Family Correspondence - Romania (in German),
1978
Box-folder 1/1
Clippings - Soviet Union, Politics,
1972-1980, n.d.
Series 2.
Union Materials,
1936-1988
Physical Description:
6 boxes
Scope and Content Note
This series includes minutes, correspondence, legal documents,
flyers, and other materials. The bulk of the materials are from Stirner's
tenure as Secretary/Treasurer for the Waiters Alliance (1951-1961), and
includes minutes, materials relating to several lawsuits filed by or against
Stirner and the local, grievances filed by union members against employers and
the union, and a wide variety of other material including correspondence, and
copies of the columns Stirner wrote for the
Los Angeles Citizen.
Arrangement
This series is divided into 4 subseries:
Minutes/Bylaws/Constitution, Lawsuits and Grievances, Correspondence, and Other
Union Materials.
Subseries A.
Minutes/Bylaws/Constitutions,
1936-1961
Physical Description:
10 folders
Scope and Content Note
This contains minutes from Southern California Waiters Alliance
and from the Los Angeles Joint Executive Board from the mid-1950s to the early
1960s. Also included are three versions of bylaws for the Waiters Union Local
17 from 1936, 1957, and 1964, as well as bylaws for the Los Angeles Joint
Executive Board (1949, 1957), the Bartenders Local 284 (1956), and the
Waitresses and Cafeteria Workers Local 639 (1955), and four versions of the
constitution of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders
International Union (1938-1966). The 1938 version includes union dues stamp and
the date of Stirner's enrollment in the union.
Box-folder 1/2-1/6
Southern California Waiters Alliance, Local
17
Box-folder 1/7-1/8
Los Angeles Joint Executive Board of Culinary
Workers and Bartenders Unions AFL
Box-folder 5/3
Waiters Local 17,
1936-1964
Box-folder 5/4
Bartenders Local 284, Waitresses Local 639, and
Joint Executive Board,
1949-1957
Box-folder 5/5
Constitution - Hotel & Restaurant Employees and
Bartenders International Union,
1938-1966
Subseries B.
Lawsuits and Grievances,
1946-1963
Physical Description:
38 folders
Scope and Content Note
This subseries include court documents, transcripts,
correspondence and other materials relating to both lawsuits filed by or
against Stirner and/or the union and grievances filed by union members against
employers or the union (Stirner).
The lawsuits deal primarily with issues related to the two
trusteeships (1950-1951 and 1961-1963). They include Charles Stirner v. Hugo
Ernst et al. challenging the continuation of the 1950-1951 Trusteeship; J. W.
Van Hook v. Southern California Waiters Alliance which deals with the Los
Angeles Cooks and Waiters Club and charges that Van Hook misused his authority
and misappropriated funds while in charge of the club and the Waiters Alliance;
John L. Cooper et al. v. Ed S. Miller et al. which dealt with contract and
collective bargaining issues; and C.T. McDonough, Trustee et al. v. Edward
Simpson et al. concerning challenges to the second trusteeship. The complete
transcripts of the July-August 1961 hearing on the continuance of the
trusteeship are included in the collection. A number of petitions/pledge sheets
signed by union members in support of the 1951 call for election and lawsuit
regarding the Cooks and Waiters Club, and a petition concerning the 1961
challenge to the trusteeship, as well as miscellaneous materials relating to
these and other legal actions are included in this subseries.
Materials on grievances include correspondence and other
documents dealing with complaints concerning wages and working conditions,
taxation and distribution of tips, and racial discrimination, as well as
challenges to Stirner and Simpson's running of business meetings, including
"Tiny" Small's report on a vote challenging the legitimacy of a vote to
increase dues. Some of the issues also involve the Waitresses and Bartenders
unions. See Correspondence subseries for further information.
Box-folder 2/1-2/7, 5/6-6/4
Box-folder 2/1
Charles Stirner v. Hugo Ernst et al.,
1951
Box-folder 2/2
J. W. Van Hook v. Southern California Waiters
Alliance,
1950-1958
Box-folder 2/3
John L. Cooper et al. v. Ed S. Miller et al.,
1961
Box-folder 2/4-2/5
C.T. McDonough, Trustee et al. v. Edward Simpson et
al. [2 folders],
1961-1962
Box-folder 5/6-6/4, 2/6-2/7
Box-folder 5/6-6/4
Reporters Transcript of Proceedings - In the
Matter of the Hearing to Determine Continuance or Dissolution of Trusteeship
over Southern California Waiters Alliance, Local 17, Hotel and Restaurant
Employees and Bartenders International Union
Box-folder 5/6
Volume I, pages 1-215,
July 25, 1961
Box-folder 5/7
Volume II, pages 216-496,
July 26, 1961
Box-folder 5/8
Volume III, pages 497-762,
July 27, 1961
Box-folder 5/9
Volume IV, pages 763-948,
July 28, 1961
Box-folder 6/1
Volume V, pages 949-1153,
August 8, 1961
Box-folder 6/2
Volume VI, pages 1154-1346,
August 9, 1961
Box-folder 6/3
Volume VII, pages 1347-1458,
August 10, 1961
Box-folder 6/4
Volume [VIII], pages 1459-1705,
August 10, 1961
Box-folder 2/6
Correspondence,
1960-1963, n.d.
Box-folder 2/7
Legal Documents/Attorneys notes,
1958-1963, n.d.
Box-folder 2/8-2/12
Rank and File Committee (Los Angeles Waiters Club
Case)
Box-folder 2/8
Campaign Contributions,
1951
Box-folder 2/9
Support bringing of facts,
c.1951
Box-folder 2/10
Don't drop lawsuit,
c.1952
Box-folder 2/11
Call for election in August,
c.1953
Box-folder 2/12
Campaign contributions,
1953
Box-folder 2/13
Protesting Suit by Local 17 Against International,
c.1961
Box-folder 3/1-3/9, 6/5-6/8
Box-folder 3/1
Trial Committee,
1951-1961
Box-folder 3/2
Biltmore Grill et al. (Tip Distribution),
1946-1961
Box-folder 3/3
Moulin Rouge and Coconut Grove,
1957-1959
Box-folder 6/5
Sheraton West Hotel Dispute,
1958
Box-folder 6/6
IRS/Tips Dispute,
1958-1959
Box-folder 3/4
Civil Rights/FEPC - Thomas C. Woodard,
1959-1960
Box-folder 6/7
Paul Meister Case,
1959-1960
Box-folder 6/8
Ann Crofford/Landis Largo Case,
1960-1961
Box-folder 3/5-3/7
Correspondence Forwarded to Walter Cowan
Box-folder 3/5
Grievances/Contract Issues,
1958-1961
Box-folder 3/7
Tips and Wages,
1960-1961
Box-folder 3/8
"Charges by Antonio Serafin - Exhibit #4,"
1951-1962
Box-folder 3/9
"Charges Against Stirner by Andrew (Scotty) Allan,"
1961-1962
Box-folder 3/10
Declarations and Summations,
1961
Box-folder 3/11
Other Legal Documents,
1959-1962, n.d.
Box-folder 3/12
Miscellaneous Resolutions, Notes,
1956-1961, n.d.
Box-folder 3/13
Lawyers Correspondence, etc.,
1950-1963, n.d.
Subseries C.
Correspondence,
1950-1963
Physical Description:
14 folders
Scope and Content Note
This subseries contains correspondence on a variety of issues,
including information pertaining to grievances, lawsuits and other issues
covered in other series and subseries. It includes both official letters sent
to the membership and more personal correspondence. Of special interest are
letters to and from Stirner and a variety of politicians and a series of
letters from Rosilla Dana Anthony challenging her husband's dismissal as a
union business agent. The official correspondence comes first; the rest of the
material is in alphabetical order.
Box-folder 3/14-3/16
Southern California Waiters Alliance, Local
17
Box-folder 6/10
Rosilla Dana Anthony,
1958-1959
Box-folder 4/1
John L. Cooper,
1960, n.d.
Box-folder 6/12
Edward Miller (General President, International),
1955-1961
Box-folder 6/13
NLRB & U.S. Department of Labor,
1960
Box-folder 4/2
Rank and File Committee - L.A. Cooks and Waiters Club,
1950-1954, n.d.
Box-folder 6/15
Restaurant Hotel Employees Council,
1960-1961
Box-folder 6/16
Simpson-Stirner Committee,
1961-1963
Box-folder 4/3
Charles Stirner - "Personal,"
1951-1959, n.d.
Subseries D.
Other Union Materials,
1939-1988
Physical Description:
22 folders
Scope and Content Note
This subseries contains a variety of other union related
materials including financial statements, benefit information, election
campaign materials, lists, files of Edward Simpson (Local President), and the
texts of Stirner's regular column, titled "Waiters Union Local 17," which ran
in the Los Angeles Citizen, the Official Publication of the Los Angeles
American Federation of Labor Unions, and a speech by Stirner. The two folders
labeled " Edward Simpson's File" were kept intact even though some of the items
are duplicates of materials elsewhere in the collection. The final folder
contains materials relating to the union, which Stirner collected after his
retirement.
Arrangement
This series is arranged alphabetically.
Box-folder 7/1
Benefits and Welfare Fund,
1952-1963
Box-folder 7/2
Health and Welfare (Retirement),
1959, n.d.
Box-folder 7/3
Bills/Financial Information,
1945-1958, n.d.
Box-folder 4/5-4/10
Los Angeles Citizen Column-
Waiters Union Local
17
Box-folder 4/10
Clippings,
1955-1957, n.d.
Box-folder 4/11-4/12, 7/4, 8/1
Box-folder 4/11
"Election 1961,"
1960-1961
Box-folder 4/12
Various Waiters Campaign Materials,
1951-1963, n.d.
Box-folder 8/1
Sample Ballots (some with totals recorded),
1950-1963, n.d.
Box-folder 7/4
Cooks, Waitresses, and Bartenders Campaign
Materials,
1950-1962, n.d.
Box-folder 4/13
Officers/Mailing Lists,
n.d.
Box-folder 4/14
Lists & Notes (Miscellaneous),
n.d.
Box-folder 7/5
Los Angeles Joint Executive Board of Hotel and
Restaurant Employees - Credit Union,
1960
Box-folder 7/6
Political Cartoons (Internal),
n.d.
Box-folder 4/15-4/16
Edward Simpson's File [2 folders],
1939-1960
Box-folder 7/7
Stirner-Simpson Committee Ribbons,
n.d.
Box-folder 7/8
Uniform Contracts,
1955-1976
Box-folder 7/9
Miscellaneous Union Material,
1981-1988
Series 3.
Photographs and Clippings,
1950-1957, n.d.
Physical Description:
2 folders and several oversize
items/folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes photographs, miscellaneous clippings and
pages from a scrapbook containing both photographs and clippings. All of the
photographs are union related, though most are unidentified. The panoramic
print is rolled and needs conservation.
Box-folder 7/10
Miscellaneous Clippings,
1950s-1960s
Box-folder 8/2
"First Senior Members Receiving Their Continued Health
and Welfare Benefits and Retirement Income,"
1956
Box-folder 8/3
Studio Portrait - Stirner?
n.d.
Box-folder 8/4
Rolled Panorama Print,
n.d.
Box-folder 8/5
Scrapbook pages (13 sheets),
1950-1957, n.d.