Buckley (Daniel F.) papers, 1938-1987, bulk 1978-1980

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Summary

Title:
Daniel F. Buckley typographical union strike collection
Dates:
1938-1987, bulk 1978-1980
Creators:
Buckley, Daniel F. and International Typographical Union. Local 46 (Central Valley, Calif.)
Extent:
2.75 Linear Feet (3 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], [box and folder number], Daniel F. Buckley typographical union strike collection, MS0034, Center for Sacramento History.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection is arranged into five series: Correspondence, California Democratic Party Convention (1979), Personal, Strike Materials, and Printed Materials.

Series 1. Correspondence. This series is made up of invitations, union correspondence, Sacramento Bee correspondence, and general strike Correspondence. The date range for this series is 1978 to 1987. Included are event invitations from the Sacramento Bee and various labor unions; letters exchanged by the International Typographical Union and Dan Buckley, as well as correspondence between other unions; letters from the Sacramento Bee to various unions, employees, and subscribers; and correspondence related to the 1978 Sacramento Bee strike, including letters that Dan Buckley wrote to friends and fellow union members about the 1978 Sacramento Bee strike, and a letter from Pat Brown to the strike leaders discussing labor relations.

Series 2. California Democratic Party Convention. This series consists of items Dan Buckley obtained at the January 1979 Convention that took place in Sacramento. Included are a press badge, a list of committee members, and a letter to the party from Vice President Mondale.

Series 3. Personal. This series includes reporter notes and certificates from 1960 to 1986. Reporter Notes consists of several small notebooks that Dan Buckley used to take notes on news pieces as well as daily events on the picket line. There are also several papers that include photograph descriptions. Certificates includes a participation certificate from the 1964 California State Fair and Exposition and certificates from the International Typographical Union.

Series 4. Strike Materials. This series includes material related to strikes from 1971 to 1980, including bumper stickers, flyers, and posters from the 1978 Sacramento Bee strike; parodies of Christmas songs and poems that were changed to include lyrics about the suffering of the strikers during the 1978 Christmas season; contracts between the Sacramento Bee and local unions; a 1980 Book of Laws of the International Typographical Union; and a copy of a previous strike agreement.

Series 5. Printed Materials. The Printed materials series consists of several different newspapers and newsletters. he bulk of these are editions of Catholic Herald, Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Union, Sacramento Valley Union Labor Bulletin, and The Worker Bee. Also included are a small number of issues of newspapers specific to certain regions or subjects, including the Sacramento region, Bay Area, and labor unions. There are also several clippings and photocopied stories. The number of editions of each newspaper varies widely, with the largest being the Union Labor Bulletin, Sacramento Union, and The Worker Bee. All of the newspapers and newsletters date from 1978 to 1982, with the exception of The Prospector, contained within Sacramento Region Newspapers, which dates from April 29, 1938. Many editions include articles that Dan Buckley circled or underlined because of their relation to the ongoing strike.

Biographical / historical:

Daniel F. Buckley was born in 1923 and lived in the Sacramento region throughout his life. He graduated from McClatchy High School in 1940 and became a newspaper printer, a profession which he continued for forty-seven years. At that time newspapers were not yet using computers or lasers to print their daily editions, so printers were necessary to type the articles, create the layouts, and work with heavy machinery.

Early in his career Buckley worked for the North Sacramento Journal. During World War II he temporarily worked for a local Alaskan newspaper. After this he went on to work as a printer for the Sacramento Bee. He was a member of the Central Valley Typographical Union No. 46, which was a local branch of the International Typographical Union. This union was founded in 1852 and included printers, pressmen, photo engravers, and other such newspaper employees in the Sacramento region. In the mid 20th century this labor union and others like it began to grow, allowing them more bargaining power against the newspaper owners. This occasionally led to conflicts between the newspaper employees and their employers.

One such conflict between the Sacramento Bee and Sacramento Mailers Union Local 31 escalated to the point of a strike on April 17, 1978. McClatchy Newspapers, which owned of the Sacramento Bee, and the Mailers Union had reached an impasse during strike negotiations. The printers of the Typographical Union soon joined the strike and refused to cross picket lines in an attempt to show their support for the Mailers Union. Although these two groups held different jobs and were members of different unions, they believed that it was important to show their solidarity against McClatchy Newspapers, who they felt had recently become very anti-union towards its employees.

Dan Buckley, as a member of the Typographical Union, participated in the strike and even joined the picket lines. He took photographs and made several notes regarding the scabs that crossed the picket lines. He also remained in contact with strike leaders and other individuals in the community who were sympathetic towards the strikers' cause. To support his family Buckley began to search for another job, and soon took a printing position with the Sacramento Union newspaper. However, many of the other strikers had difficulty finding new jobs and feared the economic troubles that were to come throughout the strike's duration.

The Mailers strike continued until an agreement could be reached in 1981. The Typographical Union did not reach an agreement with McClatchy Newspapers until 1986. Dan Buckley never returned to the Sacramento Bee, along with many of his former co-workers. A later legal agreement stated that McClatchy was required to hire back any of the printers that had gone on strike, but this agreement was often ignored and the issue was tied up in legal battles for many years to come.

The techniques of the newspaper printing industry began to change drastically during this time. The use of computers has cut the number of printers necessary for the daily business of the Sacramento Bee and other newspapers. As a result, the International Typographical Union was dissolved in 1986 and its remaining members merged into larger, more diversified unions.

Acquisition information:
Donated to the Center for Sacramento History in 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1993 from Daniel F. Buckley, former employee of the Sacramento Bee (accessions 1986/077, 1987/094, 1988/074, 1993/032).
Processing information:

Processing and finding aid by Michelle Wallen, 2009.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
by Michelle Wallen
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-06-26 15:45:59 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

All requests to publish or quote from private collections held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH 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 patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], [box and folder number], Daniel F. Buckley typographical union strike collection, MS0034, Center for Sacramento History.

Location of this collection:
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95811, US
Contact:
(916) 808-7072
csh@cityofsacramento.org
Website