Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Related Collections
Acquisition
Processing Information
Arrangement
History
Bibliography
Scope and Contents
Title: Bay Area Typographical Union. Local 21 (San Francisco, Calif.) records
Date (bulk): 1906-1990
Date (inclusive): 1842-1998
Creator:
Bay Area Typographical Union. Local 21 (San Francisco, Calif.)
Collection number: larc.ms.0001
Accession number: 1985/001, 2013/009, 2011/009, and 2009/021
Extent:
75.5 cubic ft.
(26 cartons, 114 boxes, including 7 oversize boxes, 8 bound volumes)
Repository:
Labor Archives and Research Center
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English.
Abstract: The Bay Area Typographical Union (BATU) collection contains organizational records and materials donated by the San Francisco
Typographical Union Local 21, the bulk consisting of the records of Local 21, Oakland Local 36, Palo Alto Local 521 and San
Jose Local 231. The records include organization histories, historical documents and memorabilia, administrative records,
files on contracts and negotiations, International Typographical Union material, membership documentation, apprenticeship
and journeyman records, financial ledgers and records, samples of printing art and technology, printed materials, commemoratives
and medals, photographs, and an addition of records from the office of the president.
Location: Materials are stored offsite; requires advance notice.
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives and Research Center 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], Bay Area Typographical Union. Local 21 (San Francisco, Calif.) Records, larc.ms.0001, Labor Archives
and Research Center, San Francisco State University.
Related Collections
International Typographical Union Minutes, 1849-1853. 1 Volume. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Acquisition
The Bay Area Typographical Union (BATU) collection was donated by the BATU in January, 1985, accession number 1985/001. The
following accessions have been incrporated into the initial accession: 2013/009, Pacific Media Workers Guild, Local 39521;
2011/009, International Typographical Union records; and 2009/021.
Processing Information
Processed by Labor Archives and Research Center staff; additional processing by Alexandria Post. Additions to collection
processed as received.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Printing industry--Employees--Labor unions--California.
Printing industry--California--San Francisco.
Printers--California.
Labor unions--California--San Francisco.
Strikes and lockouts--Newspapers.
Arrangement
The Bay Area Typographical Union, Local 21 records are arranged in fourteen series, some of which have been further arranged
in subseries
- Series 1: Minutes
- Series 2: History
- Series 3: Administrative Files
- Series 4: Contracts and Negotiations
- Series 5: International Typographical Union
- Series 6: Membership
- Series 7: Apprenticeship
- Series 8: Financial Records
- Series 9: Technology and Art
- Series 10: Printed Material
- Series 11: Commemoratives and Medals
- Series 12: Photographs
- Series 13: Oversize Material
- Series 14: President's Records
History
As the San Francisco Bay Area's oldest trade union, Bay Area Typographical Union Local No. 21 can trace its roots back to
the Gold Rush when, in 1850, printers in San Francisco first organized the Pacific Typographical Society to protest wage cuts.
In 1855, the Union obtained a charter from the National Typographical Union and became Local No. 21. The local survived in
various forms and was instrumental in the formation of the short-lived San Francisco Trades Union. It fought a constant battle
against deflation and falling wages, but a strike in 1870 against the San Francisco
Call and
Bulletin crushed the local. No union for printers existed in San Francisco for two years until the local reorganized as the San Francisco
Typographical Union and secured a charter from the International Typographical Union (ITU) in 1872. During the 1890s, women
printers won the right to become union members and to equal pay in union shops. Local 21 was one of the first unions, locally
as well as nationally, to do so.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, the local successfully fought open shop campaigns and attempts at wage cuts,
and preserved the eight hour day. In the post-war years, Local 21 faced the challenges all unions endured under the Taft-Hartley
Act and offered vigorous resistance against it, as did the entire ITU. The 1950s began an era of expansion in contract bargaining
as Local 21 negotiated broader health and life insurance benefits. The sixties and seventies were characterized by major strikes
and Local 21's printers walked picket lines repeatedly to protect working conditions, wages, benefits and the very right to
have a union. Despite the strikes, the local continued to expand through the seventies and eighties, and merged with other
locals such as Local 729 in San Rafael, Local 389 in Vallejo, and Local 577 in Santa Rosa. In 1998, Local 21 merged with
The Northern California Newspaper Guild to form the Northern California Media Workers Guild/Typographical Union, Local 39521
of The Newspaper Guild sector of Communications Workers of America. Following several more mergers, the Guild is now called
Pacific Media Workers Guild, Local 35921.
Bibliography
Knight, Robert E.L.
Industrial Relations in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1900-1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960.
Interview with Leon Olsen, President of BATU #21 and Ed Nielsen, Secretary-Treasurer of BATU #21.
Selvin, David.
A Century of Democratic Unionism: San Francisco Typographical Union Centennial. San Francisco, San Francisco Typographical Union, 1972.
Selvin, David. "History of the San Francisco Typographical Union". Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of California, Berkeley,
1933.
Selvin, David.
Sky Full of Storm. Berkeley: Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, 1966; San Francisco: California Historical Society,
1975.
Scope and Contents
The Bay Area Typographical Union (BATU) collection contains organizational records and materials donated by the San Francisco
Typographical Union Local 21, the bulk consisting of the records of Local 21, Oakland Local 36, Palo Alto Local 521 and San
Jose Local 231. The records include organization histories, historical documents and memorabilia, administrative records,
files on contracts and negotiations, International Typographical Union material, membership documentation, apprenticeship
and journeyman records, financial ledgers and records, samples of printing art and technology, printed materials, commemoratives
and medals, photographs, and an addition of records from the office of the president.
The earliest piece in the collection is an 1842 British union card of a San Francisco Typographical Union member who immigrated
from Liverpool, England. Many records prior to April 1906 were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of that year, and the
San Francisco Typographical Union was relocated shortly thereafter. The BATU office has retained most files from 1980 onward.
The BATU Local 21 minutes span 1906-1996. Minutes prior to 1906 were destroyed in the fires caused by the 1906 Earthquake.
Beginning in 1916, the minutes were bound and contained the San Francisco Typographical Union Local 21
Official Bulletin mailed to members. The Bulletin announced the date and time of the next union meeting, gave a monthly account of union financial
transactions, listed union officers, delegates to other bodies and local committee members and published a directory of San
Francisco union printing shops. Standard minutes included Report on the Committee on Membership, Secretary's Report, Treasurer's
Report, a detailed Executive Committee Report, Reports of other committees (Label Committee, Scale Committee, etc.), Reports
of delegates to other bodies, and visiting delegates. This format continued until 1948 when the minutes were printed in the
Typographical Union Bulletin, a newsletter which also included stories about the local and its members. The minutes are a lively and detailed record of
history of Local 21.
The History Series Group contains many single items collected by Morris Goldman, BATU's first Vice President. Most of these
items date from the 1880s and include notices for social events, working and traveling cards, articles on the union and on
individual members, election notices, lists of officers, and union pamphlets. All material in this series is from SF Local
21.
The largest series, and most recent addition to the collection, President's Records (1962-1998), contains contracts and negotiation
records, grievance and discharge reports, arbitration records, merger documents, and miscellany. The bulk of the records
were produced or collected by the office of Local 21 President, Charles Tobias (1990-2001).