IAM retiree Andy Barnes, left, teamed up with Local 1584 member Leo Bordenave to learn how to preserve precious IAM history.
Preserving our IAM heritage is something we owe to future IAM members. Capturing the first-hand knowledge of our retirees is one goal of a pilot program at the Winpisinger Education and Technology Center. The program brings together retirees and younger activists to learn the basic skills of preserving our IAM history.
"We focused on how to design a history project, how to organize it, how to handle historical evidence and how to get the project done," explained Dorothy Fennell, a labor historian at Cornell University.
Working in two-member teams, a retiree and an active member planned an oral history project for their local union. Each participant learned basic interviewing skills. They also practiced doing historical research, gathering and using documents, and preserving local union records.
At right: Charlie Micallef, Winpisinger Center assistant director, and labor historian Dorothy Fennell coordinated the new history program.
"It's a worthwhile project," noted John Wong of Local 1414 in San Mateo, CA. He was paired with retired DBR Frank Souza of District 190 in Oakland. "We've learned a lot from this class and from all of the other people here who shared their experiences," said Souza.
Another important new resource is the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University in Atlanta. It is the official repository for IAM pamphlets, periodicals, oral histories, collective bargaining agreements and convention proceedings from 1888 to the present.
Labor historians can sift through more than 500 collections, including one dedicated to IAM President William "Wimpy" Winpisinger. The archives are on-line at: www.library.gsu.edu/
spcoll/Labor/index.htm.
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