Correspondence, 1937-1957

The series of Presidential correspondence spans the administrations of three United Textile Workers of America presidents: Francis Gorman, 1937-1939, 1941-1944; C.M. Fox, 1939-1941; and Anthony Valente, 1944-1957. The series contains only a small number of letters from 1937 to 1941, and none form the years 1947-1949.

This correspondence series documents UTWA's vast organizing efforts in New England, particularly New Bedford and Lawrence, as TWOC-CIO in 1937-1938 and as the re-chartered UTWA in 1945-1947. Organizations of textile workers was also an important goal of the Southern Drive of the AFL immediately after World War II. Organizing campaigns were mounted throughout the textile region, the largest being in Asheville, NC, Danville, VA, and Elizabethton, TN.

A serious internal dispute that threatened the existence of the UTWA in 1946 when the Department of Woolen and Worsted Workers, the largest and strongest of the five semi-autonomous departments with the UTWA, attempted to secede.

Conflict occurred between Emil Rieve, President of the TWUA (CIO), and TWUA Vice-President and Southern Director George Baldanzi that resulted in Baldanzi joining the UTWA as Director of Organization, bringing an estimated 25,000 TWUA rank-and-file members with him; also covered are a purge of alleged Communists from leadership positions in UTWA's Canadian in 1950; and the financially ruinous with the TWUA to organize textile workers.

Among the correspondents are George Baldanzi, Everett Dean, Charles Ehrentraut, Frank Fenton, George Googe, Joseph Jacobs, William Green, Roy Groenert, George Meany, John Pollard, Francis Schaufenbil, Frank Sgambato, Joseph Sylvia, Roy Whitmire, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the Textile Workers Union of America, the United States Labor Department, and several organizers for the American Federation of Labor. Material in this subseries arrived as part of accession L1973-54.