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About the Collection
The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North America (AA) formed in 1876 to support the skilled trades toiling in the steel, iron, and tin industries of the United States. The AA lost membership during a series of key strikes in the early to mid-1880s, but soon regained strength after joining the newly formed American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1887. By the 1890s, the AA represented about 24,000 workers and notably coordinated strike efforts across membership during the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892--one of the most bitter and prolonged strikes in American labor history. Following defeat, the eviscerated AA represented only a handful of steel mills, mostly in the West. In the 1910s, low pay and six twelve-hour work days remained standard in most steel mills. In 1935, when the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North America had only 8,600 members, its efforts to organize steelworkers were largely taken over by Phillip Murray and the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee (SWOC). At that time, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North America joined the Committee on Industrial Organization—later the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)--and ceased to exist as an independent entity.
These records document the organizing efforts of the AA from 1892 through the period following its consolidation as part of the CIO in 1935. The materials here include minute books and ledgers for the Fulton Lodge No. 46, McKee Lodge No. 161, and the Tri-boro Lodge No. 186 as well as ritual books which document the initiation process for new members of the AA.
This digital collection forms a part of the Beneath the Surface and Cast in Steel: Forging the American Industrial Union Movement Digital Project funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources.
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