Documenting Labor Inside and Out
Union Members
Membership Records
Even more often undocumented than unions themselves are the countless
workers who make up their "rank and file" membership. Frequently, unless an
individual was an officer of a local, a shop foreman, or held some other leadership
position, not much is known about him or her. What little information is available about
a union's individual members is often found in that union's membership records.
For example, Hugh John Monthie, Sr. was an apprentice with the Columbia County Typographical Union No.
896 from April 1955 to April 1960. That local's Apprentice Record Book, pictured on the left, records his date of
birth, where he was employed, when his apprenticeship began, and when it ended.
This information about apprentices in the Columbia County
Typographical Union might be extremely useful to descendants engaged in
genealogical research. From a scholarly perspective, many trends can be studied
regarding the individuals who were employed as apprentices in the typographical trade,
such as the average number of apprentices assigned to an employer, the average age of
apprentices, and whether apprentices were more likely to be men or women.
Similar comments can be made about the membership records of locals
in other trades. The membership ledger for the Hudson Valley District
Council of Carpenters Local 251 collected information on the member's date of birth, date
admitted to the union, initiation fee, place of residence, monthly dues, when those dues
were paid, and, in the Remarks section, any times when the membership was
suspended or reinstated. The membership ledger for the International Brotherhood of
Painters and Allied Trades' Painters Local 12 recorded the number of the membership
card, the initiation dues, the member's age when initiated into the local,
the date on which the member was initiated, and the member's monthly dues.
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