United States. Dept. of Labor

AFSCME Career Development Program Records

jruss — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:51:45 -0400

Seeing success in a program run by AFSCME District Council 37 in New York City that upgraded Nursing Aides to Licensed Practical Nurses, the International union wished to bring career development training to its members who were hospital employees. As such, in 1967, AFSCME began investigating how to develop hospital career development training programs. In 1969, AFSCME was awarded a grant from the Department of Labor and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) to work with hospitals in Boston, Cleveland, and Maryland. In 1971, AFSCME received a second grant to take the Hospital Career Development Program (HCDP) to three new cities, Memphis, Detroit, and St. Paul. At this point, language guaranteeing funding for continuing career development began to enter negotiated contracts. In 1973, AFSCME received its third grant, which brought HCDP to three more cities, Houston, Milwaukee, and the District of Columbia.

This collection documents the planning, execution, and evaluation of the AFSCME Career Development Program, 1966-1975, which primarily involved the Hospital Career Development Program (HCDP). HCDP developed and implemented career ladders and training curricula for hospital employees. The records are comprised of correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, curricula, job descriptions, organizational charts, contracts, press releases, news clippings, lesson plans, course schedules, graduation invitations and announcements, recruitment material, newsletters, and a small number of photographs.

Carolyn DesJardins Papers

aorchard — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:22:25 -0500

In June 1982 Carolyn DesJardins (formerly Carolyn Larry) began working as a security officer at Detroit Edison’s Fermi 2 nuclear power plant located in Newport, Michigan. DesJardins later moved into a staff position where she was responsible for safeguarding security information about the plant’s operation, construction, and equipment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission enforces rules about the accessibility of the information that DesJardins was protecting. During DesJardin’s tenure, the Fermi 2 Director of Security sent information through the computer system outside of the plant, which was in opposition to the Commission’s rules. Desjardins informed the director of this error, and after continued infringements, DesJardins alerted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, thus becoming a whistleblower. This resulted in her demotion to her previous position of security officer. In response, DesJardins sued to return to her former position. While she won her lawsuit, DesJardins never returned to her position. Instead DesJardins worked as a nuclear security investigator, conducting background checks and investigations.

The Carolyn DesJardins Papers document DesJardin’s whistleblower lawsuit and include correspondence, primarily from Detroit Edison and DesJardin’s lawyer, and materials related to the lawsuit, including a transcript of the trial.

Harnessing Engineering Womanpower in the Cold War

teller — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:56:55 -0400

In 1955, in the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau hosted a Conference on the Effective Use of Womanpower. The Department of Labor was worried that the United States was producing too few engineers and scientists as compared to the number produced in the U.S.S.R., and found that the recruitment and training of women in science and engineering fields could help to alleviate the disparity. read more »

[Podcast] Labor Legend Harry Bridges and the Pacific Coast Longshore Strike of 1934

teller — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 15:16:15 -0400

In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Robert Cherny explains how the early life of Australian immigrant Harry Bridges prepared him to lead the groundbreaking 1934 Pacific Coast longshoremen’s and maritime workers’ strikes in the United States, later becoming the first president of the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). read more »

[Podcast] Labor Radical Harry Bridges and the Cold War Ire of the US Government

teller — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 15:26:40 -0400

In the second of a two-part series, Dr. Robert Cherny recounts how immigrant Harry Bridges successfully led the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) for four decades beginning in the 1930s, even as his militant unionism and association with communists placed him at odds with the American government during the Cold War and at the center of several deportation hearings. read more »

Monthly Labor Review

kchinery — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 11:03:03 -0400

Unprocessed. Bound volumes: 1925-1969 (Vols. 20-92).