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Research Guide Main Page > List of Record Surveys >
INTERNATIONAL
UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS LOCAL 478
1965 Dixwell Avenue
Hamden, CT 06514-2400
Local 478 owns the Metz Building in Hamden, where all its records, current and non-current, are kept. Its territory is the entire state of Connecticut. There are currently 3500 dues paying members, with 2900 “in the field” and about 600 “active retirees.” In addition, there are a number of “pensioners” who are no longer active.
The Local’s web site, www.local478.org, provides the following history of the Local:
Our Union's beginning was the same as most unions; we started small and grew. On September 7, 1911 a Charter was issued for Local 478 by the International Union of Steam Engineers covering eighteen engineers. Other Charters were issued later when on October 1, 1933, the Local 478-B Charter was granted followed by the Hoisting and Portable Charter on December 12, 1938, the Journeymen and Apprentice Charter on June 1, 1939, the 478-C Charter on June 12, 1939, the 478-D Charter on September 1, 1960, and the 478-E Charter on April 1, 1981. These Charters cover the various crafts and skills of the members of this Union and make up what is known today as "Local 478". Our history is a proud one that has seen this organization rise from a handful of members in 1911 to over 6,000 in the early 1970's, the days of plenty. Our present membership has 2,400 members. The over eighty-six year history of our Union demonstrates what can be accomplished through collective bargaining and hard productive work by a group of dedicated Union members.
Regarding the Local’s successes and present day challenges, Michelle Young, Assistant to Business Manager Benedict Cozzi, writes:
Local 478’s greatest success has been weathering hard economic times and political attacks from the anti-labor right over the past eight decades. As a union that has survived every depression and recession that has taken place since the early 1900’s, many of which were made worse by the anti-worker actions taken by Presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and legislative leaders like Newt Gingrich, we have witnessed first hand the loss of thousands of jobs in our Local while somehow, through it all, managing to sustain the core membership of the Local. Over the past 90 years, our brotherhood and solidarity has grown even when our membership numbers have decreased. The hard times that we have faced have bred a collective determination that inspires all of us to continue moving forward - no matter the cost.
THE RECORDS
Michelle Young provides a useful overview of the records kept by the Local. Membership records; Executive Board meeting minutes; membership meeting minutes (which include monthly reports of new members, as well as any expulsions) and financial reports are complete, dating back to the early 1960s. They are locked in a vault. Now the reports are done on computer, but hard copy is also printed out and put into the vault, which is sealed with a combination lock and located in a hallway which is central to all the offices in the building. Ms. Young says that arbitrations and materials about them had typically been kept for seven years, unless they concerned a company with which the Local has had a long term, ongoing relationship, in which case they are kept for the duration of that relationship. However, Mr. Cozzi has decided that from this point forward, all arbitrations and relevant materials will be kept permanently, since this information will enable future officers to see what precedents were set, advantages gained, and/or mistakes made, for future reference.
Ms. Young said that anything regarding the Department of Labor or any union-government interaction is kept permanently. The more current records in this category are kept in filing cabinets in the office. In addition, contract agreements going back to the 1970s are kept, for reference, in accessible office filing cabinets. The Local now also keeps “major events” files, such as a thick one about an industrial accident at the Mohegan Sun casino last year, in which one elevator operator was killed. This file includes OSHA reports and legal documents. By contrast, the Local has no such file for the L’Ambiance Plaza tragedy in Bridgeport in 1986 in which seven to nine operating engineers were killed. Ms. Young cites a new, stronger commitment to such documentation on the part of Local officers. Ms. Young says that the Local’s collection of photographs is uneven. There might be large numbers from one period in the union’s history, and none from other times, “depending upon whether the leadership was shy or extroverted.” Although photographs may go back to the early 1950s, they are stacked in boxes in the vault, and very few are marked. She further states that member records are never disposed of. They go back to the 1960s, and contain individual work and skill records, as well as an individual file, if the worker was involved in an arbitration or grievance case.
Inventory of the Records, By Location:
Front Office
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Current tracking information about members (skills, where employed)
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Dues receipts (several boxes) Individual file folders on each (current) member
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Individual file folders on inactive ( or retired) members
Vault
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Separate binders containing minutes of membership and executive board meetings as well as financial statements going back to 1959
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File boxes containing election files; per capita reports; and “executive board miscellaneous” (correspondence) going back to 1980
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Information about Prevailing Wage Legislation, kept in triplicate, dated 2002
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Local 478 newsletters going back to the 1980s (one file drawer; these were published sporadically)
Side Room
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Signed contracts going back to 1987
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National Labor Relations
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Board cases and arbitrations
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Correspondence and memoranda between Local and specific contractors, broken down by year Jurisdictional disputes, going back to 1980s
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Six drawer filing cabinet containing national agreements and Project Labor Agreements, tracked by owner of project, going back to the mid 1990s
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Completed projects going back to mid 1990s
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Five drawer filing cabinet containing “miscellaneous” items, some going back as far as the 1960s. These include some historically valuable materials:
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Old standard agreements and surveyors’ agreements
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File called “historical materials 1919-1923”. This includes material submitted by active member Earl Stevens, including his correspondence with Local officers, “A Letter at 92” written by him in 1986; old by-laws and wage scales; and an old dues book of his
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Old constitutions and by-laws dating back to the 1960s
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Old negotiation files dating back to the mid 1980s. There is also a glass case in this room holding several artifacts, inclu ding old stamped dues books, dating from 1916-1943.
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Additional Files
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Records of contractor contributions going back to 1965 Conference, convention, and seminar files (to 1960s)
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Work orders to 1990s
Conference Room
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Framed photographs showing various big construction projects involving Local 478 (including construction of the Yale Bowl in the 1920s.)