AFL-CIO, Washington State Labor Council records, 1880-2010

The Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) was formed in 1957 by a merger of the Washington State Federation of Labor and the Washington State CIO Council. These two labor bodies had been bitter rivals in the 1930s but had slowly grown closer together. The need to cooperate to defeat right-to-work measures (Initiative 198 in 1956 and Initiative 202 in 1958) cemented their alliance. After defeating these measures, labor groups took the offensive. The United Labor Lobby (ULL), which grew out of the committees created to defeat the right-to-work initiatives, won an extension of the 40 hour maximum work week to all Washington workers and an expansion of the unemployment insurance system in 1959. The ULL and WSLC were not able to follow up on these victories in the early 1960s as the increasingly Republican state legislature soon forced labor back on the defensive.

When Evan (Ed) Weston retired as WSLC president in 1961, Joe Davis was elected president. Davis beefed up the Council's voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives. In 1966 Davis launched a major new effort, dubbed Project '66, to increase labor's influence and broaden its political agenda. Project '66 increased the amount of money that member unions paid to the Council and doubled the Council's staff. These changes allowed the Council to monitor government agencies more closely and to lobby on new subjects of legislative interest, such as tax reform and consumer protection. The new program did score a few notable victories. The WSLC increased its influence in the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. The Council also won limited collective bargaining rights for public employees in 1967, broadened the workers' compensation program to include essentially all workers in 1971, provided assistance to efforts to pass civil rights laws in the 1960s, and was instrumental in obtaining several consumer protection laws in the 1970s. Project '66 thus increased the number of issues on which the Council had legislative influence and built greater cooperation between labor, civil rights, and consumer protection groups. Nonetheless, the WSLC did not substantially increase its ability to elect labor-friendly candidates to the legislature. As such, labor remained vulnerable to lobbying assaults from employer groups throughout the 1970s and 1980s, suffering occasional defeats in struggles over the workers' compensation and unemployment programs.

The following people served as officers and staff (WSLC): Evan (Ed) Weston, president, 1957-1961; Joe Davis, president, 1962-1980; Marvin Williams, secretary-treasurer, 1959-1980, president, 1985-1993; Lawrence Kenney, research director, 1969-1980, secretary-treasurer, 1980-1985, president, 1985-1993; Louis O. Stewart, education director, 1967-1982.