Ross K. Rieder was a union activist, labor historian, and preservationist. Rieder was born in 1940 in Yakima, Washington and he began his career as a public school teacher in Everett, Washington, before becoming the president of the Washington State Federation of Teachers (WSFT) from 1968-1975. Rieder was one of the founding members of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA), and he served as the organization's first president for 37 years, from 1977 until his retirement in 2015. Under Rieder's leadership, the PNLHA created labor history walking tours of Seattle and Tacoma, produced an annual labor history calendar, and supported labor education through the arts, including by sponsoring a Labor Stage at the Northwest Folklife Festival. In addition, Rieder helped produce the PNLHA newsletter “Urban Work,” hosted a radio program called “Part of the Union” on KSER 90.7 (2000-2012), and was involved in the development of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the Labor Archives of Washington at the University of Washington.
Rieder concurrently held positions at other organizations, including the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 17, where he worked as a negotiator (1977-1979); the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) where he worked as a political action coordinator (1979-1986); and the Snohomish County Labor Council (SCLC) where he worked as an organizer (1992-1997). Rieder retired in 2015 and passed away in 2021. (Source: The Seattle Times Obituary; Accessed: February 2024, https://obituaries.seattletimes.com/obituary/ross-rieder-1084157837)
Organized into 2 accessions.
Documents, clippings, flyers, brochures, publications, articles, correspondence, reports, photographs, photographic negatives, lecture notes, course materials, scripts, event plans, conference proceedings, audio recordings, and video recordings. Audiovisual recordings include broadcasts of Rieder's community-cable and radio productions. Also includes materials from Rieder's work with the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association (PNLHA).
Forms part of the Labor Archives of Washington
No restrictions on access for paper-based materials.
No user access copy is available for film cartridge, video cassettes, DVDs, CDs, or audio cassettes. Users may be able to obtain a reproduction of the media for a fee. Contact Special Collections for more information.
To the extent that they own the copyright, the donor has transferred the copyright of the materials to the University of Washington; however, copyright in some items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. Users are responsible for researching copyright status before use.
Donated by Ross Rieder, 2016-01-29
Donated by Brenda Doolittle, 2023-04-14
PNLHA related materials were relocated to the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association records (4552-002), 2016-03-16.
No user access copy is available for film cartridge, video cassettes, DVDs, CDs, or audio cassettes. Users may be able to obtain a reproduction of the media for a fee. Contact Special Collections for more information.