Boise City was scarcely a year old, and not yet the territorial capital, when, in July 1864, James S. Reynolds established the city's first newspaper, the
By the time Idaho achieved statehood twenty-six years later, there were three daily newspapers in Boise, at least two other printing shops, and enough individual members of the International Typographical Union working in the city to form the nucleus of a union local. They applied to the ITU for a charter, which was granted in November 1890. There were eleven charter members. "Some were residents, but the majority probably were members of that race of 'Vanished Americans' now kindly remembered as 'Tramp Printers," recalled James Lewis in the local's 70th anniversary booklet. Indeed, Lewis could only find that only three of the eleven charter members stayed in Boise for very long. The eleven charter members were soon joined by seven initiates at its first meeting in December. The union's first known contract, dated February 1892, is recorded in its first minute book. Its signatories (the proprietors of the Idaho Statesman, Idaho State Journal, and job printers) bound themselves "to the employment only of persons eligible to membership in said Boise City Typographical Union No. 271." According to Lewis's 70th anniversary history, the 1892 contract was "the first agreement between a chartered labor union and an employer in the State of Idaho."
The International Typographical Union had a long history even before its local was chartered in Boise. Founded in 1852 as the National Typographical Union (it changed its name to International when Canadian locals were chartered), it was formally organized only after decades of communication and cooperation between printers' associations in Eastern and Midwestern cities. Individual members were drawn from large printing establishments, one-man shops, and itinerants ("tramp printers") who moved around the country working for newspapers and print shops for short periods of time before moving on. Originally the union included members from all areas of the printing industry, but gradually during the 19th century, members from specialized crafts such as pressmen, bookbinders, and photo engravers withdrew and formed their own international unions, often with the assistance of the ITU.
The early minutes of the Boise City Typographical Union reveal its concerns and customs. Members used white and black balls to vote on applications for membership. It was not unheard of for Calvin Cobb, the publisher of the
The union contributed to local charitable causes and, according to Lewis' history, had already negotiated a nine-hour day, six-day week before the international union made it the standard in 1899. The Boise union then became one of the first locals to negotiate an 8-hour day in 1904. In 1900 the membership agreed to a special assessment for the aid of striking workers in Pittsburgh, but only "under protest" did it remove Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg (a printer and publisher whose younger brother Charles had been a charter member of No. 271) from its honorary membership. The International Typographical Union had asked the Boise local to revoke his membership because of his role in suppressing the miners' strikes in the Coeur d'Alene district of north Idaho. The local union complied but reaffirmed "its belief that the said Hon. Frank Steunenberg is a friend of organized labor." Steunenberg was assassinated five years later at his home in Caldwell, Idaho. The sensational trial of Western Federation of Miners leader Big Bill Haywood for instigating the murder brought Clarence Darrow to Boise for the defense and propelled prosecutor William E. Borah to national prominence. The Boise City Typographical Union adopted resolutions deploring Steunenberg's assassination at its meeting in February 1906.
Printers, who set type, formed the core of the original union membership in Boise, but they were soon joined by mailers, i.e. newspaper employees who worked in the "mail room" at tasks such as assembling papers, inserting supplements, bundling, and otherwise preparing them for distribution. In larger cities, mailers often formed locals of their own, but in Boise the two crafts were always part of No. 271. For much of the 20th century, the Boise City Typographical Union drew most of its membership from printers and mailers at Boise's morning newspaper, the
Within its first decade, the No. 271's members were confronted by new technology and the necessity of job retraining. The linotype machine, invented to replace the setting of type by hand, revolutionized the printing process.
Years later, the international union and the Boise local addressed the technological changes brought on by the introduction of computers, automation, and photocomposition to the printing process, but during the 1980s both local and international membership declined as the new processes required fewer employees trained and skilled in the craft. During the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, the number of working members of No. 271 (excluding retirees) hovered near or slightly above 100. In November 1977 the number of working members in Boise (not counting members added from the recently defunct locals in Nampa and Twin Falls) was 69; in November 1986 there were 43. That same month the voters of Idaho passed a right-to-work initiative, making union membership voluntary in all places of employment, further weakening the union. On the national level, officers of the ITU explored merger opportunities with other unions, including the Teamsters. In 1987 the venerable old ITU was absorbed into the Communication Workers of America. At its June 1987 meeting No. 271 ceremonially took its 97-year old charter down from the wall and replaced it with a new charter from the CWA. The Boise City Typographical Union retained its identity as a separate local within the CWA for several years until its remaining members became part of Boise's CWA local in the early 1990s.
Sources:
The records in this collection document in great detail the 100-year history of the Boise City Typographical Union. At the heart of the collection are the minutes, which are nearly complete up through 1969, then somewhat sporadic after that. Also included are contracts the union negotiated with Boise area publishers and printing companies, correspondence of the local officers, records of arbitration and National Labor Relations Board cases in which the union was a party, and detailed financial records. Also included are two boxes of records of the Nampa Typographical Union No. 988, whose membership was absorbed into No. 271 in 1974 (Boxes 21 and 22), as well as two folders of miscellaneous papers of the Twin Falls Typographical Union, which also was absorbed into No. 271 (Box 23). There are also several folders of records from the Idaho-Utah Typographical Conference, a federation of ITU locals in the two states (also Box 23).
The International Typographical Union was proud of its reputation as one of the most democratic of trade unions, and its form of organization and procedural checks and balances are documented in the records of No. 271. The basic level of organization was the "chapel," consisting of the workers in one particular shop. (There were two chapels at the
During the 1980s the Boise City Typographical Union took several grievances against the Idaho Statesman (then published by the Gannett chain) to the National Labor Relations Board. Extensive documentation of those cases is found in Boxes 13 and 14. Records of arbitrations by the American Arbitration Association in the 1970s and 80s, and earlier cases arbitrated by local arbitration panels, are found in Box 12.
Portions of the collection that contain wage and pension information for individual members from the 20th century are closed to researchers, however arrangements can be made to extract statistical data from them. Aggregate statistics on membership and the finances can also be found in the Monthly financial statements and quarterly audits for the Boise (Box 20) and Nampa (Box 22) unions.
The collection also contains various publications of the International Typographical Union including its organizational manual, brochures on various topics, and a long run of the international newsletter,
The papers are divided into nine series: 1. General Records and Correspondence, 2. Minutes, 3. Contracts, 4. Labor Issues, Grievances, Arbitration, 5. Financial Records, 6. Nampa Typographical Union No. 988, 7. Other Idaho Labor Organizations, 8. Memorabilia and Photos, and 9. International Typographical Union.
Collection is available for research, with the exception of wage and pension information for individual members from the 20th century. Please see archivist for more details.
Gift of the Boise City Typographical Union in 1985, 2001, 2010, and 2011.
[item description], Boise City Typographical Union No. 271 Records, Box [number] Folder [number], Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.
The General Records of the Boise City Typographical Union include the local's 70th anniversary historical booklet (1960), constitutions from various dates, membership registers, and other miscellaneous records. (Statistical information about union membership is most easily found in Series V, Financial Records). The presidents' diaries of Ken Campbell and Gordon Robins (Box 2, Folders 16 and 17) record their actions during a time of considerable turmoil within the local union in the mid-1980s and include references to the decision to donate the union's 100-year archive to Boise State University. The officers' general correspondence in Box 3 includes letters to and from individual members as well as correspondence with officials at the ITU's headquarters on a variety of matters, including contracts, arbitrations, and NLRB cases. The closed correspondence in Box 4 involves the details of pensions of individual members.
The minutes of the Boise City Typographical Union comprise the monthly chronicle of union activities. The local's first constitution and bylaws can be found in Book 1, as well as its first contract (beginning on page 133). The years 1915-1918 are missing from the early minutes. After 1969, the minutes become sporadic and incomplete, with several sizeable gaps.
This series consists chiefly of printed copies of contracts negotiated by No. 271 with various employers going back to the 1950s. A number of them bear the original signatures of the principals involved, including Walter York (of Syms-York), James Brown (publisher of the Statesman), and union officials. Beginning in the 1970s, some files include notes about the bargaining, including minutes of negotiating meetings, memos, background documentation, and consultations with the international union. In some of the files from the 1980s, the actual contracts are not present. The first extant contract negotiated by No. 271, in February 1892, is found in its first minute book, beginning on page 132 (Box 5).
This series consists of files that document a variety of labor-management issues involving No. 271, as well as internal disagreements within the Boise City Typographical Union itself. The records cover labor-management disputes that were resolved by regional arbiters or by the American Arbitration Association; charges of unfair labor practices filed with the National Labor Relations Board; disagreements with the
Many of the issues involving the
A research paper on the 1920 wage arbitration for the Boise City Typographical Union and Boise printing firms, written by Thomas Gill, a Boise State University graduate student, in 1986, is found in the collection in Box 1, Folder 4 (Historical clippings, studies, etc.)
NLRB Case 19-CA-18150: BCTU vs. Idaho Statesman
With the exception of the Labor Organization Financial Reports in Box 20 (submitted annually to the U.S. Department of Labor), most of the financial records in this series are retained copies of financial reports submitted by No. 271 to the International Typographical Union headquarters. They generally include membership figures as well as financial statistics. The Secretary's Monthly Itemized Reports in Boxes 17-19 are essentially individual payroll reports for all the members of the local, so they are not open for research at the present; however researchers may arrange to extract statistical data from them. The Monthly Financial Reports and Quarterly Audits in Box 20, sent to the ITU, summarize the general financial and membership situation of No. 271, and they are open for research. However, the Quarterly Audit membership figures lump members and retirees together; only the Secretary's Monthly Itemized Reports reveal the figures in each category.
The Nampa Typographical Union in Nampa, Idaho, was a separate local of the International Typographical Union until 1974, when its membership voted to become part of the Boise City Typographical Union. These records were transferred to the Boise City Typographical Union when the two locals consolidated and were part of the original donation from the Boise local. All the records are open for research, with the exception of the Secretary's Monthly Itemized Reports in Box 22, which are essentially payroll reports for the individual members.
This series contains records of other labor organizations with which the Boise City Typographical Union was affiliated or associated in some way. All are Idaho organizations except the Coors Boycott Coalition (Folder 9). The Twin Falls Typographical Union No. 241, was, like the Nampa local, a separate local of the ITU until it merged with Boise. Its surviving records are few; mainly correspondence of Robert A. Johnson, its president in the 1970s. Johnson's letters, located here and in No. 271's correspondence files, reveal the plight of a small local working in an environment hostile to the union.
The Allied Printing Trades Council regulated the right to apply the union label by printers in Boise and southwestern Idaho.
The largest body of records in this series is that of the Idaho-Utah Typographical Conference, a federation of the ITU locals in the two states founded in 1951. Members of the Boise City and Nampa Typographical Unions held leadership roles in the organization. The minutes of its meetings (Folder 14) are detailed and extensive, and contain much information about the activities of ITU locals in the two states.
This series contains three photos and other miscellaneous memorabilia from the Boise City Typographical Union No. 271 and Nampa Typographical Union No. 988.
This series contains publications of the International Typographical Union and a few from the Communications Workers of America. Included are copies of the national ITU newsletter, The Bulletin from 1915-1979. Not all years are complete.