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Title: SEIU-EXECUTIVE OFFICE FILES: DAVID SULLIVAN COLLECTION Genre: Records Date : 1937-1975 (Predominately, 1960-1969) Size : 93 Linear Feet ID #: 1542-seiu OCLC: ©Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs HEFA.01c.update |
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Scope & Contents
The papers of SEIU President David Sullivan were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in 1993 and 1994 by the Service Employees International Union and were opened for research in June of 1998.
Born in 1904, David Sullivan immigrated from Ireland to New York City in 1925. There, he became an elevator operator and later a founding member of the Service Employees International Union’s Local 32B in 1934. Rapidly ascending the ranks of the local’s leadership, Sullivan assumed its presidency in 1941 and became an international vice president in 1950 before attaining the rank of International President 10 years later.
Sullivan enhanced the union’s visibility and influence by moving the International headquarters from Chicago to Washington, D.C. in 1963. In this same vein, he involved the union in the AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education, a political fund designed to help finance the campaigns of politicians friendly to organized labor. He also became a vice president of the AFL-CIO, instituted a pension plan as well as a college scholarship program for members and their children, and directed the union’s attention to the elderly and retired members. It was during his administration that the union dropped the word, “Building” from its name signifying SEIU’s evolving mission. Thereafter, it would be known as the Service Employees International Union.
The Sullivan administration supported the social action philosophy of President John F. Kennedy’s administration by developing a Civil Rights Department for SEIU and involved the union in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs. Sullivan himself chaired the Office of Economic Opportunity’s Labor Advisory Committee in the War on Poverty program. Sullivan’s presidency received credit for its progressive tenor largely due to the motivation of Thomas Donahue, Sullivan’s Executive Assistant, who served in that capacity until 1967 when he left SEIU to become Assistant Secretary of Labor.
SEIU’s growing involvement in the organization of public employees under Sullivan’s leadership coincided with the enactment of legislation at all levels of government and the issuance of executive orders by Presidents Kennedy and Nixon making it easier for public employee unions to organize and bargain collectively with the government. These political developments coupled with SEIU’s organizing campaign, enabled the union to expand its membership from 275,000 to 430,000 during Sullivan’s presidency. Many of these new members came from the ranks of public employees and health care workers.
American Federation of Labor — Congress of Industrial Organizations
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Audits of Local Unions
Automation
Civil Rights
Contract Negotiations
Death Gratuity Claims
Factional Disputes
Financial Reports/Statements
Grievances
Health Care Workers
Janitorial/Maintenance/Custodial Workers
Jurisdictional Disputes
Legislation Marina City Real Estate Venture
Mergers
National Labor Relations Board
Organizing Campaigns
Pension Plan
Public Employees
Race Track/Pari-Mutuel Employees
Raids
Scholarships
Service Industry
Strikes
Trusteeships
Unfair Labor Practice Charges
Utility Workers
War on Poverty
Window Washers
Asher, Lester
Burke, Thomas
Butler, Walter
Cambridge, Henry
Cancellere, Richard
Coleman, John
Cordtz, Richard
Donahue, Thomas
Fairchild, George E.
Hardy, George
Hare, Arthur
Hearn, Albert
Jolicoeur, Armand Kelly, Tom
Kruse, Henry
Levey, Charles
McFetridge, William
Meany, George
Moats, Eugene
Ottley, Peter
Schnitzler, William
Shortman, Thomas
Sorbie, John
Sweeney, John
Wurf, Jerry
Zander, Arnold
The International possesses most SEIU audio visual material, although the Archives’ Audio Visual Department retains a small amount of this material as well. For published information regarding the Sullivan administration, consult “Going Up!”: The Story of Local 32B, Local 32B-32J: Sixty Years of Progress, A Need for Valor: The Roots of the Service Employees International Union, 1902-1992, and Building a Dream: The History of a Union for Canadian Service Workers. Other relevant SEIU collections housed at the Reuther Library include the “David Sullivan Collection,” and the “SEIU International Vice-Presidents Collection.”
92 storage boxes
1 large flat
Series I, Local Union Files, 1942-1972, Boxes 1-47, pp. 4-40:
Correspondence and other material regarding local unions retained by the Executive Office. Series I
Series II, Jurisdictional Dispute Between Locals 1 and 4, 1937-1964, Boxes 47-48, pp. 41-42:
Clippings, correspondence, union hearing transcripts and court records relative to the dispute. Series II
Series III, State Files, 1948-1970, Boxes 49-51, pp. 43-44:
Material regarding the activities of SEIU in individual states where the union had a presence and in Canada and Puerto Rico. The material within this series is similar to that found in the local union files. Series III
Series IV, SEIU Joint Councils, 1953-1969, Boxes 51-53, pp. 45-46:
Material regarding the relationship between the Joint Councils and the locals over which they provided guidance and direction. Series IV
Series V, International Officers, Assistants, Executive Secretary, and Executive Board Members, 1957-1969, Boxes 53-56, pp. 47-48:
Primarily correspondence pertaining to the activities of high-ranking union officials. Series V
Series VI, International Representatives and Organizers, 1951-1970, Boxes 56-66, pp. 49-52:
Daily activity reports and a small amount of correspondence and other material related to the organizing and servicing of SEIU locals. Series VI
Series VII, General Files, 1942-1973, Boxes 66-92, pp. 53-64:
Material pertaining to individuals, organizations, government agencies, events, internal union matters, as well as racial, ethnic and religious groups and other matters with which the union was concerned. Series VII
Series VIII, Charters of Defunct Locals, 1948-1964, Box 93, p. 65:
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actual charters of defunct locals. Series
VIII
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Series
I-[Large files] Series II-VIII- [Large Files] |