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World Federation of Trade Unions Reports and Minutes on Microfilm

 Collection
Identifier: 5396 mf

Scope and Contents

Records consist of the microfilmed minutes, proceedings and reports of WFTU Executive Bureaus and Executive Committees, produced and presented at WFTU conferences held in Paris (1945, 1947, 1949); Moscow (1946); Prague (1947); Rome (1948); San Francisco and Washington (1973).

Governance records (1945-1973) include minutes, resolutions and proceedings of the WFTU Executive Bureau, General Councils, and committees (1945-1973) and of joint meetings of the WFTU and International Trade Secretariats (1948); also financial statements of the WFTU (1945-1949).

Reports and publications (1946-1949) consist mainly of unpublished reports and some pamphlets produced and presented at the annual sessions of the Executive Bureau and General Councils of the WFTU; also reports pertaining to special policies and activities of the WFTU. Materials pertaining to the WFTU's internal organization discuss or document the creation of WFTU international trade departments and negotiations between WFTU and International Trade Secretariats (1948). Also include documents regarding relations between the WFTU and the United Nations, International Labour Organization, Congress of Industrial Organizations, American Federation of Labor, and Allied Commission (Berlin); and various conferences, including the Pan Asiatic Trade Union Conference, and the World Trade Union Congress (1948-1949).

Also, WFTU policy statements regarding union activity and socioeconomic conditions in Occupied Germany; Mexico and Latin America (1948); activities in Japan, and Portugal (1948).

Dates

  • 1945-1949

Language of Materials

Collection material in English, French

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

The foundation of the World Federation of Trade Unions was laid at the World Labor Conference which met in London in February 1945. During the war period a spirit of cooperation had developed among world trade unions which could not find expression in the International Federation of trade Unions since the IFTU would not admit either the CIO or the Russians. The World Labor Conference proposed a reorganization of the IFTU to included these two groups, but the IFTU rejected it.

The Conference ended with the setting up of a Committee of Forty and a temporary Secretariat in Paris. A second conference was held in Paris in September and October of 1945 which set up a permanent body representing all affiliated national union centers, and created an Executive Committee, a small Executive Bureau and a General Secretary.

Trouble arose immediately when the WFTU then attempted to bring the International Trade Secretariats into its orbit, which was opposed by the AFL. The collection consists of minutes of meetings and documents issued during the period 1945-1949 when the Communist unions were attempting to take over control of the WFTU. This eventually resulted in the formation of the ICFTU.

Extent

0.22 cubic feet

Abstract

Consists of selected materials from 1945 through 1949 microfilmed from the more extensive WFTU collection: 5595 World Federation of Trade Unions, 1945-1973.

Quantity:

2 microfilm reels

Forms of Material:

Microfilm, minutes, proceedings .

General

Contact Information:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel-center
Compiled by:
Kheel Staff, September 26, 2012
EAD encoding:
Kheel Staff, March 11, 2019
Title
World Federation of Trade Unions Reports and Minutes on Microfilm
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Kheel Staff
Date
March 11, 2019
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Revision Statements

  • 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)

Repository Details

Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository

Contact:
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853