Ralph D. Winstead Papers

National Recovery Administration (NRA) documents in this collection largely relate to the construction industry and include carbons of preliminary and summary reports (1933-1935) on the industry and NRA codes; manuscript documents on sources of then current statistics on construction, on the status of the American Federation of Labor unions functioning in the industryk, and on building trades wages in a variety of cities from 1925 to 1935. Also a memorandum from Winstead to James E. Hughes regarding the revision or elimination of construction codes.



U.S. Senate Civil Liberties Committee (La Follette Committee) documents include carbon copies of reports by Winstead and other field investigators dealing with alleged anti-union espionage activities, largely in Texas, engaged in by the following: Sugarland Industries, the Texas Can Company, the Freeport Sulphur Company, the Marshall Canning Company, the Weirton Steel Company, the Ford Motor Company, International Corporation Services, the Corporation Auxiliary Company, and the Waeker Brothers Iron Company. Victims of this alleged spying campaign included the National Maritime Union, the Industrial Workers of the World, the Oil Workers' International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Steelworkers Organization Committee, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, the United Mine Workers of America, and the United Retail and Wholesale Employees. Included with the reports are notes, letters, and financial documents. Significant correspondence includes that of J. Edgar Hoover, Robert M. La Follette Jr., Malcolm Halliday (assistant general counsel) and Heber Blankenhorn. A major subject of the reports was the activities of the Corporation Auxiliary Company.



National Labor Relations Board documents include papers concerning the 1949 staff hearing examiners controversy. These consist of manuscript documents ranking prospective candidates for the position of hearing examiner, petitions regarding the Civil Service Commission's attempt to remove hearing examiners, and reports, memoranda, briefs, and letters regarding the controversy. Charles Antone Horsky (lawyer) is the chief correspondent.



Documents relating to the Shipbuilders Stabilization Committee include dockets of interpretive rulings regarding work rules, wages, fringe benefits and apprentice training; and various documents having to do with zone standards in the industry.



Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (IUMSWA) documents include constitutions, by-laws, agreements, minutes, publications, reports and correspondence. Of special interest are the materials on the 1945 dispute of the union with the Todd Shipbuilding Corporation and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (San Pedro yard). Also included are documents (1941-1942) regarding the IUMSWA organizing activities, including briefs on hiring, employment and communist activities; memos on jurisdictional disputes between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and proposed union policy for shipyard hiring practices in Washington and Oregon. Major correspondents include John Green (president, IUMSWA) and George Smith (a national representative).



Also, a lengthy exchange of correspondence (1922, 1943-1944) between Winstead and Walter N. Polakov (industrial diagnostician and engineering counselor) largely concerning the direct and indirect costs of mine accidents; manuscripts and publications of Winstead on the history of union busting, a history of the construction industry (1920-1934), a history of the IUMSWA, a pamphlet on legal right for ship-building workers and a "union busters and finks" handbook.