Union Workers
odd: label: Introduction
content: The Union Workers program had arisen in 1971 from the sense that surprisingly little was popularly known about the traditions, the feelings, the sense of pride and craftsmanship of the union worker. If we were to have a true understanding of contemporary American folk culture, Festival organizers believed, the perspectives of working Americans of all types need to be presented in broadly based cultural forums. It was in part to celebrate the union worker's considerable contribution to America's cultural and social fabric that member unions of AFL-CIO were invited to take part in the Festival. The American worker had an opportunity here to have a voice in a program designed to reach all America via the stage of a prestigious American cultural institution.

American labor groups were represented at the 1972 Festival because their members were living tradition bearers. In most people's thinking at the time, there was a sharp distinction between the dying crafts of rural America and the viable trades of urban America's workers. The Smithsonian saw the separation as an artificial one, usually based on only a limited knowledge of the occupation of one or the other group. In terms of the training or apprenticeship processes, the passing on of a body of technical knowledge, personal skills, and tricks of the trade from master craftsman to green apprentice is very little different whether one was doing dry-wall stone masonry in Vermont or laying bricks in downtown Philadelphia.

At the 1972 Festival, union workers showed examples of present-day skills and crafts of needletrades workers, Iithographers, carpenters, wheelwrights, and molders. Four unions were featured: the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the International Molders and Allied Workers Union and the Lithographers and Photoengravers International Union. In some cases, the tools and machinery used today clearly date from another era. In other instances, new tools and machines, new skills and crafts have been developed. All were demonstrated through presentations and workshops that highlighted the transmission of traditional skills and knowledge from one worker to another. The presentations of trades was complemented by a diverse musical program, made possible by support from the American Federation of Musicians and the Music Performance Trust Funds, that had two themes: one was the songs closely connected to particular occupations and industries or to the task of organizing workers, and the other was the blues music of black working people, whether in rural or urban settings.

The Union Workers program was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and AFL-CIO. Mark Mason served as Labor Program Coordinator.
label: Participants
content: International Ladies' Garment Workers Union

Louis Stuhlberg, President

Exhibit Chairmen:

Jasper Payton, Jr.

Betsy Raymond

Gus Tyler

Lester Blumstein, Brooklyn, New York

Mary Bowden, Baltimore, Maryland

Eligia Fernandez, 1915-1983, Long Island City, New York

Mathias Greenberg, Brooklyn, New York

Helen Jackson, Powhatan, Virginia

Evelyn Ledbetter, Petersburg, West Virginia

Gloria Maldonado, New York, New York

Etta Mae Owen, 1928-2000, Baltimore, Maryland

George Pretlow, 1900-1986, Baltimore, Maryland

Sandra Saunders, Baltimore, Maryland

Augustine Schiavo, 1909-1994, Brooklyn, New York

United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America

William Sidell, President

Exhibit Chairmen:

Charles L. Allen

James E. Tinkcom

James David Bouchard, Miami, Florida

Charles Phillip Burke, Pasadena, Texas

William S. Champ, Oxon Hill, Maryland

Vance A. Gray, Delaware City, Delaware

Anthony Macciocca, 1925-2003, Yeadon, Pennsylvania

Carl Norred, Holden, Louisiana

William R. Schultz, Whitemarsh, Maryland

International Molders and Allied Workers Union

Draper Doyal, President

Exhibit Chairmen:

Carl Studenroth

James E. Wolfe

Leonard Davis, 1918-2004, Sidney, 0hio

Alex Grant, 1940-2004, Savannah, Georgia

Sylvester Hoying, 1924-2002, Sidney, 0hio

Lithographers and Photoengravers International Union

Kenneth J. Brown, President

Exhibit Chairmen:

Harvey Lovin

Walter Lypka

John A. Stagg

Glen A. Adams, Colmar Manor, Maryland

Thomas G. Carberry, Oxon Hill, Maryland

Tommy Cummings, Toronto, Canada

George C. Jones, Rockville, Maryland

Richard R. Latimer, Silver Hill, Maryland

American Federation of Musicians

Hal C. Davis, President

in cooperation with

The Music Performance Trust Funds

Kenneth E. Raine, Trustee

(funding performers on the Union Workers stage)

Union Workers' Workshops and Concerts

Discussion leaders:

Kenneth S. Goldstein

Archie Green

Performers:

Howard Armstrong, 1909-2003

Tom Armstrong

Carey Bell, 1936-

Ted Bogan, 1913-1990

Saul Broudy

Sam Chatmon, 1899-1983

Sarah Cleveland, 1905-1987

Elizabeth Cotten, 1895-1987

Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins, 1936-2013

Joe Glazer, 1918-2006

Mitch Greenhill

Hacksaw Harney, 1902-1973

Joe Harper

Ted Harvey, 1930-

Roscoe Holcomb, 1912-1981

John Jackson, 1924-2002

Norman Kennedy, 1934-

Willie Kent, 1936-

Carl Martin, 1906-1979

Willie Morris, 1906-

Hoyle Osborne

Eugene Pearson

Brewer Phillips, 1924-1999

U. Utah Phillips, 1935-2008

A.L. Phipps (1916-1995) Family

Eugene Powell, 1908-1998

Jean Ritchie, 1922-2015

Alice Seeger, 1934-

Mike Seeger, 1933-2009

Sunnyland Slim, 1907-1995

Rosalie Sorrels, 1933-

Hound Dog Taylor, 1915-1975

Walter Vinson, 1901-1975

Willie Williams
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1972 Festival of American Folklife
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.1972, Series 4
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials