United Stone and Allied Products Workers of America Records

Prior to the affiliation of this union with the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) in January, 1938, the name of the union was Quarry Workers' International Union of North America. It was organized in 1903 as an affiliate of the AFL (American Federation of Labor), and its headquarters was located in Barre, Vermont. "According to the 1911 constitution, the purposes of the union were 'to rescue the trade from the dangers surrounding it, and by mutual effort to place ourselves on a foundation sufficiently strong to prevent further encroachment' was one of the primary causes of the switch from the AFL to the CIO in 1938" (S.J. Bertrand, A Survey of Graniteville Branch #12 Quarry Workers Union 1922-1941, Unpublished thesis, 1966).

Because of the nature of the stone industry in the early part of the twentieth century and because of the craft union set-up of labor organizations, the union was then limited more or less to quarrying and related work in the stone industry. However, from the very beginning, if fought for an industrial union because its leaders saw very early that quarrying was only a small part of the stone and allied products industry. It anticipated the rapid growth of, and the extension of the industry from the mines and quarries to the plants. It prophesied that the industry would reach into many and varied fields. Very early in the AFL days it was necessary to organize workers in related industries which were merely a natural and normal extension of quarrying and mining of stone and allied products.

As a result of the passage of the National Recovery Act in 1933 the Quarry Workers' International Union of North America began organizing in the related fields with some marked success. Following the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States which made the National Recovery Act ineffectual, there was a lull until two events took place. The first and most important was the passage of the so-called Wagner Act and the second was the fight for industrial unionism within the AFL which was led by John L. Lewis and others at the famous Atlantic City convention in 1935. At that convention the representatives of the Quarry Workers' International Union of North America voted for the proposal calling for industrial organization within the AFL.

While the Quarry Workers' Union was in the AFL and the workers in the industry were split up into nine unions bickering and quarreling with each other. This union faced its most costly prolonged struggles in the period 1934-1936 when it struck the Vermont Marble Company in Vermont; the marble company in Carthage, Missouri; the lime industry in Martinsburg, West Virginia; and the granite industry in Elberton, Georgia. It had to defend itself against raids of the AFL in the cement industry at the North American Cement Corp. at Security, Maryland. After a referendum vote to affiliate with the CIO a charter was granted to this union in January 14, 1938 by the CIO.

From the very beginning of the affiliation with the CIO the organizational activities of this union broadened. With industrial unionism the union was able to adjust itself to the expanding nature of the stone and related industries. The uses of stone and other minerals had expanded and changed in some four decades so that the original product could hardly be recognized. Varieties of stone, related minerals, and other material were crushed and mixed with chemicals in such a way that they could be used in industries, in homes, on the farms, in defense industries, and elsewhere. Accordingly, a change of the union's name became necessary. At the 1940 convention the name was changed to the United Stone and Allied Products Workers of America (see 1940 Convention Proceedings, present in the collection).

Note: most of the above description of the union was taken from a Brief of the USAPWA, from March, 1954 located in the folder "Ohio Brick and Tile Workers Dispute: Brief." For a more detailed history, see Sidney Jeanne Bertrand's thesis A Summary of Graniteville Branch #12 Quarry Workers Union 1922-1941, 1966.