Historical note:

            The Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America was founded in 1892, and became the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America in 1934. The union received its present name of the Amalgamated Transit Union in 1964. Division 618 was founded in 1913 and is still in existence today. Its members were employed as bus drivers, initially with the United Transit Company and from 1966 onward with the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

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Scope and content:

            This collection consists of minute books, correspondence files, transcripts of an extensive 1962 arbitration hearing, and other records. The collection does not contain any membership records, and no records from the division's first eighteen years.

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Provenance:

            These records were donated by union official Scott Molloy in 1976 and 1983. The 1976 gift was the first collection of any union's archives to arrive at the Rhode Island Historical Society. It was originally cataloged as the "United Transit Workers Union Records" under the catalog number "Mss 61." The later 1983 gift was correctly cataloged as the Amalgamated Transit Union Records under catalog number Mss 49. In 2003, these two collections were combined under Mss 49, as they represent the records of the same union division.

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Inventory:

Series 1. Minutes. Books include meetings of the membership and of the Executive Board.

Box 1, folder 1. 1934/02/15 - 1936/02/06

Box 1, folder 2. 1936/02/20 - 1939/04/17

Box 1, folder 3. 1939/05/11 - 1943/11/01

Box 1, folder 4. 1943/11/16 - 1945/10/01

Box 1, folder 5. 1945/11/15 - 1951/02/19

Box 1, folder 6. 1951/03/05 - 1955/05/16

Box 1, folder 7. 1955/06/06 - 1959/02/02

Box 1, folder 8. 1959/03/02 - 1964/03/16

Series 2. Correspondence. Files of the Business Agent and the Secretary/Treasurer

Boxes 1 and 2: 48 folders, 1931-1976 and undated

Series 3. Arbitration files. Mostly the files from an extended 1962 arbitration case between Division 618 and the United Transit Company

Box 2. Arbitration, 1962 - Bound arbitration hearing transcripts (12 folders)

Box 2. Arbitration, 1962 - Agreement (2 folders: one letter and one legal)

Box 2. Arbitration, 1962 - Company brief

Box 2. Arbitration, 1962 - Union exhibits

Box 3, folder 1. Arbitration file, 1967-1968

Box 3, folder 2. Cooper case, R.I. Superior Court, 1967-1968

Box 3, folder 3. NLRB case, 1953

Series 4. Subject files

Box 3, folder 4. Agreement Committee notes, 1947

Box 3, folder 5. Agreement, 1965

Box 3, folder 6. Business Agent reports, 1958-1965

Box 3, folder 7. Business Agent reports, 1966

Box 3, folder 8. Business Agent reports, 1967

Box 3, folder 9. Health and welfare plan notes, undated

Box 3, folder 10. Newspaper clippings, 1966

Box 3, folder 11. Resolutions and assessments, 1967

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Subjects:

Amalgamated Transit Union. Division 618 (Providence, R.I.)

Bus drivers - Rhode Island.

Labor unions - Transport workers - Rhode Island.

Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

United Transit Company (Providence, R.I.)

United Transit Workers Union

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RIHS1822