Records of the International Jewelry Workers' Union, Local 18

Trade union, Rhode Island

Records, 1959-1981

Size: 10 linear feet

Catalog number: MSS 996

Processed by: Rick Stattler, March 1997

©Rhode Island Historical Society

Manuscripts Division

Local 18 of the Amalgamated Jewelry Workers' Union first appears in the Providence city directories in 1950, though it had apparently organized the workers at the Wallace Company by 1934. It operated as a local of the International Jewelry Workers' Union. By 1969, it had the workers from three Providence shops on its membership rolls: the Wallace Company, Fulford Manufacturing Company, and the massive Coro Company. The local merged with Rhode Island Workers Union Local 76 circa 1981, which was affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. This local merged in turn with District 1199 New England Health Care Employees in 1989. Fulford Manufacturing is the only one of the three union jewelry shops still in existence, and remains under contract with District 1199.

This collection does not represent anything near a complete archive of Local 18's records. Other than two boxes of organizing files and some AFL-CIO correspondence dating mostly from the late 1960s, the records all date from 1969 through 1981. The files were arranged by year, with some years apparently missing.

Despite the gaps in the collection, it is still a valuable resource for anyone interested in the jewelry industry during this period. There are extensive files on the personnel employed at Coro, on the workers who signed cards during failed organizing drives at a variety of shops, on correspondence with the International headquarters and the R.I. AFL-CIO, and a variety of other subjects.

District 1199 donated the records to the Library in 1997, after having previously donated the SEIU records in 1993.

These manuscript records are still unprocessed, though some preliminary organizing has been done. There may also be a small amount of Local 18 records in the Service Employees International Union Records (MSS 173).

Myerson Tooth Company (Cambridge, Mass.) - Contract, etc. with Local 124. 2 folders.

Box 6: 1975 records. The files in this box have largely the same headings as for 1973.

Box 7: 1976 records The files in this box have largely the same headings as for 1973.

Box 8: 1977 records The files in this box have largely the same headings as for 1973. They also include a copy of a massive time study, and reports from the International's triennial convention.

Box 9: 1980-1981 records The files in this box have largely the same headings as for 1973.

Box 10: Personnel reports, apparently from the Coro Company, 1973-1979 (computer printouts)