Manuscripts

Pressroom - 1959 Campaign letters

Description: 6 items. Form letters from Times-Mirror Company to "...all Times-Mirror pressroom employees and their families." Several letters (over Norman Chandler's signature) were sent in the weeks prior to the 4/16/1959 election in which pressroom employees would vote for or against union representation. On 4/1/1959, a letter went out with an attached sheet titled "Here are the facts," laying out in columns the "Local Union Shop" and "Times-Mirror Co." benefits. The vote went against the union, and on 4/24/1959 another letter was sent thanking the voters for the "strong endorsement of our policies and practices."
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1959
Call number: mssLAT
Creator: Los Angeles Times (Firm)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: The Los Angeles Times,
Restrictions

Departments - Employee Relations - Union Campaign - 1959

Manuscripts

Approx. 20 items. Materials include: memos and form letters from LAT / Norman Chandler to pressmen asking them, as one letter puts it, "whether you desire to...deal directly with your company as you have in the past, or whether you wish to entrust your future welfare to the domination and control of an impersonal union shop." The vote by the pressmen was on 4/16/1959. A story in the 4/17/1959 L.A. Mirror-News was headlined, "Pressmen at Times again refuse union." The vote was 218 to 112.

mssLAT

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Departments - Employee Relations - Union Campaign - 1963

Manuscripts

Approx. 45 items. Materials include: LAT materials--memos, open letters, flyers--aimed at discouraging pressroom employees from supporting union representation. An LAT article (copy in folder) for 6/29/1963 was headlined "Pressmen vote against union at L.A. Times." The story read, in part, "Pressmen at (LAT) have voted 202 to 187 against the AFL-CIO International Printing Pressmen and Assistant's Union Local 18 as their bargaining agent....The pressmen voted for the union in an NLRB election in April, 1962, but 58 subsequent negotiation meetings failed to bring about a contract agreement...In April the pressroom employees petitioned the NLRB for a new election..."

mssLAT

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Departments - Employee Relations - Union Campaign - 1956

Manuscripts

Approx. 10 items. Materials include: form letter, 8//1/1956, "To all Times-Mirror stereotype employees and their families," urging these employees to vote "No" on joining a union; letter 8/2/1956, to "All division and department heads" (attached to previous letter) providing information about the polling of LAT employees; article copy, LAT, 8/4/1956, "Stereotypers at Times-Mirror turn down union in election"; letter, 8/21/1956, by Norman Chandler, "To all Times-Mirror stereotypers and members of their families," thanking them for rejecting the union; related items.

mssLAT

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Pressroom 1962 Campaign

Manuscripts

35-plus items. (most items are bound or stapled together in sizable stacks) Materials include: large stapled packet of memos and reports, dated 11/1962. Subject given as "Economic information - pressroom negotiations" - incl. many charts showing increased annual costs to LAT of adhering to union guidelines; material related to strike against The Oregonian and Oregon Journal in early 1960s; "Proposed Otis Chandler Remarks" to pressmen in lead-up to vote on unionization, 1962; examples of memos, letters and other materials geared to sway pressmen away from union influences. Seven letters comprising 23 pages, pertaining to reader's correspondence. Some of the topics include Summer Camp fund, Ronald Reagan, Editorial policy on request for sponsors for immigration and missing persons.

mssLAT

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Departments - Employee Relations - Union Campaign - 1962

Manuscripts

Approx. 45 items. Materials include: memos, form letters and other LAT tactics to persuade pressmen to reject unionization in 1962. One item, a mock-up of a newspaper is labeled "Los Angeles Times PRESSMAN," 4/9/1962, with Pg.1 headline, "Union is seeking control of Times pressroom jobs." The election was held 4/13, and an LAT story for 4/15/1962 ran the headline "Pressmen vote for union in Times election." The National Labor Relations Board sponsored the election. The LAT pressmen had rejected the union's representation in 1944, 1957 and 1959.

mssLAT

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Pressroom 1967 Campaign

Manuscripts

Approx. 45 items. Materials include: various memos, form letters, flyers, originating with Times Mirror and with the Pressmen's Union. Times Mirror-produced materials urge pressmen not to "fall under the control of Local 18," while the union materials urge the pressmen to "stand with your fellow pressmen" under union representation: copies of 3-part series in Nation's Business, (11/1966 - 1/1967), "What to do when the union knocks"; related materials.

mssLAT

Pressroom - 1959 Campaign letters

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