Last week, members of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, Local 178, visited the Special Collections and Archives area in the Missouri State University Libraries. The group toured the Archives with department head Anne Baker and archivist Tracie Gieselman France before looking at the records of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, Local 178. Early documents from the Springfield Central Labor Council collection were also made available to the members of Local 178.

This re-connection of union members and Archives’ staff is a result of current members of the Central Labor Council who noticed that many of their members were not familiar with the Ozarks Labor Union Archives (OLUA) collections. During the tour, Local 178 members learned more about the founding of the OLUA in 1982 by Neal W. Moore, a retired union printer, publisher, and editor, and MSU Economics professor, J. David Lages.

The group also learned the OLUA collections contain the labor history, economics, and politics of Southwest Missouri and the Ozarks region with emphasis on trade, industry, and commercial unions, railway and transportation unions, union organizing, grievances, notable strikes, and Springfield labor history. For many members, these records also document their family’s connections to the unions and the Ozarks.

In the near future, the Archives will share additional labor collections with the Central Labor Council. We look forward to re-kindling this relationship with the labor unions and the opportunity to document the history of the labor movement in this region.