Coopers International Labor Union NY NJ - First Ticket Pass 1871 Convention RARE

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Seller: dalebooks ✉️ (8,797) 100%, Location: Rochester, New York, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE & many other countries, Item: 266694928104 Coopers International Labor Union NY NJ - First Ticket Pass 1871 Convention RARE.
VERY  - RARE Badge / Pass
 
  
First Ball & Recception
of the First District
Coopers' I.U. [International Union] 
of New York, Brooklyn, & New Jersey
Delegates to the National Convention
at Irving Hall
October 4th, 1871

For offer: a very rare piece of ephemera! Fresh from a prominent estate in Upstate NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, Original, Antique, NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !!

Exceptionally rare and piece of labor union history. The earliest I have seen. Coopers International Union was an early union in the United States. Heavy card stock / clay based. Measures just under 3 x 5 inches. Card is in fairly good condition. Lower rh corner damage, stained, and small archivally repaired tear to edge. Please see photos. If you collect 19th century American history, Americana trade unions, Victorian era passes, Coopers, this is a treasure you will not see again! Add this to your image or paper / ephemera collection. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins! 3230

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Coopers' International Union of North America (CIUNA) was a labor union representing coopers in the United States and Canada.

The origins of the union lay in the Coopers of North America union, founded in 1870. It was a founding affiliate of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1880, and in 1888 was chartered by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Later in the year, it ceased to operate as a national union, and surrendered its charter. However, about ten of its local unions survived, and on November 10, 1890, they formed the CIUNA at a meeting in Titusville, Pennsylvania.[1]

The new union was chartered by the AFL on October 3, 1891.[2] It had a long-standing dispute with the United Brewery Workmen, which led to many coopers instead being represented by that union. Prohibition in the United States further reduced the membership of the union, and by 1925, it had only 1,215 members.[1] By 1953, membership had recovered to 5,000.[3]

The union was affiliated to the new AFL–CIO from 1955. By 1980, membership had fallen to a new low, of 1,056.[4] On September 1, 1992, the union merged into the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union.[2]

Presidents

1890: Michael McGowan

1891: D. Harnahan

1894: George Marthaler

1894: A. G. Newbergh

1895: Charles W. Teney

1896: J. L. McFadden

1897: George Boyle

1898: Charles W. Teney

1900: Joseph Hammer

1902: Patrick J. Donnelly

1903: Andrew C. Hughes

1905: Maurice O'Donnell

1909: Andrew C. Hughes

1922: Joseph Creese

1923: J. P. Maurer

1925: James J. Doyle

1965: Ernest D. Higdon

A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable.

Journeymen coopers also traditionally made wooden implements, such as rakes and wooden-bladed shovels. In addition to wood, other materials, such as iron, were used in the manufacturing process. The trade is the origin of the surname Cooper.

Etymology

The word "cooper" is derived from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German kūper 'cooper' from kūpe 'cask', in turn from Latin cupa 'tun, barrel'.[1][2] The word was adopted in England as an occupational surname, Cooper.[2]

The art and skill of coopering refers to the manufacture wooden casks, or barrels. The facility in which casks are made referred to as a cooperage.[3][4][5][6]

History

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, held together with wooden or metal hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper's work include casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butter churns, vats, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts, troughs, pins and breakers.

A hooper was the man who fitted the wooden or metal hoops around the barrels or buckets that the cooper had made, essentially an assistant to the cooper.[7] The English name Hooper is derived from that profession.[8] Over time, coopers took on the role of the hooper themselves.

Antiquity

Cooper's workshop, Roscheider Hof Open Air Museum

An Egyptian wall-painting in the tomb of Hesy-Ra, dating to 2600 BC, shows a wooden tub made of staves, bound together with wooden hoops, and used to measure.[9] Another Egyptian tomb painting dating to 1900 BC shows a cooper and tubs made of staves in use at the grape harvest.[10] Palm-wood casks were reported in use in ancient Babylon. In Europe, buckets and casks dating to 200 BC have been found preserved in the mud of lake villages.[11] A lake village near Glastonbury dating to the late Iron Age has yielded one complete tub and a number of wooden staves.[citation needed]

The Roman historian Pliny the Elder reports that cooperage in Europe originated with the Gauls in Alpine villages where they stored their beverages in wooden casks bound with hoops.[12] Pliny identified three types of coopers: ordinary coopers, wine coopers and coopers who made large casks.[13] Large casks contained more and longer staves and were correspondingly more difficult to assemble. Roman coopers tended to be independent tradesmen, passing their skills on to their sons. The Greek geographer Strabo records wooden pithoi (casks) were lined with pitch to stop leakage and preserve the wine.[14] Barrels were sometimes used for military purposes. Julius Caesar used catapults to hurl barrels of burning tar into towns under siege to start fires.[15]

Empty casks were used to line the walls of shallow wells from at least Roman times. Such casks were found in 1897 during archaeological excavation of Roman Silchester in Britain. They were made of Pyrenean silver fir and the staves were one and a half inches thick and featured grooves where the heads fitted. They had Roman numerals scratched on the surface of each stave to help with reassembly.[16]

In Anglo-Saxon Britain, wooden barrels were used to store ale, butter, honey, and mead. Drinking vessels were also made from small staves of oak, yew or pine. These items required considerable craftsmanship to hold liquids and might be bound with finely worked precious metals. They were highly valued items and were sometimes buried with the dead as grave goods.[17]

After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when the Normans started settling in England, much wine was shipped over the English channel from France.[18]

Wherever and whatever goods were traded, casks were used, in the same way as cardboard boxes later became common storage containers.[18]

Middle Ages to 20th century

Cooper's brands from 1518 as recorded in a civic register from Bozen, South Tyrol[19]

Coopering of casks on a dock for a whaler

On ships

Ships, in the age of sail, provided much work for coopers. They made water and provision casks, the contents of which sustained crew and passengers on long voyages. They also made barrels to contain high-value commodities, such as wine and sugar. The proper stowage of casks on ships about to sail was an important stevedoring skill. Casks of various sizes were used to accommodate the sloping walls of the hull and make maximum use of limited space. Casks also had to be tightly packed, to ensure they did not move during the voyage and endanger the ship, crew and cask contents.[20]

Whaling ships in particular, featuring long voyages and large crews, needed many casks – for salted meat, other provisions and water – and to store the whale oil. Sperm whale oil was a particularly difficult substance to contain, due to its highly viscous nature, and oil coopers were perhaps the most skilled tradesmen in pre-industrial cooperage.[21] Whaling ships usually carried a cooper on board, to assemble shooks (disassembled barrels) and maintain casks.[22][18]

In the 19th century, coopers who crafted barrels on ships were often called groggers (or jolly jack tars), as when a barrel of rum had been emptied, they would fill it up with boiling water and roll it around, creating a drink which was called grog.[23]

On land

Coopers in Britain started to organise as early as 1298. The Worshipful Company of Coopers is one of the oldest Livery Companies in London. It still survives today although it is now largely a charitable organisation.[24] In the 16th century, the company won the right for coopers to be independent from breweries.[23]

Many coopers worked for breweries, making the large wooden vats in which beer was brewed, such as Guinness in Ireland. They also made the wooden kegs in which the beer was shipped to liquor retailers. Beer kegs had to be particularly strong in order to contain the pressure of the fermenting liquid, and the rough handling they received when transported, sometime over long distances, to pubs where they were rolled into tap-rooms or were lowered into cellars.[3]

Prior to the mid-20th century, the cooper's trade flourished in the United States; a dedicated trade journal was published, the National Cooper's Journal, with advertisements from firms that supplied everything from barrel staves to purpose-built machinery.[25]

After the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the 19th century and prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century, there was less demand for barrels, and over time, various other containers were manufactured for shipping goods, including shipping containers, metal drums, and corrugated cardboard. Storing, shipping, and fermenting alcohol became the main uses for wooden barrels.[18]

In the early days, Guinness employed its own team of up to 300 highly-paid coopers in the brewery, making barrels which would be shipped around the world, and wooden casks were used by the brewery for nearly two centuries. In 1946 aluminium kegs were introduced, and over time gradually replaced the wooden barrels, until these in turn were replaced by stainless steel in the late 1980s. By 1961 there were only 70 coopers still employed by Guinness, and the last wooden cask was used in March 1963.[3]

Construction, types, and sizes

Wood

Barrels intended for wine storage are made predominantly with either French common oak (Quercus robur), French white oak (Quercus petraea) or American white oak (Quercus alba), or Quercus sessilifolia, an Asian species that grows in Japan, Taiwan, and much of south-eastern China.[5]

Types of coopering

There are three main categories of coopering:[3][18]

White coopering, creating pails, butter churns, tubs,[3] spoons, ladles, and other household equipment[18]

Dry, or "slack" (U.S.), coopering, making casks for holding dry goods, like flour, tobacco and vegetables,[3] designed to keep moisture out[18]

Wet, or "tight" (U.S.) coopering, making casks for holding liquids, including water, wine, whiskey, milk, oil, and paint[3][18]

Cask sizes

Further information: English brewery cask units

In wet coopering, wooden casks were traditionally made in several sizes in England and Ireland, including:[3]

Firkin, containing 8 imp gal (36 L; 9.6 US gal)

Kilderkin, containing 16 imp gal (73 L; 19 US gal)

Barrel, containing 32 imp gal (150 L; 38 US gal)

Hogshead, containing 52 imp gal (240 L; 62 US gal)

Butt, containing 104 imp gal (470 L; 125 US gal)

The firkin is the most common size for an ale cask.[23]

Construction process

See also: Barrel construction

As part of the barrel-making process, the cask needs to be steamed to soften and loosen lignin in the wood, and it is then toasted. Toasting develops the flavours of the sugars in the wood, that is the cellulose and hemicellulose. Then the barrel is charred, which involves exposing it to 1,300 °F (704 °C) for 45 seconds.[18]

A wine barrel is toasted for around 35 minutes with a low fire, while, for whiskey it is usual to toast for just 45 seconds on a high fire, to burn the surface.[26]

21st century

In the 21st century, coopers mostly operate barrel-making machinery and assemble casks for the wine and spirits industry. Traditionally, the staves were heated to make them easier to bend. This is still done, but now because the slightly toasted interior of the staves imparts a certain flavour over time to the wine or spirit contents that is much admired by experts.

Since the 1960s, when breweries started using metal casks, which were cheaper and less troublesome than employing coopers, the trade of master cooper in England has been dwindling.[23] In 2009 there were only four breweries left in England employing coopers, and only one was a master cooper: Alastair Simms at Wadworth Brewery in Devizes, Wiltshire).[27] When he appealed for apprentices, there were many applications, but the government's insistence that trainees should attend a university killed off a lot of the interest. Subsequently, there has been a resurgence of craft breweries and English winemakers employing coopers.[23] In 2015 Simms was at Theakston Brewery in Masham, North Yorkshire.[28][29][23] Simms had an apprentice by November 2015. He still uses the traditional tools, including a croze which he estimates is over 250 years old.[30]

In the United States, there are also few master coopers left. Ramiro Herrera, Master Cooper for Caldwell Vineyard in the Napa Valley, was sent to France to learn his trade, where only two out of 40 starters completed the four-year training course. It takes him around 11 hours to build a barrel, before it is ready to be toasted.[26]

Recycling casks is common in the trade, and wine casks may be converted to contain beer. Centuries-old tools remain the preferred tool of the master cooper.[23]

By 2021, very few of the 30-odd coopers left in the United States still used traditional methods.[18]

The number of coopers has declined in Australia. A 1959 photograph held in the National Library of Australia is captioned "The cooper Harry Mahlo (one of the last coopers) Yalumba wineries, Angaston, Barossa Valley, South Australia, 1959".[31] Several cooperages have closed in the 21st century, and, while there is a need for new coopers, there has been no pathway to the trade via apprenticeships since 1996, when the Howard government reformed the apprenticeship scheme to focus particularly on construction, food and hospitality, and hairdressing.[32] In January 2024, it was reported that there was only one winery left in Australia still making its own barrels for storing wine, and there were fewer than 100 people still making barrels at small cooperages for other purposes.[33] Some cooperages, such as the Margaret River Cooperage in Margaret River, Western Australia, do not make new barrels, but recooper imported barrels for use by small wineries.[5]

A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organisation of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment,[1] such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees (rules governing promotions, just-cause conditions for termination) and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.

Trade unions typically fund their head office and legal team functions through regularly imposed fees called union dues. The union representatives in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members through internal democratic elections. The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, bargains with the employer on behalf of its members, known as the rank and file, and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining agreements) with employers.

Unions may organize a particular section of skilled or unskilled workers (craft unionism),[2] a cross-section of workers from various trades (general unionism), or an attempt to organize all workers within a particular industry (industrial unionism). The agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank-and-file members and the employer, and in some cases on other non-member workers. Trade unions traditionally have a constitution which details the governance of their bargaining unit and also have governance at various levels of government depending on the industry that binds them legally to their negotiations and functioning.

Originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, students, apprentices or the unemployed. Trade union density, or the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union, is highest in the Nordic countries.[3][4]

The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (FOTLU) was a federation of labor unions created on November 15, 1881, at Turner Hall in Pittsburgh.[1] It changed its name to the American Federation of Labor (AFL) on December 8, 1886.

Forces influencing the formation of FOTLU

During the Long Depression of 1873-1878, the Knights of Labor emerged as a potent force for workers in the United States.[2] But as Marxists and Socialists joined the labor movement and fought for dominance within various labor unions, influential newspapers began to advocate for the suppression of trade unions. Many in the American labor movement, such as Samuel Gompers, sought to implement a 'New Unionism' program which would free unions from political affiliation and limit their goals to the day-to-day concerns of working people.[3]

Following a failed 107-day cigar-makers' strike in 1877, Gompers assisted President Adolph Strasser in radically restructuring the Cigar Makers' International Union (CMIU) in 1879. Henceforth, the union would be run like a business. The international union would have the authority to take control of local affiliates. Dues would be raised to build financial reserves, and to pay sick and death benefits. A union bank would be established to provide short-term loans for workers who had been laid off and were seeking new jobs. The constitution of the union would be changed to permit the international to seize funds from locals with flush treasuries and transfer the money to locals in distress.[4]

Other unions such as the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners also quickly adopted the principles of the 'New Unionism.'[5]

In April 1881, Gompers lost a re-election campaign for the presidency of Local 144 of the Cigar Makers' International Union to a coalition of socialists who advocated militancy as a way to improve working conditions of cigar makers. But Gompers and his allies refused to turn over the keys to the offices or the contents of the union's treasury, arguing that the socialists were not fit to hold office.[6] William H. Bailey and Thomas Barry, two executive board members of the Knights of Labor, supported the insurgents against Gompers and may have sabotaged a compromise which would have permitted Gompers to step down.[7] The experience embittered Gompers against the Knights.

  • Condition: Used
  • Condition: Fairly good condition. See description for details.
  • Organization: Trade Union
  • Year: 1871
  • Signed: No
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States

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