Heymanns, Charles, 1901-1993. Papers, 1885-1990. Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 148 and Milwaukee Micro Collection 72 4.0 cubic ft. (6 small archives boxes, and 7 archives boxes) + 1 microfilm reel (35 mm)

ABSTRACT: Papers, mainly 1934-1990, of a Wisconsin labor leader which document his organizing work (1937-1963) for the Wisconsin AFL and later for the AFL-CIO, and two lengthy strikes at the Kohler Company. In addition to his weekly organizers reports, the collection includes correspondence, scrapbooks (only available on microfilm), photographs of commemorative marches, minutes, appeals for donations, financial records, picket rolls, and other records from the strike (1934-1941) of Federal Labor Union 18545 against the Kohler Company. About the 1954-1965 strike of UAW-CIO Local 833 there are scrapbooks, correspondence as director of Region XII of the AFL-CIO, daily strike bulletins, and material of the Kohler Workers Association, the company union. The subject files include correspondence, clippings, minutes and other materials pertaining to varied individuals, topics and organizations such as the American Party, Andrew Biemiller, the presidential candidacy of Henry M. Jackson, various state and regional COPE committees, the Sheboygan County Labor Council, the Milwaukee County Labor Council, the LaCrosse Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman, and the organization of migrant farm workers in Wisconsin by Obreros Unidos.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: There are no access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law. However, the researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection. (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39)

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The papers of Charles Heymanns cover the years 1885-1990, but the bulk of the collection dates from 1934 through the 1970s, the years in which Heymanns was most active in the labor movement. The collection documents one man's union career as president of Sheboygan Local 18545, leader of a seven-year strike at Kohler, organizer for the AFL and AFL-CIO, regional director, and participant in other labor-oriented political activities. Although the materials thoroughly document Heymanns' career, they offer little insight into his personal life. Indeed, they suggest that Heymanns, a single man, had little life apart from his commitment to the labor movement. This impression is reinforced by a lengthy interview with Heymanns which is part of the SHSW's Wisconsin Labor Oral History Project.

1934-1941 Kohler Strike Records include meeting minutes of the Sheboygan Labor Council and correspondence, outreach materials, financial records, legal records, and strike material from Federal Labor Union 18545. The local's records fall into two categories: files created by Heymanns as president and a few files created by Rudolph Renn, union secretary and chairman of the strike committee. Heymanns was increasingly absent from Sheboygan after 1935 first to raise funds for the local and later as a state organizer, and Renn's correspondence provides important coverage for two of these years. Unfortunately, neither man was responsible for keeping the most important official records; except for two 1934 meetings there are no minutes in the collection and no true financial records.

The series contains two scrapbooks which are only available on microfilm. The first scrapbook consists of local and national clippings about the 1934-1941 strike. The second scrapbook, which is quite small, contains clippings regarding events in Sheboygan.

Also included in this series are photographs, newspaper clippings, copies of speeches and a poster related to the Wakefield-Engelmann Memorial Pickets. These annual marches honored Lee Wakefield and Henry Engelmann, the two strikers who were shot and killed by Kohler special deputies on July 27, 1934.

AFL and AFL-CIO Files include a run of Heymanns' weekly organizer Reports, handbills, and merger materials. The Reports offer a thorough portrait of the work of a twentieth century union organizer, and they illustrate the extent of Heymanns' commitment to his work. For over 25 years, six days a week (he rarely took time off for any reason), Heymanns traveled throughout the state to organize workers, charter new locals, and offer whatever assistance was needed. The Reports supplement the weekly organizers' Reports which are part of the Records of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Only Reports not part of the WSFL Records are included in the Heymanns collection.

Heymanns began working as an organizer in a period of intense competition between the AFL and the CIO. As the handbills from this period illustrate, AFL organizing focused more on discrediting the CIO (and vice versa) than on any other issue. The handbills document organizing efforts throughout Wisconsin, but especially at the Kohler Company and the Four Wheel Drive Co. The decade of the 1950s was, in contrast, a period of historic mergers; the AFL and the CIO in 1955, and the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor and the Wisconsin State Industrial Union Council in 1958. This period is represented in the collection by microfilmed clippings and programs from merger meetings in Appleton, Dane County, Dodge County, Janesville, LaCrosse, Manitowoc, and other Wisconsin communities.

As head of Region XII Heymanns was also active in the AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education (COPE). COPE activities included endorsing candidates; soliciting support for those candidates through the media, direct mail, and phone banks; registering voters; and fundraising. The collection includes by-laws, minutes, press releases, publicity materials, and correspondence from the 6th, 8th, and 9th districts, Sheboygan and Milwaukee, and the state committees. The Sixth District is most extensively documented, with the collection containing a nearly complete run of minutes from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s. Heymanns' COPE correspondence includes letters to union members and registered Democrats soliciting their support for endorsed candidates and letters of congratulation from Heymanns to various elected officials. Some of this involvement with particular candidates is reflected in the Subject Files.

The 1954-1965 Kohler Strike Files reflect Heymanns' continued monitoring of events at that company during his career as a statewide organizer and regional director. The series includes valuable information about the second Kohler strike, the Kohler Workers Association, and the boycott and other support provided to UAW Local 833 by other Wisconsin unions. The strike materials consist mostly of correspondence and microfilmed clippings, but there is also a run of Daily Strike Bulletins that is nearly complete for 1954, although only scattered for 1955 and 1959. The legal Records consist of the lengthy brief presented by Local 833.

The Chronologically-arranged Personal Files include family material; correspondence to and from family, friends, and union associates; microfilmed biographical clippings; and information on testimonial dinners and other social events Heymanns attended. They complement the information about Heymanns in the Organizers Weekly Reports. Photographs received with the papers are available in the Visual Materials Archive. Primarily of a public relations nature, the photographs document Heymanns' involvement in state, local and national union activities.

The Subject Files are mostly correspondence and heavily weeded clippings, with a scattering of speeches, newsletters, and printed material. The materials were collected by Charles Heymanns over several decades, and the quality of documentation varies widely from folder to folder. The alphabetically-arranged files cover a variety of topics. Many of the folders pertain to prominent politicians to whom Heymanns sent clippings and letters. Their responses were sometimes personal, but more often they are brief and business-like. Most interesting are those pertaining to Senator Henry Jackson, for whom Heymanns was the local campaign coordinator in 1968. Additional topics include the American Party and its leader Ed Hou-Seye (only available on microfilm), which was apparently closely monitored by Heymanns; labor leader, politician, and fellow Wisconsin organizer Andrew Biemiller; the construction of LaCrosse Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman; and migrant farm workers whose organization by Jesus Salas of Obreros Unidos was actively supported by Heymanns. About the Sheboygan Labor Council the collection includes a long run of minutes that covers much of the 1970s. The collection also includes printed minutes of the Milwaukee County Labor Council which are not available elsewhere in archival hands.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Charles Heymanns, sometimes referred to as the "Grand Old Man of Wisconsin Labor," was born in Beringen, Luxembourg on November 8, 1901. He attended school for seven years, after which he worked first as a shoemaker for his father and later as a farmer. In 1920 Heymanns immigrated to Iowa, where he worked on the farm of a distant cousin. In December, 1922, Heymanns and his brother Michael moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where both found employment at the Kohler Company.

During the Depression, work hours at the Kohler Company were severely reduced. These conditions, combined with the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act which guaranteed labor's right to organize and bargain collectively, created an atmosphere that was conducive to labor organizing. In addition to the reduced hours Kohler workers had complaints concerning health hazards, piece rates, and deductions for defective workmanship. In July, 1933, Heymanns and other Kohler workers formed Federal Labor Union No. 18545 which was affiliated with the Sheboygan Labor Council and the American Federation of Labor.

In September, 1933, the Kohler Company laid off thousands of workers. During the next year, Heymanns and other members of the collective bargaining committee met with company officials several times without reaching an agreement. Company officials, meanwhile, maintained their refusal to recognize the rights of any organization as the sole bargaining agent and they assisted in the creation of their own company union, the Kohler Workers Association (KWA).

In July, 1934, Local 18545 initiated a strike for recognition and bargaining rights. After only eleven days, the strike erupted into violence, and on July 27, 1934, after turning back a coal delivery to the factory, strikers armed with bricks and stones went on a destructive rampage throughout the village. In response to this mob activity, the special deputies hired by the company opened fire and two workers, Lee Wakefield and Henry Engelmann, were killed and an additional 47 people were injured.

As president of Local 18545, Heymanns traveled across the country speaking to conventions and other labor groups, soliciting their support for the Kohler strike and a boycott of Kohler products. Each year, he participated in memorial pickets to honor the two men killed during the strike and he also helped to maintain token picket lines at Kohler throughout the 1930s. In 1937 Heymanns was hired by the American Federation of Labor as a field representative, thus beginning his thirty-year career as a Wisconsin labor organizer.

In 1941 a settlement was finally negotiated between Local 18545 and the Kohler Company. It allowed for the rehiring of all former employees with the exception of Heymanns, Rudolph Renn (the union secretary), and Otto Janish (the treasurer). In addition, KWA remained the only union at Kohler.

During the 1940s, labor organizers from the AFL and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) often competed with each other. During this period a significant amount of the organizing effort was channeled into discrediting the other union.

In 1954, Sheboygan Local 833 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) began a strike against the Kohler Company. Although it would be another four years until the AFL merged with the CIO, George Meany (then president of the AFL) authorized Heymanns to give his full support to the CIO-affiliated local. This cooperation is thought to have facilitated the merger of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor and the Wisconsin State Industrial Union Council four years later. The second Kohler strike lasted until 1965, when the company was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize the UAW and to pay $4.5 million in back pay and benefits.

From 1951 to 1956, Heymanns served as director of Region 9 of the AFL. After the merger he continued as director of Region 12 of the AFL-CIO from 1956 to 1968. Heymanns retired from the AFL-CIO in 1968, although he remained active in the 6th District Committee on Political Education (COPE) and he also represented Building Laborers Local 80 in the Sheboygan Labor Council. He also helped to organize a boycott against the Charles Manufacturing Company for the United Furniture Workers of America, Local 800. Charles Heymanns died on November 16, 1993.

COLLECTION CITATION: This collection should be cited as:

Heymanns, Charles, 1901-1993. Papers, 1885-1990. Milwaukee Manuscript Collection 148 and Milwaukee Micro Collection 72. Wisconsin Historical Society. Milwaukee Area Research Center. UWM Libraries. University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee.

ACQUISITION: Presented by Michael Heymanns of Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1993 (accession number M94-039).

PROCESSING: Processed by Sally Jacobs (1995 Intern) and cjm.

The original photographs are housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society's Visual and Sound Archives.

MARC RECORD SEARCH TERMS: The following terms were used in the online bibliographic MARC record to this collection:

• AFL-CIO. Committee on Political Education.
• American Party.
• Biemiller, Andrew J. (Andrew John), 1906-1982.
• Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman (La Crosse, Wis.).
• Federal Labor Union 18545 (Kohler, Wis.).
• Jackson, Henry M. (Henry Martin), 1912-1983.
• Kohler Company.
• Labor movement--Wisconsin.
• Migrant labor--Wisconsin.
• Milwaukee County Labor Council (Wis.).
• Obreros Unidos.
• Sheboygan County Labor Council (Wis.).
• Strikes and lockouts--Wisconsin.
• Trade-unions--Political activity.Trade-unions--Wisconsin.
• United Auto Workers. Local 833 (Kohler, Wis.).
• Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

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Last edited on Monday, June 30, 2003.
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