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Finding Aid

Canadian Union of Public Employees. Local 5 (Hamilton, Ont.)

Canadian Union of Public Employees. Local 5 (Hamilton, Ont.) fonds. -- 1932-1998; 1970-1997 predominant. -- 11.3 m of textual records and graphic materials. -- 3 photographs. -- 82 mini audio cassettes : 1 audio cassette : 3 video cassettes.

Local 5 members are employees of the City of Hamilton, the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, Royal Botanical Gardens, Flamborough, Glanbrook, Mount Hope Airport, and Third Sector Recycling.

City of Hamilton workers were first organized in 1918 as part of the American Federation of Labour. In April 1933 the organization moved to the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada as the Civic Maintenance Association, number 33. It joined the Canadian Congress of Labour on 25 April 1943, as the Hamilton Civic Employees Union, without a local number. It received its local designation 5 when it joined the National Organization of Civic Utilities and Electrical Workers on 1 January 1945. Local 5 joined with the National Union of Public Service Employees (NUPSE) on 11 September 1953 which in turn joined with the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) to form the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) on 24 September 1963. See Ed Thomas, The Crest of the Mountain: The Rise of CUPE Local Five in Hamilton (1995) for the complete history of Local 5. The book has been catalogued for Research Collections; a second copy can be found in the fonds. In 2000 Local 5 joined with Local 167 to form Local 5167.

There have been ten accruals (15-1988, 17-1990, 00-1994, 06-1994, 01-1995, 46-1995, 53-1995, 06-1997, 07-1997). The accruals have been combined into one and arranged into the following series:
Book and diaries of Ed Thomas (Boxes 43-44)
Collective bargaining agreements (Boxes 1-5)
Community services and charity donations (Box 26)
Constitution and by-laws (Box 35)
Conventions and conferences (Box 25)
Correspondence (Boxes 9-13)
Education (Box 9)
Financial records (Box 38)
Grievances (Boxes 17-21)
Hamilton and District CUPE Council (Box 36)
Hamilton and District Labour Council (Box 37)
Health and safety (Boxes 22-24)
Labour negotiations (Boxes 6-8)
Leaves of absence (Box 39)
Minutes of general membership and executive board (Box 28)
News clippings, scrapbooks, other printed materials (Boxes 45-46)
Newsletters (Box 34)
Office administration (Box 34)
Officers and other lists and reports (Box 34)
Ontario Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (Boxes 40-41)
Other locals and other unions (Box 47)
Petitions (Box 34)
Political action (Boxes 29-32)
Relations with employers (Boxes 14-16)
Retirement (Box 35)
Seniority lists (Box 23)
Social events (Box 34)
Sound recordings and moving images (Box 42)
Stewards (Box 33)
Workmen's Compensation Board (Box 39)

Local 5's newsletter, The Outsider (1952-1977), has been catalogued for Research Collections.

Title based on the content of fonds.
The first accrual was received in 1988, the second in 1990, the third, fourth and fifth in 1994, the sixth, seventh and eighth in 1995, and the ninth and tenth in 1997, all from Ed Thomas.
Finding aid available in hard copy and electronically. An earlier version of the finding aid, prepared by Ed Thomas, has been placed in the Master file.
There are no access restrictions.
Further accruals are not expected. See Local 5167.

Contact: archives@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: September 20, 2006
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