The first interviews take place this month in a two-year project to preserve Minnesota?s post-war labor history.

The need ? and urgency ? are obvious, said Russ Fridley, director of the oral history project.

?The labor movement is a well-kept secret in colleges and high schools,? he said. ?If you look at a widely used textbook, coverage of labor unions is inadequate and spotty. It usually focuses on a few major events or strikes, and ignores the role the labor movement has played in representing not only its own workers, but in creating the conditions and achieving the rights and benefits that are enjoyed by all workers.?

Meanwhile, Fridley said, key figures in state labor are getting up in age. Some already have died.

?Few people today keep diaries, write letters, or keep any kind of records,? he said. ?So how do you capture this information while you can? The best way is to hook them up to tape recorders and collect their stories.?

Organizations pitch in
The oral history project grew out of months of discussion among retired Minnesota AFL-CIO presidents David K. Roe and Bernard Brommer and others. Brommer is chairing a committee of 16 union activists, labor historians and others who are drawing up the list of as many as 50 potential interview subjects.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO is providing staff support; the state Building and Construction Trades Council, various local Building Trades councils, and Teamsters Joint Council 32 put up substantial seed money; and a financial committee is pursuing other financing to meet the project?s two-year, $150,000 budget, Brommer said.

Initial interviews are being done by Fridley, who was director of the Minnesota Historical Society for more than 30 years, and Hy Berman, a labor history professor at the University of Minnesota since the 1950s. The Historical Society lent advice on the best ways to do successful interviews, Fridley said.

Going behind the scenes
In addition to prominent labor officials, the project hopes to interview elected officials who played key roles in labor legislation, administrative staff who can offer behind-the-scenes perspectives of key labor events, and people involved in pivotal labor events in the state, such as the Willmar 8 bank strike and the P-9 strike against Hormel in Austin.

?Dave Roe is a good example of the type of person the project hopes to interview,? Fridley said. ?He lived through more than 50 years of the state labor movement and played a prominent role in it.?

But the project is looking at more than retired activists, Fridley said. It also hopes to tape union officials who are still in the thick of things, such as Peter Benner, executive director of AFSCME Council 6.

Recordings will be transcribed and edited ?into a cohesive interview? for bound volumes. The project has not ruled out video-taping some interviews, ?which would add another dimension, but also another expense,? Fridley said.

Eventually, highlights from the interviews will be compiled into a book for wider distribution. Fridley said he hoped the transcripts could also become the foundation for developing classroom curriculum.

?It?s certainly something we?ll advocate, and I?m sure that will evolve,? Fridley said. ?It should be rich material, raw material that will be appealing to many teachers at all levels.?

Want to contribute?
Donations from individuals and organizations to the labor oral history project are tax deductible, said Bernard Brommer, chair of the project. Minnesota AFL-CIO affiliates will receive formal letters soliciting donations later this summer, and the project?s financial committee is ?trying to identify organizations and individuals we could solicit for fairly sizeable donations,? Brommer said.

In the meantime, donations can be sent to: John Williams, business manager of the Minneapolis Building Trades Council, at 312 Central Ave., Room 556, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly.