The Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 80 is an AFL-CIO trade union of plasterers in Cleveland. There have been plasterers unions in Cleveland since the 1860s and continuously since the 1890s. Local 80 was issued a charter in 1890 as a member of the International, was dropped in 1898, and issued a new charter in 1899. The national union was founded in 1864, later became an international and in 1914 took into membership the cement finishers who had been members of the Brotherhood of Cement Workers.
Local 80 was located at 737 Prospect Avenue in 1916, movede to 2182 East 9th in 1917, and built their own hall in 1925 at 1651 East 24th Street, which is their present address. The Plasterers Building Corporation was formed in 1948 to take over ownership and administration of the plasterers building, which subsequently was sold to the Roofers union in 1978.
The union had worked closely with the Plasterers' Employers Guild, the Plastering Contractors' Association of Cleveland, and the Cuyahoga Plastering Contractors' Association on apprenticeship programs, hiring, working procedures, wages, and grievances, and has signed contracts with individual contractors through these associations.
Membership in the union had been and continued to be predominately Italian through the 1980s. Though the use of drywall has reduced membership since the high mark in the 1950s, Local 80 continues to be an active labor union in Cleveland.
The Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 80 Photographs, ca. 1930s-1973, consist of individual and group portraits of union officials, members, and staff, and views of various union activities, including banquets, conferences, parties, work sites, and a trade school. The collection includes 340 black and white and color photographs of varying sizes.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of organized labor and the masonry industry in Cleveland, Ohio, in the twentieth century.
The collection is arranged by subject, with portraits preceding views.
The researcher should also consult MS 4055 Operative Plasterers and Cement masons International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 80 Records.
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[Container ___, Folder ___ ] PG 341 Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 80 Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
These photographs were removed from MS 4055 Operative Plasterers and Cement masons International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 80 Records. Gift of the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 80 in 1981.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.