1. Jamakaya. Like Our Sisters Before Us: Women of Wisconsin Labor–Based on Interviews Conducted for the Women of Wisconsin Labor Oral History Project. Milwaukee, Wis.: Wisconsin Labor History Society; 1998. 93 p.
    Notes: Ten female union leaders of Wisconsin, including one African-American, are profiled; the women were most active from the 1940s through the 1970s. This volume also includes a list of the over thirty interviewees of the Women of Wisconsin Labor Oral History Project of the Wisconsin Labor History Society; all of the project’s audio recordings and additional supporting materials from the interviewees are available to researchers through the Archives Division, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

    CONTENTS: Evelyn Donner Day, Milwaukee (Int’l Ladies Garment Workers Union; United Auto Workers). — Alice Holz, Milwaukee (Office and Professional Employees Int’l Union). — Evelyn Gotzion, Madison (Federal Labor Union No. 19587; United Auto Workers). — Catherine Conroy, Milwaukee (Communications Workers of America). — Nellie Wilson, Milwaukee (United Steel Workers of America). — Doris Thom, Janesville (Int’l Association of Machinists; United Auto Workers). — Lee Schmeling, Neenah (Graphic Arts Int’l Union; Graphic Communications Int’l Union). — Helen Hensler, Milwaukee (Office and Professional Employees Int’l Union). — Joanne Bruch, Whitewater (Int’l Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers). — Florence Simons, Milwaukee (Int’l Association of Machinists; United Auto Workers; Allied Industrial Workers).

  1. Somers, Gerald and Roomkin, Myron. Training and Skill Acquisition: A Pilot Case Study. Madison, Wis.: Manpower and Training Research Unit, affiliated with the Industrial Relations Research Institute and the Center for Studies in Vocational and Technical Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1972. [273] p.

    Notes: This study was done as Contract 81-55-71-04 for the Manpower Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (with copies available through the National Technical Information Service) and used the Gisholt Machine Company, of Madison, Wisconsin, as a case study of company training programs and the costs and benefits of the acquired skills. Because the study occurred during the time of the shutdown of this important Madison, Wisconsin company, it has much to tell about the laid-off employees and their subsequent employment in new workplaces. The Gisholt Machine Company had been founded in Wisconsin in 1889 and at its height in 1970 had over 2,000 employees and was nationally one of the fourteen largest firms in its specialty of machine tool production; only four other Madison companies at that time employed over 1,000 employees. In 1966, the company had been purchased by another Wisconsin machine tool manufacturer, Giddings and Lewis, which announced in January 1971 its decision to close the Gisholt company. United Steelworkers of America Local 1401 had represented all hourly employees at Gisholt since 1955, except those working in the areas of computer programming and data processing.

  2. Wilson, Nellie. “Nellie Wilson: A Black Woman Meets the Union”. IN: Holter, Darryl, editor. Workers and Unions in Wisconsin: A Labor History Anthology. Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin; 1999; pp. 184-185.
    Notes: The on-the-job experiences of a pioneering African-American woman unionist, who was hired during World War II for defense work at the A.O. Smith plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Smith plant was represented by the United Steelworkers of America. Her comments were made at the Wisconsin Labor History Society Conference on April 22, 1989, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.