1. The Pavement Trail: A Collection of Poetry and Prose from the Allis-Chalmers Picket Lines. Sandelin, Gideon, illustrator. West Allis, Wis.: Local 248, United Automobile Workers of America, CIO; 1946? 31 p. Notes: With a foreword, “Let the Voice of the People be Heard,” by the esteemed Meridel Le Sueur, with nine black-and-white, full-page illustrations, as well as both front and back cover illustrations, all by the notable Milwaukee, Wisconsin artist, Gideon Sandelin.”Dedicated: To the thousands of American workers who walked and are walking picket lines so that the people of this country may have a better life. To the men and women–young and old, Negro and white, veteran and non-veteran–who held out despite the pinch of hunger and the pressure of persecution from hostile sources to win contracts and save their unions from destruction. To a continued unity among all laboring people–workers in the shops, on the railroads, ships, farms and offices–as a bulwark against the growing menace of fascism and another world war.”–p. 2.“The Pavement Trail contains a selection of the best original writings appearing in The Daily Picket bulletin published five times weekly for the Allis-Chalmers Strikers at the West Allis, Wisconsin, plant. Although initiated by Local 248, UAW-CIO, this project was undertaken in behalf of all Local Unions at the seven Allis-Chalmers plants on strike. These include: Local 119, UFEMWA-CIO, La Porte, Indiana; Local 120, UFEMWA-CIO, Springfield, Illinois; Local 765, UERMWA-CIO, Norwood, Ohio; Local 613, UERMWA-CIO, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Local 239, UERMWA-CIO, Boston, Massachusetts; CIO Local Industrial Union 1424, La Crosse, Wisconsin; and Local 248, UAW-CIO, West Allis, Wisconsin.”–“About This Book,” p. 31.

    CONTENTS: “The Hardest Job” / Silvia Schuster. — “When You Win” / Silvia Schuster. — “Send Them PAC-king” / Robert Brownink. — “The Tragic Tree” / Robert Brownink. — “The Pavement Trail” (Tune: “As the Caissons Go Rolling Along”) / Robert Brownink. — “Build Your Union” (Sung to the tune: “On Wisconsin”) / Robert Brownink. — “Ode to Buck Story” / Robert Brownink. — “I Saw a Goat” / Robt. Brownink. — “Pity the Poor Company!” / Cass Weekly. — “Picket’s Prayer” / Cass Weekly. — “Answer” / Cass Weekly. — “A Molder’s Life” / Matt. — “Oh, To Be a Rabbit, Sigh Foremen, As Brer Slides Under the Gate” / from The Daily Picket. — “Rabbit Local Protests: Claims Brer Holds Union Card” / Daily Picket. — “Hold the Line” (Sung to the tune of “Casey Jones”) / George Grasser. — “Marching Onward to Victory” (Sung to the tune of: “Marching Through Georgia”) / Clara Krier. — “Ole Sweeper Says: Payroll Business Smells Fishy!” / Ulys McQuitty. — “We’ll Beat Them on the Picket Line” (Tune: “Solidarity Forever”) Robert Buse. — “Action Memo” / Anonymous. — “The Board of Directors” / Robert Brownink. — “Just Have Faith” / Silvia Schuster.

    N.B. A copy of this publication is available in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society (in their Pamphlet Collection, under call number Pam 82-1426).

  1. Doro, Sue. Blue Collar Goodbyes. 1st ed. Watsonville, Calif.: Papier-Mache Press; 1992. 73 p.Notes: Poems, photographs and essays about the thirteen years the author spent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the only woman machinist with the Milwaukee Road Railway and at the Allis-Chalmers tractor plant at a time of increased plant closings and cutbacks. In 1993 the Wisconsin Library Association selected this book as one of the ten books of “Outstanding Achievement” by Wisconsin authors for the year.Reviewed: Allen, Hayward (reviewer). “Badger Books: Writers Link Past to Present.” Wisconsin State Journal, Sunday, November 22, 1992, p. 3F. Reviewed: Monaghan, Pat (reviewer). Booklist p. 710 December 15, 1992. Reviewed: Ratner, Rochelle (reviewer). Library Journal p. 81 March 1, 1993.

    Another edition: Doro, Sue. Blue Collar Goodbyes. Huron, O.: Bottom Dog Press, 2000. 85 p. (Working Lives Series) ISBN: 0-933087-66-7.

  1. Heart, Home & Hard Hats: The Non-Traditional Work and Words of a Woman Machinist and Mother. Minneapolis, Minn.: Midwest Villages & Voices; 1986. 85 p. Notes: This second collection of poems by Sue Doro includes a glowing preface written by Meridel Le Sueur, a member of the group Midwest Villages & Voices which published this volume. Many of these poems touch on aspects of Doro’s non-traditional work as a woman machinist and on the people in her life, both at work and at home.
  1. Of Birds and Factories. Milwaukee, Wis.: Peoples’ Books and Crafts; 1983. 104 p.Notes: This first collection of poems by Sue Doro includes a glowing foreword written by Meridel Le Sueur. Some of the poems in this volume also made it into her second collection, Heart, Home & Hard Hats, but many appear here only.
  1. Johnson, Jim. The Co-op Label. 1st ed. Wisuri, Marlene, images. Duluth, Minn.: Dovetailed Press LLC; 128 p. Notes: This lovely and evocative book is “dedicated to immigrants and co-operators everywhere” (p. 6) and they are well served by the poems and mainly photographic images contained in it. The authors explain (p. 5) that Part One of their book “portrays immigration and the anti-immigration activities of 1918” and Part Two “alludes to anti-communist sentiments of the 1950s,” through the experiences of the immigrants in the region around the Twin Ports of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, but especially of the Finnish immigrant experience of the area.
  2. Penn, Larry. Gone to the Doggerel: Songs That Didn’t Work. Milwaukee, Wis.: Cookie Man Music Co.; 48 p. Notes: Almost thirty pieces–some poems and some unfinished songs–are in this collection by one of Wisconsin’s labor troubadors; included is “A Pile of Big Blue,” a poem about the tragic deaths of three Iron Workers Local 8 members (Jerome Starr, 52; Jeffrey Wischer, 40; and, William DeGrave, 39), who all died when a construction crane collapsed on July 14, 1999 while lifting a 450-ton roof piece during the construction of the new Milwaukee Brewers baseball stadium.