[Five Posters on] Organized Labor.

[New York, NY]: United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, [circa 1975]. Five posters, two 10” x 30”, three 15” x 20”, all folded to 10” x 7½”. Near fine with some spotting to a few versos and one with a minuscule chip at edge.

This is a series of five large, stunning photographic posters issued by the United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) of New York City, each showing a remarkable scene from various eras in labor history.

UFT was organized as the Teacher's Union, Local 5 in 1916 as an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. For decades the group has fought for civil liberties, increased salaries, improvements in the pension system, reduced classroom size and tenure for teachers. In the late 1960s UFT began clashing with city administrators over school segregation and racial inequality, poor school conditions and decentralization. Massive teacher strikes in 1968 and 1975 brought New York City schools to a standstill, and in 1975 the union saved the city from bankruptcy by investing pension funds into city bonds to avoid default.

Our guess is that these gorgeous posters were issued just after the strike of 1975, as one is titled “United Federation of Teachers Demonstrate for Better Schools.” It shows a veritable mob of teachers, some holding signs with slogans such as “Default? No, your fault, Mr. Mayor. Save our schools” and “Do you want your child to be just a number?” Another has a sweeping image of “Members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union in a Modern Shop,” which appears to be from the 1960s or '70s. The remaining posters reveal images from labor history, including the “Labor Day Parade Union Square 1887,” where we see a horse-drawn cart of tobacco workers and a heavily hatted attending audience, “Homestead: A Mill Town Circa 1900” and “Child Labor 1911” with a striking shot of a factory youngster.

No evidence of these posters was found in OCLC or online. Cornell University holds a collection of UFT records, but the finding aid shows no visual materials of any kind. Near fine. Item #4744

Price: $675.00