Peter K. Hawley and Jane Benedict Papers
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Abstract
This collection contains the papers of labor organizers and housing rights activists Peter K. Hawley and Jane Benedict. Much of the material in this collection relates to Hawley's work as a National Representative for the United Office of Professional Workers of America (UOPWA)-Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). These materials consist of arbitration briefs, labor reports and surveys, handbooks, Hawley's UOPWA-CIO office files, and pamphlets. The collection also contains materials related to Hawley's and Benedict's work with the Metropolitan Council on Housing, including a number of Met Council on Housing publications, Peter Hawley's notes and correspondence, and a small amount of Jane Benedict's correspondence.
Biographical / Historical
Jane Benedict and Peter K. Hawley were union organizers and housing rights activists in New York City. Peter Hawley was born in New York in 1901. In the 1920s he began working at the Amalgamated Bank of New York, which was owned by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Through his work at the bank he became a member of the Bookkeeper's, Stenographer's, and Accountant's Union, Local 12646, which he joined in 1929. Hawley eventually became a board member of the Bookkeeper's, Stenographer's, and Accountant's Union and later became involved in the United Office of Professional Workers of America (UOPWA), serving for a time as president of UOPWA, Local 16. Peter Hawley was also involved in the Metropolitan Council on Housing, and was at one time the organization's treasurer. Hawley died in 1996 at the age of 94.
Born in Manhattan in 1911, Jane Benedict first became involved in unions when she joined the Book and Magazine Guild between 1936 and 1937 while working in the publishing industry. Shortly after joining the Book and Magazine Guild, the union joined with the Union of Office and Professional Workers of America (UOPWA), which was part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Although the UOPWA was technically a white collar union, its affiliation with the CIO made it implicitly an industrial union. She later became an organizer in the UOPWA. Benedict met her second husband Peter Hawley at a UOPWA convention in 1940, where they both served on the General Executive Board committee.
In 1958 Benedict helped found the Metropolitan Council on Housing and served as its chairwoman for many years. The Met Council on Housing grew out of Benedict's work organizing the Yorkville Save Our Homes Committee, where she lobbied for the construction of low-cost and racially integrated public housing. The committee eventually joined with other New York City tenants' rights groups to form the Metropolitan Council on Housing. Benedict also ran for governor of New York as a member of the Unity Party in 1982. She died in 2005 at the age of 96.
Arrangement
Materials in this collection are arranged chronologically.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains the papers of labor organizers and housing rights activists Peter K. Hawley and Jane Benedict. The bulk of the materials in this collection were created by Peter Hawley for his work in labor organizing and work with the United Office of Professional Workers of America (UOPWA)-Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and consist of arbitration briefs, labor reports and surveys, handbooks, Hawley's UOPWA-CIO office files, and pamphlets.
The collection also contains materials related to Hawley and Benedict's work with the Metropolitan Council on Housing. The majority of the material related to the Met Council on Housing were created or compiled by Hawley and consist of his notes, memoranda, newsletters, and a number of Met Council on Housing publications. Other materials related to housing rights activism were created by Jane Benedict who was the Director of the Met Council on Housing for many years. These materials consist of a small amount of correspondence, a civil action summons, as well as assorted pamphlets and flyers. Hawley and Benedict worked closely in their promotion of housing rights and in many cases the creator of certain documents is difficult to discern.
The collection also contains transcripts of three interviews conducted by Richard Lewis with Peter Hawley, Jane Benedict, and Vicki Gavin discussing their work in white-collar unions.
Subjects
Organizations
People
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (and related rights to publicity and privacy) to materials in this collection, created by Jane Benedict and Peter Hawley, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Peter K. Hawley and Jane Benedict Papers; TAM 338; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Ellen Hawley in 2005. The accession number associated with this gift is 2005.025.
Appraisal
No materials were separated from this collection.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Materials in this collection were received with no apparent order. They have been rehoused into archival folders and arranged chronologically.
