SHAUN MALONEY:

An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society

Manuscripts Collection

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Maloney, Shaun, creator.
	Title:	Shaun Maloney papers.
	Dates:	1916-1996.
	Abstract:	Correspondence, clippings, articles, interviews, and other materials documenting the union activities of Maloney, union leader and activist in Minnesota.
	Quantity:	1.6 cubic feet (4 boxes), 32 master audio files: WAV (8.2 GB), 32 user audio files: MP3 (1.1 GB), 3 master video files: MOV (18.4 GB), and 3 user video files: MP4 (803.2 MB).
	Location:	See Detailed Description for shelf locations.

Shaun "Jack" Maloney was a union leader and activist for over 50 years in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. He was born on September 10, 1911 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His biological father left the family before his birth. As a child he took his stepfather Ole Severson's surname and was known as Jack Severson until approximately 1936, upon which time he reverted back to Maloney.

Maloney was introduced to the local union at an early age; his stepfather was involved in the Teamsters' strike in Minneapolis in 1917. When the strike was squashed the participants, including Ole Severson, were blacklisted in the city. Maloney went to work with his stepfather as a child and left school at the end of the 8th grade (1925) to work in the delivery room of the Dayton Company. He joined the Minneapolis Teamsters local 574 in the early 1930s.

By age 18, Maloney was driving truck for a transfer company and in 1934 he was driving trucks or teams of horses for Cameron Transfer and Storage. Maloney was a participant in the Teamsters truck drivers strike in Minneapolis on June 20, 1934, also known as "Bloody Friday." Two strikers were killed and over 50 injured by riot police, including Maloney who was shot in the abdomen. After strike mediators helped to settle a contract between the Teamsters and local businesses, the contract went to vote on August 21, 1934 and Maloney was the first member to cast his ballot and also served as one of three union observers to ensure a fair election. The 1934 strike helped the Teamsters become one of the largest international unions, and many of the participants became well-known union activists.

After the strike, Maloney went back to work for Cameron Transfer and later became an organizer for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in Iowa and South Dakota. Maloney, along with six other union leaders, was sentenced to jail in 1938 for interfering with interstate commerce after a bakery truck was destroyed in a crash during a 22-week strike in Iowa.

After Maloney was released from prison in 1940, he joined the merchant marine, eventually settling in Seattle, Washington in 1950, where he worked as a longshoreman. He was an active member of the local union and was appointed an executive in 1970, serving until his retirement in 1976. Jack Maloney died on December 19, 1999 in Seattle, Washington.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The materials consist of interviews and clippings regarding Maloney's involvement in the 1934 Teamsters' strike in Minneapolis (1964-1993) and other union activities in Iowa, South Dakota and Chicago. Also documented in the papers is Maloney's involvement with the Fouts-Johnson defense fund (1939-1940) and miscellaneous notes, correspondence, and clippings regarding union activities in the Midwest and other parts of the country, including a letter from Jimmy Hoffa to Maloney (1965).

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ARRANGEMENT

These documents are organized into the following sections:



		Union Activities
		Union Activism
		Miscellaneous Papers

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Shaun Maloney Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,960

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the audiocassettes are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original video and audiocassettes were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into mov and wav files.

Processing Information:

Legacy Amendment logo

Processed by: Karen Spilman, June 2005

Digitization and encoding by April Rodriguez, May 20, 2024.

Digital video and audio transferred from the master video and audiocassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (May 2024).

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Catalog ID number: 990036954230104294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

UNION ACTIVITIES

Includes correspondence, dues books, articles of agreement, clippings, contracts, minutes, and historical information regarding Midwestern unions that Shaun Maloney was a member of or involved with as an IBT organizer.

Location

Box

P2623

Minneapolis, Minnesota (Local 174, 544, 574):

Minneapolis 174, 544, and 574 Dues Books, 1939-1946.

George Frosig Dues Books, 1916.

Local 544 and 574, 1934, 1939.

Location

Box

P2623

574 Union Vote 8-26-1934, 1934.

Kelly Postal Frame-Up, 1940s.

1941 Smith Act Trial, undated

Local 574, 1934-1955.

Location

Box

P2623

Sioux City, Iowa (Local 383):

Demands of Local 383, 1937.

Sioux City City Agreements, 1938-1939.

Joseph A. Padway letter, 1940.

Fouts-Johnson Defense Fund and Local 383, 1939.

Includes telegrams and letters to Maloney from Farrell Dobbs and the Teamsters executive board regarding Local 383.

Area and Local 383 Contracts, Proposals, and Worksheets, 1937-1940.

Local 383, 1938-1942.

Local 383, 1938-1939.

Local 383 Articles of Agreement, 1938.

Location

Box

P2623

Union Meeting Minutes and Miscellaneous, 1939-1940.

Telegrams and Articles of Agreement, 1938-1940.

Location

Box

P2623

Clinton, Iowa/Phelps-Dodge Strike, 1938.

Local 383 History, undated.

Location

Box

P2623

Kansas City, Missouri (Local 41):

Local 41 Kansas City City Agreement, 1938.

City Agreements, 1938-1939.

Chicago (Local 710):

City Agreements, 1938-1939.

Dobbs Letters/Telegrams, 1938.

Telegrams and letters from Farrell Dobbs requesting Maloney's assistance with Chicago Teamsters Local 710.

Location

Box

P2623

Telegrams and Articles of Agreement, 1938-1940.

Ottumwa, Iowa (Local 388):

Local 388, Ottumwa, 1939-1941.

Omaha, Nebraska (Local 554):

Telegrams and Articles of Agreement, 1938-1940.

Location

Box

P2623

Omaha, NE Union Local 554, 1938.

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UNION ACTIVISM

Includes correspondence, papers, speeches, interviews, and other materials regarding the 1934 Minneapolis truck drivers' strike and the Fouts-Johnson Defense Fund.

Location

Box

P2623

1934 Minneapolis Truck Drivers' Strike:

1934 Minneapolis Teamsters' Strike Reunion/Christine Miller, 1979-1980.

Transcripts of Interviews and Outlines of Questions with Christine Miller, 1979.

Location

Box

P2623

Jack Maloney Speech, 1994.

Minneapolis '34 Manuscript, 1984.

1934 Strikes, 1984.

1934 Minneapolis Truck Drivers' Strike Article, 1964.

Articles regarding 1934 Truck Drivers' Strike and Miscellaneous Union Activities, 1919, 1974-1976.

Articles regarding 1934 Truckers' Strike, 1980s.

Location

Internet

Audio Recordings of Interviews with Jack Maloney Regarding 1934 Strike:

Interviews of Maloney by University of Minnesota Labor Education Service, 1979-1980.

Note: interviews recorded over the phone, can be difficult to hear dialogue. Includes professor Martin W. Duffy and research specialist Christine Miller.

Shaun Maloney interview, September 5, 1979. 1 master audio file (1 hour, 35 minutes): WAV (481 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (69 MB).