Birmingham Typographical Union No. 104

A printer's apprentice undergoing training from the Birmingham Typographical Union in 1966

The Birmingham Typographical Union No. 104 was the Birmingham local for the International Typographical Union (ITU), representing typesetters and pressmen.

Local No. 104 hosted the 47th International Typographical Union Convention in Birmingham on August 12-17, 1901. Officers at the time were T. T. Nock, president, W. K. Trechsel, recording secretary and William Leath, financial secretary.

In 1945 the Birmingham Typographical Union included the newly-adopted ITU bylaws into its proposed contract with the city's three daily newspapers. The publishers objected to the language, which changed the relationship between parties during collective bargaining. When no contract was approved, the union members went on strike on July 12. Many of them secured traveling cards and took jobs in other cities during the five-week impasse. Mayor Cooper Green prevailed upon the parties' patriotism as Allied victory in World War II was announced, and succeeded in winning concessions from the publishers that ended the strike on August 14.

Current unions representing newspaper workers in Birmingham include the Printing, Publishing & Media Workers Sector of the Communications Workers of America Local 14307.

References

• "Forty-Seventh Annual Convention of the International Typographical Union" ( ) The Inland Printer, p. 877-882