University of Washington Libraries

Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives

 

Scott, Tyree

TYREE SCOTT PAPERS

1970-1995

73 cubic feet

Accession No. 5245-1

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

Tyree Scott (1940-2003) was a labor leader and activist deeply involved in many minority workers’ and equal opportunity organizations.

Scott, an electrician, grew up in Texas, moved to Seattle in 1966 and became a leader in the Central Contractors Association.  This organization of minority workers led many peaceful demonstrations against discriminatory hiring practices in Seattle’s construction industry in the summer and fall of 1969.  Through the protests, the issue of discriminatory employment was noted by the American Friends Service Committee. After investigating the situation, the AFSC approached Scott and the leadership of the CCA and proposed a new community-based organization that would organize minority workers to fight discrimination in the unions and in the construction trades. The United Construction Workers Association was founded in 1970 with financial support from the AFSC.  Tyree Scott was a founding member and worked intensively within the Association, first as a paid staff member and then later as a director.

UCWA combined community organization, peaceful demonstrations and legal action to fight workplace discrimination.  The Association saw an early victory in the class action suit United States vs. Ironworkers Local 86 et. al. – in which the U.S. Department of Justice sued five local unions and apprenticeship and training committees under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  In 1970 Judge William J. Lindberg found that there had indeed been racial discrimination in the practices of all institutions named in this case. He ordered wide-ranging relief programs, including quotas for union membership, hiring, and apprenticeship classes and changes in hiring and dispatching procedures. 

Judge Lindberg’s ruling also created the Court Order Advisory Committee – a private institution that would ensure the implementation of these relief measures.  The COAC collected data and published reports on industry employment practices. The UCWA had two members on COAC board of directors; Tyree Scott served as one of these representatives from 1972 to 1978.  The COAC was reformed as the Vocational Exploration and Referral Service Center in December of 1978. 

In 1972 UCWA was also made party to the U.S. vs. Local 86 suit, which allowed them to officially participate in the enforcement of the court decrees.  UCWA collected reports of employment progress in local trades and continued to pursue legal action against companies defaulting on the requirements of the court settlement.

By court decree, UCWA also became the point of entry for apprenticeship programs.  UCWA assisted workers with job application processes, offered extra training for apprenticeship classes, and served as a liaison between workers, unions and employers.  The UCWA also worked with civil and community institutions, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Washington State Manpower and Planning Council, various Seattle city agencies, the Seattle Urban League and others.

After the landmark Lindberg decision, UCWA also began to widen its focus beyond minority work in the local building trades to other areas of employment in Seattle and other cities across the nation.  In 1973 a branch of UCWA was established in Oakland, California. 

UCWA also initiated the Southwestern Workers Federation, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1973.  Two UCWA staff members - Tyree Scott and Todd Hawkins - visited eight cities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas under contract from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to help minority worker activists organize further and to help them draw together legal resources to file Title VII complaints.

In 1973 Michael Woo of the UCWA worked among Asian and Alaska Native cannery workers who lived in Seattle but worked summers in the salmon processing plants in Alaska.  From this work the Alaska Cannery Workers Association was formed to combat discrimination in worker housing, facilities, pay scales and hire status.  ACWA filed Title VII lawsuits against the world’s largest fish companies, including the New England Fish Company and Wards Cove Packing Company.

In 1973 members of UCWA, ACWA, and the Northwest Chapter of United Farm Workers of America came together to found the Labor and Employment Law Office.  LELO hired lawyers and served workers of color, helping them pursue legal recourse in issues of labor discrimination. LELO helped UCWA, ACWA, UFW, other worker’s organizations and individual workers win landmark civil rights cases, including Domingo vs. New England Fish Company, Carpenter vs. NEFCO-Fidalgo Packing Company and Yates vs. Local 7 Asbestos Workers, et al.

While LELO had always combined its legal work with participation in community organization, the focus was primarily on court action in the early years of its operation.  However, in 1989 the Supreme Court’s decision in the long-contested Atonio vs. Ward’s Cove case constituted a major shift in the pursuit of discrimination cases and in LELO’s operations.  Ever since the landmark civil rights suits of the early 1970s, the burden of proof in discrimination charges had rested on the employers.  In the Wards Cove case, the Court’s decision was that the plaintiffs’ statistical demonstration of racial disparity between classes of workers did not make a prima facie case for violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.  This set a new precedent for the burden of proof in Civil Rights cases and vastly increased the difficulty of workers pursuing discrimination charges under Title VII. 

As pursuing court action as an avenue for change became more difficult, LELO’s focus and activities opened to a broader spectrum.  LELO shifted its emphasis to offering other types of assistance to low-income, minority and workers’ groups both locally and across the globe.  Further information about LELO’s current projects can b found online at http://www.lelo.org.  Tyree Scott has served on the board of directors of LELO since its inception.

In the late 1970s Scott, Scott’s wife Beverly Sims and Michael Woo were members of the Seattle Workers Group, which in turn was associated with the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center.  The OCIC was an umbrella group that coordinated the activities of various Marxist workers organizations across the country.  The purpose of the OCIC was both to support local Marxist groups in their effort to organize and educate workers locally, but also to bring together disparate groups across the nation into a more ideologically and structurally unified whole. The OCIC’s long-term goal was to build a national Labor/Workers Party.  The organization disbanded about 1981.

 

Tyree Scott became less involved in the activities of the United Construction Workers Association in the late seventies, and the organization faded out of existence around 1981.  Tyree Scott retired from the electrician’s trade and remained active as a board member for the Labor and Employment Law Office until his death in 2003.

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

The Tyree Scott Papers consist of 73 cubic feet of records dating from 1970 to 1995, with the bulk of the material originating in the 1970s.  Materials in this accession are grouped into the records of the various organizations Scott has been involved in: the United Construction Workers Association (boxes 1-12, 21), the Court Order Advisory Committee (boxes 12-13), the Southwestern Workers Federation (box 13), the Alaska Cannery Workers Association (box 13), the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center (boxes 14-15), the American Friends Service Committee (boxes 15-16) and the Labor and Employment Law Office (boxes 19-21, 23-74).  Boxes 16-18 contain the personal papers of Tyree Scott, as well as the papers of Beverly Sims – Scott’s wife and a fellow activist – and a file of papers belonging to Michael Woo, member of UWCA and LELO.

 

The United Construction Workers Association records date from 1970 to 1981 and contain correspondence, minutes, financial records, reports, speeches and writings, news releases, subject series, membership and job applications, discrimination complaints, published materials including fliers and brochures, notes and research materials.  The materials document UCWA’s involvement in assisting minority workers through apprenticeship programs and hiring processes, their pursuit of court action in discrimination cases and their efforts in community organization and general activist work.

 

Incoming and outgoing letters as well as the general correspondence series of this subgroup are filed chronologically.  The correspondence includes communications with a variety of workers, employers, unions and apprenticeship programs, Washington state and Seattle city legislators, municipal agencies and community organizations.

 

The Membership and Job Applications series contains both forms for membership in UCWA and inquiries into specific positions.  Since UCWA was an official channel to local apprenticeship programs, workers often became members of UCWA as a first step in the process of seeking employment, thus making it difficult to logically separate job and membership applications.

 

Manpower Compliance Reports are compilations of statistical data concerning minority involvement in construction projects collected from individual work sites.  The reports list the trades, skill level (apprentice/journeyman), and race of each worker on a site for a period of time, sometimes breaking down the number of hours worked by each.  Projects and employers include the University of Washington, Weyerhauser, the domed stadium project (Kingdome), Rainier Tower, Larkin Potts, and Washington State Highway projects.

 

Subject series are a significant part of this accession, containing files on the many organizations UCWA worked with and a variety of different projects in which they were involved.  One of the most important of these is the No Separate Peace series.  No Separate Peace was a monthly publication produced by a subcommittee of UCWA members; Tyree Scott, Beverly Sims and Michael Woo were heavily involved.  Materials in this series include minutes of the NSP board of directors, correspondence, a sampling of published issues (dating from 1975-76 and 1978), drafts of articles, research material and photographs dating from 1975 to 1978.

 

Other significant series include the Affirmative Action Plans series; which besides containing employment/race statistics and information on regional Affirmative Action Plans, also holds correspondence and other records of the failed Seattle Plan of the early 1970s.  The United States Department of Labor series also contains correspondence relating to the Seattle Plan, as well as material on funding for UCWA.  The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (minority applicants to CETA positions), Seattle Model City Program (which partially sponsored UCWA), U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Picnic (annual UCWA social event) are also notable series.

 

The sub-subgroups for the UCWA main board of directors and the Oakland board of directors both contain minutes and correspondence of these bodies.

 

The sub-subgroups for the trades committees mostly contain materials relating to education and examinations for apprenticeship and journeyman status in each of the trades.  Some minutes and correspondence are also found in these subgroups.

 

The Court Order Advisory Committee consists of one cubic foot of records dating from 1970 to 1979.  This subgroup includes correspondence, minutes, reports and other records relating to COAC’s work in monitoring the progress of local unions and businesses in their progress towards meeting the requirements of Judge Lindberg’s rulings.

 

The United Inner City Development Foundation is a small (about 0.2 cubic feet) subgroup mostly containing correspondence with the United Inner City Development Foundation and organizational information on this and several other local community organizations.  The materials date from 1971 and 1972 and were collected by Todd Hawkins, a member of both UCWA and UICDF.

 

The Southwestern Workers Federation subgroup consists of about 0.42 cubic feet of records dating from 1973 to 1977.  These records document the UCWA’s work in establishing this sister organization, particularly Tyree Scott and Todd Hawkin’s trips to the cities in the area.  The cities visited include: Little Rock and Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Monroe and Shreveport, Louisiana; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Austin, Tyler and Waco, Texas.  The city files and the Event files on the Dallas meetings make up the bulk of this subgroup, which also includes organizational information, minutes of advisory board meetings, speeches, writings and newsletters.

 

The Alaska Cannery Workers is another small subgroup containing only three file folders of material from 1973 and 1974.  The subgroup contains correspondence, minutes, and reports – including reports by UCWA on the formation and progress of ACWA.

 

The Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center subgroup consists of 1.8 cubic feet of records dating from 1973 to 1980.  The bulk of this subgroup actually consists of sub-subgroups of records from the various groups affiliated with the OCIC.  The largest of these is the Seattle Worker’s Group sub-subgroup.  These materials date from 1976 to 1979 and contain organizational information, correspondence, minutes, reports and subject series.  The subject series make up the bulk of this sub-subgroup, and mostly consist of writings, reports and statements concerning the topic of the file.

 

The other sub-subgroups in the OCIC subgroup mostly contain reports, statements and writings about the activities of the regional groups.  Some correspondence is included (often between Tyree Scott and the group) and occasional minutes.  The bulk of these materials date from 1977 to 1980.

 

Another significant portion of the OCIC subgroup is the subject series files, which also consist mostly of writings, statements, and reports concerning the subject matter, with some minutes and agenda in the conference files and occasional correspondence.  The OCIC subgroup also contains minutes, speeches and writings, and notes.

 

The American Friends Service Committee subgroup consists of cubic feet of records and dates from 1971 to 1988 (bulk 1973- 1979).  This subgroup contains correspondence, minutes and agenda, financial records, speeches and writings, news releases and subject series that document both AFSC’s assistance to UCWA and other social justice programs and activities the Committee has been involved with.  The Third World Coalition sub-subgroup contains correspondence, minutes and agenda, writings, reports and newsletters that document Tyree Scott and Beverly Sim’s activity in this division of the AFSC in the late 1970s.

 

The personal papers of Tyree Scott consist of 0.4 cubic feet of letters, financial records, extensive handwritten notes including drafts of speeches, appointment and address books, subject series and ephemera dating from 1975 to 1995.

 

The personal papers of Beverly Sims consist of 1.2 cubic feet of subject series, correspondence, writings, notes, and ephemera relating to Sim’s own interests and activist projects, including those related to rights of women, third world countries and native peoples.  Of particular interest is the subject file on the NGO Forum on Women held Beijing in 1995; Sims was an attendee of this conference.

 

The Michael Woo subgroup contains two folders of financial records, correspondence and writings concerning his activities within the UCWA.

 

The Labor and Employment Law Office subgroup consists of 55 cubic feet of records.  Case files make up a large portion of this subgroup, and include the Yates vs. Local 7, Domingo vs. New England Fish Company, Atonio vs. Wards Cove Packing Company, and others. Also included are correspondence, minutes, financial records, files on LELO’s work in Mozambique, slides and cassette tapes.  This material has not been fully processed, so more information on scope, content or date span of these records is not available.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

 

These papers were donated to the Libraries by Tyree Scott in two installments on January 31st 2001 and on April 6th 2001.

 

Materials in Box 3 – the series of Membership and Job Applications in the United Construction Workers Association subgroup – are closed until 2045.  Boxes 23 through 74, which constitute the bulk of the Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO) subgroup – are closed until processing is completed.

 

91 photographic prints, 81 35mm negatives and 204 35mm color slides were transferred to the Division’s Photography Collection on April 23rd, 2002.  Subjects of the photographs and negatives consist mainly of United Construction Workers Association demonstrations and events.  The slides include images from Tyree Scott and Michael Woo’s trip to China in 1975, a trip to Cuba that same year and images relating to the Ward’s Cove court case.

University of Washington Libraries

Manuscripts, Special Collections, University Archives

 

Scott, Tyree

TYREE SCOTT PAPERS

1970-95

74 cubic feet

Accession No. 5245-1

 

INVENTORY

 

 

Box/Folders                                                                                                                             Dates       

 

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION

 

1                           Historical  Features                                                                                   

 

                             Organizational Features                                                                            

 

                             Incoming Letters                                                                                        1970-78

 

                             Outgoing Letters                                                                                         1970-76

 

1-2                        General Correspondence                                                                          1971-79, 1981, n.d.

 

2                           Minutes                                                                                                       1970-75

 

                             Financial Records                                                                                      1972-79, 1981, n.d.

 

3                           Membership and Job Applications     RESTRICTED                               

 

4-5                        Manpower Compliance Reports                                                               

 

6                           Reports                                                                                                       1972-74, n.d.

 

                             Speeches and Writings                                                                              1975, 1981, n.d.

 

                             Press Statements and Releases                                                                1970-75, n.d.

 

                             Surveys                                                                                                      1977

 

                             Discrimination Complaints                                                                         1971, 1975, n.d.

 

                             Fliers and Brochures                                                                                  1975-76, n.d.

 

                             Subject Series                                                                                            1970-79, n.d.

                                  Affirmative Action

                                  Asbestos

                                  Attica/John Hill

                                  Board of Public Works Contracts

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION (cont’d)

                             Subject Series (cont’d)

                       

6                                Brownie’s Art and Printing

                                  Carpenters

                                  Central Contractors Association

                                  Central Seattle Community Council

                                  El Centro de la Raza

6-7                            CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act)

7                                China (Tyree Scott’s trip)

                                  Community Meeting                                                                             

                                  Community Services

                                  Compliance Officers

                                  Construction Trade Information

                                  Contract Compliance

                                  CONTROL (Contractors Organized to Lobby)

                                  Credit Union

                                  Denver (trade union conference)

                                  Employment Discrimination

                                  Employment Opportunities Center

                                  Fundraising

                                  Humanities Grants

                                  Dan Hurvitz’s Paper

                                  International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

                                  International Women’s Day

                                  Joint Labor Negotiating Committee

                                  Juneteenth

                                  KDP – Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (Union of Democratic Filipinos)

                                  King-Snohomish Manpower Consortium

                                  Kirkpatrick, Ken A.

                                  Labor Laws

                                  Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

                                  Light Brigade

                                  Longshoremen

                                  Machinist Training

                                  McKenzie River Gathering

                                  Metal Trade - Washington

                                  Mid-West Academy

                                  Mozambique – Film and Slideshow Presentation

8                                National Association of Minority Contractors

                                  National Conference of Christians and Jews

                                  No Separate Peace   

                                  Oakland – Seattle Joint Meetings

                                  Open House

                                  Operation Breakthrough

                                  Pack Rats Association

                                  Pan American World Airways

                                  Parole and Work Release

                                  Peace Task Force

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION (cont’d)

                             Subject Series (cont’d)

 

8                                Picnic

                                  Pierce County Statistics

                                  Pittsburgh Plan

                                  Plumbers Strike – Local #32 – 1976

                                  Poetry

                                  Programs

                                  Project Equality

                                  Protests and Actions

                                  Related Programs

                                  San Francisco

                                  Seattle

                                  Seattle. Housing Authority

8-9                            Seattle. Model City Program

9                                Seattle. Port

                                  Seattle City Council Committee

                                  Seattle City Light

                                  Seattle-King County Plan

                                  SKCYAC Summer Program (Seattle King County Youth Activities Council?)

                                  Seattle vs. Kozu

                                  Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center

                                  Southwest Workers Federation

                                  Sports Program

                                  Tacoma

                                  Teamsters

                                  Third World Newsreel

                                  Third World Women’s Task Force

                                  Trade Library

                                  Union Material

                                  United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement

                                    Workers of America. Local 813. Unity Caucus

                                  United Methodist Church. Commission on Religion and Race

                                  United Minority Transport Workers Association

                                  United Minority Workers

                                  United States Justice Department.

                                  United States. Labor Department

                                  United States. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

                                  United States Postal Service

                                  Wages

                                  Washington State Manpower Planning Council

                                  Women in Construction

 

                             Case Files

21                              U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs. Local 86

                                       General Correspondence                                                                             1972-76, 1979

                                       Quarterly Reports                                                                                        1974-77, 1979-80

                                       Court Papers                                                                                                1970-78

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION (cont’d)

                             Case Files (cont’d)

                                  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs. Local 86 (cont’d)

 

21                                   Subject Series

                                           Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Compliance                    1977

                                           Ironworkers v. Herrick Corporation [Hayward, CA]                                1975

                                           Plasterers and Cement Masons                                                              1973-76

                                           U.S. v. Ironworkers, Local 861 – Title VII                                               1972-73

                            

                                  UCWA v. Peter Brennan                                                                                   1974

 

                             Manuals

                                  U.S. Department of Labor. Operations Manual: Contract Compliance           1976

                                  in Construction                                                                                                                                                 

 

9                           Register - Attendance

 

10                         Lists

                       

                             Notes

                       

                             Research Materials

                       

                             Publications

                       

                             Forms

 

                             Ephemera

 

                             Clippings

 

                             Miscellany

 

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION. BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 

                             Organizational Features                                                                             n.d.

 

10-11                    Minutes and Agenda                                                                                  1971, 1974-78

 

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION. ELECTRICIANS COMMITTEE

 

11                         General Correspondence                                                                          1972-76, n.d.

 

                             Minutes                                                                                                       1971-78

 

                             Subject Series – Education and Examinations                                          1977, n.d.

 

                             Attendance Records                                                                                  1975-76

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION. ELECTRICIANS COMMITTEE (cont’d)

 

11                         Miscellany

 

                             Special Apprenticeship Sub-Committee                                                    1972-73

 

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION.

                             IRONWORKERS COMMITTEE                                                               1971, 1974-77

 

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION. OILERS

                             AND OPERATORS COMMITTEE                                                           1971, 1974-77

                       

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION. PLUMBERS

                             AND PIPEFITTERS COMMITTEE                                                           1974-78

 

12                    UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION.

                             SHEETMETAL WORKERS COMMITTEE                                              1970, 1975-76

 

                        UNITED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ASSOCIATION. OAKLAND.

                             BOARD OF DIRECTORS                                                                        1973-74

 

                        COURT ORDER ADVISORY COMMITTEE

 

                             Historical and Organizational Features                                                     

 

                             Incoming Letters

                                  Lindberg, William J, Judge                                                                    1972-78

                                  Seattle Area Plumbing and Pipefitting Apprentice and

                                    Journeyman Training Trust                                                                1970, n.d.

                                  United Construction Workers Association                                            1976

                                  A – Z                                                                                                      1971-76

 

                             Outgoing Letters                                                                                         1971-78

 

                             Intraorganizational Correspondence                                                          1971-79

 

                             General Correspondence of Others                                                         

                                  United Construction Workers Association                                            1970-72, n.d.

                                  Miscellaneous                                                                                        1973-76, n.d.

 

                             Minutes and Agenda

                                  General                                                                                                  1970-79

                                  Subcommittees                                                                                     1972-73

                                  Minutes of Others                                                                                  1976

 

                             Financial Records                                                                                     

 

                             Reports                                                                                                      

                                  Monthly Reports                                                                                    1970-78

                        COURT ORDER ADVISORY COMMITTEE (cont’d)

                             Reports (cont’d)

 

12                              Monthly Data Sheets                                                                             1971-77

                                  Basic Data Sheets

13                              Accountants’ Reports                                                                           

                                  Reports from United Construction Workers Assoc.                            

                                  Miscellaneous

 

                             Proposals and Agreements

 

                             Court Papers

 

                             Lists

 

                             Miscellany

 

                        UNITED INNER CITY DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION                            1971-72, n.d.

 

                        SOUTHWEST WORKERS’ FEDERATION

                            

                             Organizational Features

                       

                             Minutes and Agenda – Quarterly Advisory Board Meetings                     1973-77

                            

                             Speeches and Writings