Guide to the R. Conrad Cooper Papers, 1927-1980 AIS.1991.01
Arrangement
Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
R. Conrad Cooper Papers
Creator
Cooper, R. Conrad
Collection Number
AIS.1991.01
Extent
8.13 Linear Feet
Date
1927-1980
Abstract
Throughout the prolonged steel strike of 1959, R(ichard) Conrad Cooper held the key position of chairman of the steel industry's four-man team which negotiated with labor representatives headed by David J. McDonald, president of the United Steelworkers of America. This collection contains: documents of the Collective Bargaining Conference (United Steelworkers of America and the Coordinating Committee for Steel Companies, 1966-1969), speeches, personal and business correspondence, scrapbooks of clippings, memoranda; photographs, and memorabilia.
Language
English
.
Author
Don Hawksworth. Additions and corrections were made by Vincent Kwiatek in 1993. Further revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System Archives & Special Collections Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Biography
Throughout the prolonged steel strike of 1959, R(ichard) Conrad Cooper held the key position of chairman of the steel industry's four-man team which negotiated with labor representatives headed by David J. McDonald, president of the United Steelworkers of America. Originally trained as an industrial engineer, Cooper had risen gradually from field work in his profession to the office of executive vice-president in charge of personnel services for the United States Steel Corporation. He had been appointed to that position in February1958. As a specialist in industrial relations, he built his reputation on achievements in the areas of job classification and wage incentives within the steel industry. Business Week magazine once called R. Conrad Cooper the "dean of labor talks" because of his tough bargaining manner when he sat across the table from such labor leaders as John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America and Philip Murray, David J. McDonald and I.W. Abel, past presidents of the United Steelworkers of America. He negotiated the low-cost steel contracts of 1962 and 1963.
Richard Conrad Cooper, the fifth of eight children of Edwin Peter and Stella (Taylor) Cooper, was born in Beaver Dam, Kentucky on June 15, 1903. When R. Conrad was four years of age, his father gave up his work as a coal miner and small-shaft operator in Beaver Dam, moved his family north to South Dakota by covered wagon, and became a "homesteader" on a farm near Pierre. Here Cooper grew up and received most of his early education.
Cooper had fifteen dollars in his pocket upon arrival at Minneapolis in 1922 to study engineering at the University of Minnesota. Cooper pumped gasoline, waited on tables in a fraternity house, worked in a restaurant, and worked as an usher in a movie theater, yet he was able to find time for sports while he was studying for his degree. He played center on the college football team. He was also a member of the 1924 team that held Illinois' celebrated Red Grange to minus yardage. R. Conrad Cooper won the heavyweight boxing championship at Minnesota and tried his hand at rodeo rough riding while earning his undergraduate degree. (Later, as a negotiator for the Wheeling Steel Corporation, he called John L. Lewis "a windbag" and quickly accepted Lewis's invitation to fight. However, the match never occured.)
He was graduated with the B.S. degree in 1926. He remained in Minneapolis and accepted a position as field engineer in the service department of the Universal Portland Cement Company.
In 1929, Cooper married his college sweetheart, Irene Virginia Johnson, and in the same year joined a New York City management consultant firm, the Charles E. Bedaux Company - now called American Associated Consultants. The Charles E. Bedaux Company specialized in installing the Bedaux System For various companies. Fortune (March 1959) described the Bedaux System as "an efficiency engineering program that was long denounced by U.S. labor as 'the speedup system'."
The Wheeling (West Virginia) Steel Corporation hired Cooper in 1937 as assistant to its vice-president in charge of operations. The United States War Labor Board directed the steel industry to setup a system of standard job classifications and wages in 1944. Cooper accepted an assignment from the United States Steel Corporation of Delaware to head its negotiating committee in working out an agreement with the United Steelworkers. As U.S. Steel's assistant vice-president for industrial relations, he negotiated with the union from 1945 to 1947, in order to reach a settlement on job classification.
During the next decade, R. Conrad Cooper's career was steadily advanced within the U.S. Steel corporate network. Cooper was vice-president in charge of industrial engineering from 1948 to 1955. He was vice-president for administrative planning from 1955 to 1958. He became the executive vice-president for personnel services for the U.S. Steel Corporation, in 1958.
As Cooper's corporate career moved forward, he tried to persuade the steelworker union to agree to a plan based on his estimates of a "fair day's work." During several years of drawn out negotiations, union spokesmen charged Cooper with advocating the speedup, according to Fortune (March 1959). A settlement in 1952 resulted in a compromise which allowed the union to retain the right to challenge incentive rates established by management.
The U.S. Steel Corporation had for some years provided leadership for management in settling disputes with the steelworkers' union. Cooper, therefore,was recognized early in 1959 as the man who would be the principal industry negotiator with labor representatives in the collective bargaining due to begin before the contract expired at the end of June 1959. When formal talks opened between the two groups in New York in May, Cooper headed a four-man team representing twelve steel companies - all major producers accounting for approximately 87% of the nation's steel.
From the beginning of the negotiations, Cooper denounced the steelworkers'wage demands as inflationary, contending that an increase in the price of steel would be necessary to offset the wage raise. He argued that such a price increase would make it more difficult for U.S. steel producers to withstand the encroachments of foreign steel competitors, and that American steel would price itself out of world markets. Labor, on the other hand, attributed industry's predicament to its own high profits.
Another important issue in the dispute concerned local work rules. Industry insisted upon gaining greater authority over working practices at the plant level in order to eliminate what Cooper called "loafing, featherbedding, and unjustifiable idle time." Industry negotiators stipulated that union agreement to work-rule changes would have to be a precondition to any specific offer of a wage increase.
Eight weeks of negotiations failed to break the deadlock between management and labor. A strike date was set for June 30, 1959. However, it was postponed through a two-week truce arranged by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. On July 15th, the steelworkers called a nationwide walkout.
The walkout of July 15, 1959 initiated the longest work stoppage in the history of the steel industry. At the time the strike had reached its 116th day, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Taft-Hartley law injunction directing the steelworkers to return to work for eighty days. By this time, thousands of other workers in various industries had been thrown out of work because of steel shortages.
The U.S. Steel Corporation had announced in October that during the strike-ridden third quarter of 1959 it had suffered a loss of more than thirty-one million dollars. Nevertheless, it was able to maintain its quarterly dividend of seventy-five cents because of heavy profits in the first half of the year - profits due, in part, to consumers' having built up a reserve of inventories in expectation of a strike.
Although Cooper "struck out" (as one steel executive and colleague stated), during the 1959 management- labor negotiations, he successfully negotiated the low-cost 1962 and 1963 contracts. Because of his high public profile during periods of negotiations between the steel companies and the United Steelworkers, R. Conrad Cooper was known to several American presidents, namely Dwight D.Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Cooper retired from the U.S. Steel Corporation on June 30, 1968.
Upon retirement, Cooper remained very active, both professionally and civically. He formed a partnership with Richard Faulkner Sentner (another then recently retired executive vice-president of the U.S. Steel Corporation) to establish a business consulting firm, the Cooper-Sentner Company. After Sentner died in 1975, Cooper operated the business on his own until 1980. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sewickley Valley Hospital, President of the Airline Industrial Relations Conference and as a trustee for Grove City College.
R. Conrad Cooper died at Sewickley Valley Hospital on October 1, 1982, as a result of a lengthy illness. His wife, Irene, followed him in death three months later, on December 29, 1982. The Coopers had no children.
Scope and Content Notes
This collection contains documents of the Collective Bargaining Conference (United Steelworkers of America and the Coordinating Committee for Steel Companies, 1966-1969), speeches, personal and business correspondence, scrapbooks of clippings, memoranda, photographs, and memorabilia. Subjects include arbitration, collective bargaining, cost of labor, industrial relations, job classification, labor disputes, management planning, management-labor relations, steel strikes (1959, 1962-1963), Bedaux Company, Copper Corporation, Mop-O-Matic, National War Labor Board, Wheeling Steel Corporation, and United States Steel Corporation.
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Acquisition Information
Gift of School of Business, Duquesne University, 1991
Previous Citation
R. Conrad Cooper Papers, 1927-1980, AIS.1991.01, Archives Services Center, University of Pittsburgh
Preferred Citation
R. Conrad Cooper Papers, 1927-1980, AIS.1991.01, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Don Hawksworth in 1991. Additions and corrections were made by Vincent Kwiatek in 1993.
Copyright
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Subjects
Corporate Names
United States Steel Corporation
Wheeling Steel Corporation
Personal Names
Cooper, R. Conrad
Other Subjects
Wages -- Iron and steel workers -- United States
Strikes and lockouts -- Steel industry and trade -- United States
Steel industry and trade -- Job descriptions
Management and planning
Management -- Decision making
Labor disputes
Labor costs
Industrial relations
Collective bargaining -- Steel industry and trade
Arbitration, Industrial
Labor
Business and Industry
Personal papers
Container List
General Note
5 volumes
Scope and Content Notes
Series II consists of five volumes of speeches prepared by R. Conrad Cooper; these deal largely with business and topics of economic interest. The speeches cover a span of time ranging from 1947 to 1973.
Containers
box 1, volume 1
Containers
box 1, volume 2
Containers
box 1, volume 3
Containers
box 1, volume 4
General note
Essentially the same speech as given on May 8 to Natl. Assoc. of Hosiery Mfgrs., Index No. 33.
General note
With appropriate changes to suit occasion.
Containers
box 1, volume 5
General Note
65 folders
Scope and Content Notes
Series III is comprised of private and business correspondence dating from 1927 to 1966. Topics include Cooper's time at the Bedaux Company, the "Cooper Corporation", "Mop-o-matic", and notes of congratulations on his various promotions while employed at United States Steel.
Containers
box 2, folder 1-34
General Note
34 folders
Scope and Content Notes
Personal correspondence dealing with many subjects. Letters from friends, family, and business associates. Includes a letter from I.W. Abel dated 5/22/1974 transmitting an inscribed copy of Then and Now: The Road - The Story of the United Steelworkers of America (1974).
Containers
box 2, folder 35-48
General Note
14 folders
Scope and Content Notes
Letters of congratulations on Cooper's appointment to Assistant Vice President of Industrial Relations at United States Steel Corporation, Vice President of Industrial Engineering of United States Steel Corporation, Vice President of Administration Planning of USS, and as Executive Vice President Personnel-Services. Also contains replies and clippings on appointments.
Containers
box 3, folder 1
Scope and Content Notes
Correspondence between the Cooper brothers in reformation and administration of Cooper Corporation. Includes articles of incorporation, by-laws, and minutes to initial meetings.
Containers
box 3, folder 2-12
General Note
11 folders
Scope and Content Notes
Regards all aspects of Mop-O-Matic including planning, production, marketing, and sales. Also included are patent applications, blue prints and technical drawings, and reference to the Cooper Corporation. Established for the production and sale of the Mop-O-Matic.
Containers
box 3, folder 13
Scope and Content Notes
Concerning trust accounts established by Cooper with the Empire Trust Company. Also letters from Independence Fund of North America, Inc. and National Securities and Research Corporation.
Containers
box 3, folder 14
Scope and Content Notes
Concerning investment in Dobson Engineering Corporation, later Dobson-Anderson Corporation, via stock subscription.
Containers
box 3, folder 15
Scope and Content Notes
Correspondence between Cooper and Wheeling Steel regarding the purchase and sale of Wheeling Steel Corporation stock.
Containers
box 3, folder 16
Scope and Content Notes
Includes letters to and from his uncle, Fleming Taylor, with whom he was in business prospecting oil in Kentucky. Also letters for geological surveys, and to friends and businesses concerning these oil ventures.
Containers
box 3, folder 17
Scope and Content Notes
Regarding money owed on house fund promissory note to Kappa Sigma Corporation. Includes handwritten speech delivered at Kappa Sigma's annual banquet.
General Note
1 cubic foot
Scope and Content Notes
Series IV is chiefly concerned with the subject of management-labor relations. The materials have a direct connection to the career of R. Conrad Cooper. A number of documents have a bearing on business philosophy, policies,and attitudes from 1940 to 1980. Materials of special note include:
Letter (copy) written to John L. Lewis of the UMWA - from Henry D. Scott,vice-president of the Wheeling Steel Corporation, dated 3 Oct 1941. Topic: Captive mine agreements and the Union Shop.
Documents from the Emergency Management War Manpower Commission, 1942.
Copy of a letter from Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt dealing with the enforcement of directives of the National War Labor Board, 16 August 1943.
Pamphlets and other materials relating to the steel industry negotiations in 1959.
Transcripts of a broadcast interview between George Hieks and R. Conrad Cooper during the "Long Strike" of 1959; the series of interviews was entitled Basic Issues in the Nationwide Steel Strike, broadcast dates 8 Sept. 1959; 15 Sept. 1959; 22 Sept. 1959; 25 Sept, 1959;and 29 Sept. 1959.
Document, Memorandum of Joint Meeting. July 13, 1959. A memorandum of a joint meeting between representatives of the steel Companies' negotiating team and the negotiating team representing the U.S.W.A.
A study published by the Labor Policy Association Inc. (June 1975), entitled Steps in the Union Power Study. Used/read by R. Conrad Cooper when he worked as a private consultant.
A folder of personal notes (mainly written as reminders) by R. Conrad Cooper when he was a private consultant.
Remarks, comments, statements, statistics, and charts by various individuals, including R.C. Cooper, in re the problem of ever increasing cost of labor and the difficulties incurred.
Report to the President: The 1959 Labor Dispute in the Steel Industry. Submitted by the Board of Inquiry under Executive Orders 10843 and 10848, October 19, 1959.
Containers
box 3
Scope and Content Notes
Series V consists of photographs ranging in time from 1925 to 1969. Most of the photographs are from the late 1950s and the 1960s, covering the time-period when Cooper was actively involved in steel industry negotiations. Photos of special interest include:
Photo of RCC in football uniform at the University of Minnesota (graduated 1926).
Photo, showing a youthful RCC; probably taken around 1930.
Photographs taken during the 1959 Steel negotiations and the Long Strike of 1959. Some photos show RCC with U.S.W.A. President David J. McDonald.
Photo of RCC in a group photograph with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Photographs of the 1962 steel negotiations.
Photographs of RCC with President Lyndon B. Johnson, taken c. 1965 - photos are personally inscribed by LBJ to RCC. (3 items)
Containers
box 4
Scope and Content Notes
Series VI contains memorabilia from Cooper's lifetime.
Scope and Content Notes
Items of special note include:
"Dinner with Ike" - menu and program, 27 Jan. 1960
Christmas greeting cards from Pres. Richard M. Nixon and Pres. Gerald Ford
Honorary "Doctor of Laws" conferred by Grove City College, 1970
General Note
8 volumes
Scope and Content Notes
Series VII contains "scrapbooks" which were kept personally by Conrad Cooper. They include news-clippings from a variety of sources dealing with the prolonged, 116-day steel strike of 1959.
Containers
box 5, volume [A]
Scope and Content Notes
Articles from issues of Time, reporting on the steel strike and negotiations.
Containers
box 5, volume [B]
Containers
box 5, volume [C]
Scope and Content Notes
News clippings from a variety of newspapers and magazines, dealing with the steel strike and management-labor negotiations.
Containers
box 5, volume [D]
Scope and Content Notes
News clippings from a variety of newspapers and magazines, dealing with the steel strike and related issues.
Containers
box 5, volume [E]
Scope and Content Notes
News clippings from a variety of newspapers and magazines, dealing with the steel strike and related issues.
Containers
box 6, volume [F]
Scope and Content Notes
News clippings from a variety of newspapers and magazines, dealing with steel negotiations and related issues.
Containers
box 6, volume [G]
Scope and Content Notes
News clippings from a variety of newspapers and magazines, dealing with the steel strike and related issues.
Containers
box 6, volume [H]
Scope and Content Notes
News clippings from a variety of newspapers and magazines relating to steel negotiations and management-labor relations.
Containers
box 6, volume [I]
Scope and Content Notes
Includes clippings from when RCC was employed at the Bedaux Co., adulation of Cooper Brothers, and resignation of Fowler Harper.
Scope and Content Notes
Series VIII contains drawings, sketches, and blueprints of the Mop-O-Matic product and each of its individual parts.
Containers
box 7
Scope and Content Notes
This material was added to the finding aid in December 2010.