AFL-CIO Washington State Labor Council Videotape Collection
Overview
The AFL-CIO Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) Videotape Collection documents regional and national labor movements from 1975 to 1999. Comprising 189 videotapes, the collection primarily features Washington Works, a public access television program produced by the WSLC, alongside Labor Institute of Public Affairs (LIPA) Video News Reports and other relevant local and national programs.
Content
The programs capture a wide range of labor-related issues through speeches, interviews, and panel discussions featuring prominent national and local labor leaders and supporters. Content addresses contemporary grievances, labor history, political activism, and music. The collection includes significant footage of rallies, conventions, and other labor events, providing a visual record of the period's activism and discourse. Particularly notable is footage related to the 1999 World Trade Organization protest in Seattle.
The original materials are on Betacam, U-matic, and VHS videotapes created by WSLC staff.
About This Digital Collection
This digital selection was researched, prepared, and digitized by the Labor Archives and Film Archives teams in the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections in 2015. Film Archives project staff Jaki Parsons selected the clips and created the descriptive metadata.
- Digitization Process: Original U-matic, VHS, and Betacam SP tapes were reformatted using BlackMagic encoding software. Streaming files were edited in Final Cut Pro, exported via QuickTime, transcoded to HTML5, and linked with their descriptive metadata for online access.
- Repository of original materials: Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Finding Aid for audiovisual collection: AFL-CIO, Washington State Labor Council audiovisual collection, 1944-1999 Accession No.: PHColl 1134Historical Background: Forms part of the Labor Archives of Washington. Videocassettes forming that audiovisual collection were relocated from the AFL-CIO, Washington State Labor Council records, Acc. no. 0450-012, from donations from the Washington State Labor Council in 1996 and 2002. Processing Note: The audiovisual materials were inventoried by Community Engaged Learning Students working in partnership with the Labor Archives and the Film Archives. Full processing of the collection was performed by Hannah Palin, Woods Fairbanks, Jaki Parsons, and Kelly Burton, 2014-2016.
