| "Bartender International League Local
188 was organized in July 1901 in an unique way. A number of bartenders
had met by accident or appointment on the sidewalk opposite Newell's
hotel, when Thomas H. Flynn and Cal Wyatt, organizers of the American
Federation of Labor sauntered up the avenue and greeted them. A few of
them knew Tom and Cal and it happened that each of the organizers had
received communications few days previous from Jere L. Sullivan,
International Secretary Treasurer for the Bartenders, soliciting aid in
placing in Pittsburgh a bartenders union. There was at that time in
Pittsburgh several clubrooms and associations mostly composed of
bartenders, and an organization known as the Knights of Fidelity, composed
of hotel and saloon-keepers, as well as bartenders. None of these had any
affiliation with the A.F. of L., and organizers Flynn and Wyatt mentioned
this to their bartender friends; a discussion followed, with the result
that all bartenders at this little accidental or informal meeting gave
their names and there, in fact was laid the foundation of the present
Bartenders Local 188 that has had as many ups and downs as any union of
any craft in Pittsburgh. But "Freedom's battle once begun. Though
baffled oft is ever won," and today Local 188, in point of numbers,
leads all locals of bartenders in Pennsylvania and its spirit of unionism
is as loyal and true as any organized body in the state. The bartenders
who met on that evening agreed to attend a meeting the following Sunday
afternoon in a hall in Smithfield Street, located on the site of the
present Oliver building. Every one of them was in attendance and
a........"
(Source: Michael Doyle, "Brief History of
the Bartenders Union." Iron City Trades Journal,
September 2, 1910, UE/Labor Periodicals Microfilm) |
