Scope and Content Note
The papers of Leo Goodman (1910-1982) span the years 1913-1982, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1937-1970. The collection documents the career of a labor union activist concerned with adequate and affordable housing and safety for workers in the atomic energy industry. Represented also in the papers is material related to Goodman's conflicts with union officials and politicians, usually in connection with his work in the atomic energy field. The papers are divided into the following series: Personal File, General Correspondence, Housing File, Atomic Energy File, Organizations and Unions, Subject File, Miscellany, Oversize, and Classified Documents. This collection is related to papers entitled Congress of Industrial Organizations: Housing Committee, Leo Goodman (Accession 624) housed in the Archives of American Labor History and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
The Personal File, 1925-1982, contains appointment calendars, newspaper clippings, letters of recommendation for the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and speeches and writings. Goodman's appointment calendars record his various engagements from 1943 to 1982, although some of the calendars are incomplete and the one for 1961 is absent. The newspaper clippings chronicle his entire career with labor unions and labor and environmental issues. Goodman's letters of recommendation, written by numerous union officials and other influential persons, sought to have him appointed to one of the vacancies that occurred on the AEC in 1962 and 1964. The speeches and writings predominantly cover the topics of housing and atomic energy. Goodman's most noteworthy speech, “Radiation Hazard in Modern Industry,” an address he presented to different organizations throughout his career, was originally delivered at the first John Fogarty Memorial luncheon in 1967.
The Housing File, 1934-1969, encompasses Goodman's overlapping work with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO); International Union, United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW-CIO); and the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). Largely, however, the files pertain to his employment as the secretary and director of the CIO National Housing Committee. The early correspondence and memoranda with several organizations and affiliated unions reflect his interest in cooperatives, home ownership, redevelopment of dilapidated housing, new housing communities, and rent controls to ease the plight of industrial workers and returning World War II servicemen as well as the battle against the housing lobby. Goodman travelled to Europe during the 1950s to view the rebuilding of housing devastated by the war. In the 1960s, he worked for the UAW to help Mexico obtain suitable housing. The legislation files, 1945-1954, contain correspondence, voting lists, testimonies, and the texts of such bills as Wagner-Ellender-Taft, Taft-Ellender-Wagner, Cooperative Housing, Middle Income Housing, and Rent Control and its extensions. Further housing material can be found under the heading for individual unions in the Organizations and Unions series.
The Atomic Energy File, 1941-1982, was compiled by Goodman mostly in his role as secretary of the Atomic Energy Technical Committee, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), but also while in related positions for other unions. His papers show how housing problems and government treatment of atomic energy employees living in AEC-controlled communities such as Oak Ridge, Tennessee, motivated him to fight for worker safety in the atomic energy industry. Goodman's interest then turned to gathering material on the atomic reactor licensing cases heard before the AEC. At these hearings, where testimony and information were given for and against the proposed building or relicensing of an atomic reactor, he often testified on behalf of the intervenors who opposed the reactors. His most famous triumph occurred in his work with counsel Benjamin C. Sigal as a representative of intervenors against the construction of the Detroit Edison Fast Breeder Reactor in Monroe near Detroit, Michigan, in the case In re Power Reactor Development Co.
Goodman's compilation of accident lists culminated in his monograph, “A Survey of Accidents in the Atomic Energy Industry, 1942-1966.” A file under this title encompasses background material collected on each accident arranged by type of accident therein in reverse chronological order in keeping with the sequence of the book. The volume is also contained in this series. A topic of note in the subject file of this series is uranium miners and workers' compensation. Goodman's work with the uranium miners and workers' compensation eventually led to his dismissal from the Atomic Energy Technical Committee.
The Organizations and Unions series, 1903-1982, contains files kept by Goodman as either a member or officer of an organization or union. Some of the significant organizations include the Emergency Conference for the Civilian Control of Atomic Energy, which lobbied to pass the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ending military control of atomic energy; the National Fair Rent Committee, founded with Fiorello H. LaGuardia; and the Treasury Department's War Bond Campaign, for which Goodman worked as a liaison to the CIO unions instituting the first payroll savings plan. The major unions with which Goodman was affiliated were the CIO, UAW, and the AFL-CIO. In all three of these unions, he performed duties related to atomic energy, especially as the secretary of the CIO National Committee on Atomic Energy, Power and Resources Development; the atomic energy advisor to the UAW; and as secretary of the AFL-CIO Atomic Energy Technical Committee chaired by Walter Reuther. Goodman's papers on the Bata Shoe Company in the United Shoe Workers of America file cover the Maryland company's links to Nazi Germany.
The General Correspondence, 1927-1982, relates to various aspects of Goodman's personal and professional life. His correspondents include Lawrence Bogart, George A. Crago, Richard L.-G. Deverall, Ellery A. Foster, Pat (Gardner) Jackson, Judith Ann Hayes Johnsrud, Pare Lorentz, Astrid and Donald S. Monson, Leland Olds, Drew Pearson, Murton Peer, Victor Salkind, Ernest J. Sternglass, and members of the Goodman family. Items of note in the Miscellany series, 1934-1980, are correspondence with various congressional representatives and a file on business meetings attended by Goodman from 1942 to 1980.