The Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) was created in 1939, formed from a combination of the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC-CIO) and the United Textile Workers of America (UTWA). At the time, there were four local unions in the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts (Locals 19, 30, 46, and 136), all under the jurisdiction of TWOC-CIO. With the creation of TWUA in 1939, these locals affiliated themselves with the New Bedford Joint Board. At its peak, the New Bedford Joint Board, TWUA represented approximately 14,000 workers. For more information about the Textile Workers Union of America and the New Bedford, see the pamphlets and booklets in box 19.

By-laws, minutes of board of directors and local meetings, correspondence, subject files, photographs, and scrapbooks relating to the administration of the New Bedford Joint Board, documenting its role in addressing grievances filed against individual companies, in facilitating arbitration, and hearing wage stabilization Board cases. Correspondents include J. William Belanger (first president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO), Victor Canzano (a member of the Executive Council of TWUA), John Chupka (general secretary-treasurer of TWUA), Arthur Harriman (mayor of New Bedford), and William Pollock (an executive vice president and later general president of TWUA). The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, dated from 1960 to 1971, that pertain to the New Bedford Joint Board and labor issues concerning the state of Massachusetts and the nation as a whole.

This collection is organized into four series:

• Series 1. Administration, 1947-1970
• Series 2. Subject Files, 1944-1981
• Series 3. Arbitrations and Grievances, 1942-1977
• Series 4. Miscellany, 1944-1971