In 1904 local businessmen established the Employers Association of Indianapolis to combat labor strikes in the city. Membership grew steadily over the next decade. In 1914 the organization absorbed a similar antilabor group, the Commercial Vehicle Protective Association, formed in response to a 1913 teamsters’ strike.
Renamed the Associated Employers of Indianapolis, the group began publishing the in 1923 to review local and national business conditions relevant to its anti-union stance and to focus on wage trends and labor legislation. About 4,000 copies of the first issue announced goals of discouraging union practices, upholding open-shop principles, and encouraging law enforcement.
In 1923 the Associated Employers claimed 500 anti-union employers as members, a significant number of the city’s businessmen. They bragged that their organization had given Indianapolis an open-shop reputation that promoted business growth in the city.
The organization’s minutes reflect an active group during the 1920s and early 1930s, with supporters including some of the city’s best-known firms: , , , , , . Based on the association’s minutes, the organization had become less active by the mid-1930s. In 1939 the group appears to have changed its name to the Associated Employers of Indiana.
Few public records from the organization exist for the 1950s and 1960s, although a 1961 pamphlet indicates the group had become a labor relations service specializing in personnel policies, arbitration, and cost of living figures. By 1974 the Associated Employers of Indiana, Inc., no longer appeared in Indianapolis city directories.
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