April to June, 1968, 1968

The test case on NLRA exclusion of agricultural workers, designated Local 300 v. McCulloch, went through its preliminary phases during this Spring. Information on the progress of the lawsuit appears in correspondence from the union's lawyers, James Youngdahl, Richard Sobol, and Alexander Schullman, as well as in Mitchell's two memoranda on the case (April 15; June 5) and in his letters to Ernesto Galarza (May 6) and Leon Schachter (May 20). See also the draft of the Complaint to be filed in Federal District Court (June 21), a paper prepared by the Senate Sub-Committee on Migratory Labor staff on the legislative history of the exclusion of agricultural workers from NLRA coverage (May 10), and Mitchell's statement to a USDA hearing on sugar cane wages (June 24). There is a letter from Mitchell to AMC Executive Vice-President Harry R. Poole on the progress of the sugar workers organizing campaign (April 1), and two letters from Mitchell to NSF Executive Secretary Fay Bennett on starting a new self-help housing project for sugar workers in Assumption Parish, Louisiana (June 4, 7)