Reel 37

Scope and Contents To forestall possible anti-trust litigation by the Department of Justice, a co-operative marketing association was set up among the NAWU strawberry farmers in Louisiana; for details on the new co-op, see Mitchell to Hank Hasiwar (Jan. 14) and two letters from NAWU attorney Daniel H. Pollitt (Jan. 19, Feb 13). In a memorandum to AFL President George Meany, Mitchell proposed a $500,000 organizing drive among agricultural workers (Jan 6); see also a letter from Mitchell to Churchill on the...

Scope and Contents Mitchell spent most of March in Havana, Cuba, serving as AFL representative to the World Conference on Plantation Workers sponsored by the International Labor Organization. There are no papers from the Conference itself, but there are three drafts of reports on what transpired, including two by Mitchell (n.d. [March], April 30) and one by Clara M. Beyer, Associate Director of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Standards (April 21). The NAWU San Joaquin Valley Council began to become active again after...

Scope and Contents The main topic during these two months is a series of upcoming legal battles in California and Louisiana. In California, the union was considering court action to stop the displacement of domestic workers by Mexican Nationals and, at the same time, to prevent the deportation of those contract Nationals who had joined the NAWU. On this subject, see the correspondence with Galarza and with San Francisco lawyer James A. Murray. In Louisiana, the NAWU Fruit and Vegetable Producers Union faced...

Scope and Contents There is a memorandum from NAWU lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt on the negotiations with the Department of Justice to delay the anti- trust case (Aug. 10); see also the copy of the indictment (July 29). Beginning on July 29, there is a three-cornered exchange between the Louisiana Sugar Workers Union, the Louisiana State Department of Labor and various sugar companies on the subject of arranging bargaining sessions between the union and the growers. On the sugar workers campaign, see also a...

Scope and Contents The union's lawyers made an unsuccessful attempt to settle the Louisiana anti-trust case by arranging for a consent decree; see the report by Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. and Daniel Pollitt on their negotiations with the Justice Department (Sept. 21; Oct. 30), and the draft of the proposed consent decree (n.d. [Oct.]). On Oct. 12, the NAWU Sugar Workers Union began a strike of 1,200 workers in Louisiana to demand union recognition. There are press releases and bulletins throughout October on the...

Scope and Contents The Louisiana sugar workers strike ended on November 9 when the union decided to honor the court injunctions obtained by the various sugar companies. The papers include copies of the various legal documents filed in Louisiana courts (Nov. 2 to 5), a ten-page report by lawyer Paul Barker summarizing the legal proceedings (Nov. 8), a copy of the Petition For a Writ of Certiorari submitted to the Supreme Court (Nov 28), a confidential memorandum by Mitchell on the strike (n.d. [Nov]), and a...

Scope and Contents

Constitution of the San Joaquin Valley Farm Labor Contractors' Association; budget and plans for the California NAWU; Statement of the Southern Sugar Council - CIO on the Louisiana sugar strike; "A Report on Organization of Agricultural Workers"; memorandum from Mitchell to Walter P. Reuther proposing a CIO International of agricultural and processing workers; memorandum from Daniel H. Pollitt on "Secondary Boycott -- Merger of Agricultural and Packing Shed Locals"

Scope and Contents During January, the NAWU issued a loud protest over the new Department of Labor policy of issuing work permits to Mexican Nationals at the US border; see especially the memoranda from Galarza (Jan 19,20, n.d.), and a memorandum from Mitchell to AFL President George Meany on this subject (Jan. 27). The Federal District Judge in New Orleans hearing the anti-trust case against the NAWU strawberry growers refused to accept the settlement worked out between the union and the Justice Department;...