January to March, 1957, 1957

The negotiations with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters over the proposed merger may be followed through Mitchell's correspondence with Galarza and with Patrick Gorman throughout the winter. In the middle of February, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council granted the NAWU $25,000 for a special program to obtain the enforcement of P.L. 78, which stated that domestic workers should have job preference over foreign nationals in farm work. See the exchange between Mitchell and Walter Reuther on the grant (Feb. 18, 21), as well as Mitchell to Galarza on his recent conversation with Victor Reuther, who explained the internal AFL-CIO politics responsible for the grant (March 8). There is a letter from Mitchell to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer William F. Schnitzler on the latest developments in the dispute with UPWA (March 14), and a report by Galarza on his conversation with UPWA President Ralph Helstein (March 22). The Nineteenth Convention was held in Memphis on March 30; the papers include the full proceedings and the Report of the Executive Board