Reel 46

Scope and Contents For a running account of Mitchell's activities during this winter, during which he lost an NLRB election at the Louisiana State Rice Milling Co. and turned to other organizing prospects, see his weekly reports from Gene V. Collins, Willie Berry, and other members of the Local 300 staff. On legal matters, see Mitchell's correspondence with Local 300 lawyer James Youngdahl. An especially interesting legal case arose with the Sweetlake Land and Oil Co., Inc., a corporation farm which claimed...

Scope and Contents Local 300 had three different cases before the NLRB during the Spring of this year. The first case involved a Borden Co. dairy plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where the local management began a strong counterattack against the union with the aid of the New Orleans law firm of Kullman and Lang; the papers include the transcript of the NLRB representation hearing (April 11), the brief filed by the Borden Co. with the NLRB (April 25), and a set of unfair labor practice charges filed by the...

Scope and Contents For the remainder of the year, Local 300 became mired in litigation before the NLRB. Most of the litigation concerned the unsuccessful attempt to organize the Borden Co. dairy plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana; copies of the various legal papers filed by the company, the union, and the NLRB itself appear throughout this three month period. There is also a generous sample of the anti-union flyers which the company sent its employees shortly before the election (Sept 12 to 21). On the other...

Scope and Contents From the Collection: Consist of correspondence, reports, ledgers, legal documents, leaflets, printed material, photographs, and newspapers published by the union. These document the activities of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union from its origins through its transformations into the National Farm Labor Union in 1946 and the National Agriculture Workers Union in 1952, and through its merger with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1960. The records also contain selected materials from the Socialist Party...