Reel 51

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...

Scope and Contents On May 29, Local 300 signed contracts with a number of menhaden fishing companies. Beginning June 13, the union struck the remaining companies which refused to sign contracts. The most detailed information on the strike appears in the almost daily exchange of correspondence between Mitchell and AMC Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Gorman during July, and in Mitchell's letters to AMC Vice-President Sam Twedell at the beginning and end of the strike (June 19 to 29; Aug 15, 21). Following the...

Scope and Contents The most interesting items in the papers for these months are the detailed affidavits on the strike and the stalled negotiations which Local 300 submitted to the NLRB in an attempt to force the hold-out menhaden companies to sign union contracts. These include several affidavits by Mitchell (Sept 4, 11, 24; Oct 12; Nov 3), one by organizer Lionel Sanders (Sept 27), and several by the fishermen themselves (Nov 29, 30). Mitchell's letters to James Youngdahl contain a good deal of information...