Subseries: Zalesak, Charles F.

INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
Scope and Content Note: Born in Hradovice, Czechoslovakia, in 1914. Zalesak's father, who was taken prisoner during World War I and presumed dead, returned five years later, stunning the family.

THE FAMILY MOVED FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA TO RACINE, WISCONSIN
Scope and Content Note: Fearing another European war, his father began preparing to move the family to America, got a passport the following year, and moved to Racine where relatives lived. The rest of the family followed him in 1925, leaving the small farm on which they had lived. His father got a job at Walker Manufacturing but lost it during the Depression. His mother died in 1931.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF ZALESAK'S WORK EXPERIENCES IN RACINE DURING THE 1930s AND 1940s
Scope and Content Note: After his father lost his job, Zalesak worked a year and a half for a Racine meat market, and for a few months at the Young Radiator Company. He was forced to leave home because his father could no longer support him, saved enough to buy a panel truck and got a job delivering orders for Omar Bakery. He then worked in a Hamilton Beach Company warehouse for three years and was lured to Jacobson Manufacturing Company to play baseball for the company team. In 1948 Zalesak lost all the fingers on his right hand in an industrial accident at Jacobson's. A doctor used 187 stitches to rejoin the fingers.

ZALESAK BECAME A RACINE ALDERMAN
Scope and Content Note: While recovering from the accident, friends encouraged him to run for alderman. He made house-to-house campaign calls in a heavily-populated Irish ward, decided he would not win the election because he was not Irish-Catholic, but did win by ten votes. He served five terms as alderman, was once the city council president and acting mayor, and helped redistrict the city. He won re-election even after redistricting pitted him against two other aldermen for the same seat.

THE ZALESAKS MOVED TO MADISON, WISCONSIN, IN 1958
Scope and Content Note: Wanting his children to attend college, but unable to afford room and board besides tuition, he moved to Madison so his children could attend the University of Wisconsin and live at home, thereby saving expenses. He got a job at the new Kroger store on Midvale Boulevard in August 1958. In Racine, he had worked for a meat locker, several meat markets, and Sentry. A year later, he became meat department manager at the Cardinal Market (now Miller's Food Store), with an increase in wages.

ZALESAK WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF MEAT CUTTERS LOCAL 502 IN MADISON IN 1960
Scope and Content Note: Union meetings were held in the business representative's office, which the Meat Cutters local shared with the Retail Clerks Local 1401. Few members attended meetings. Local 502 had 97 members when he was elected president in January 1960. Until about 1959, Local 502 shared a business representative, Leo Clark, with the Clerks local. Peter Voeller was hired to replace Clark in the Clerks union. Clark quit as business representative for the Meat Cutters in June 1960.

ZALESAK BECAME SECRETARY-TREASURER OF LOCAL 502 IN JULY 1960
Scope and Content Note: Because Local 502's executive board told him it knew little about operating a local, Zalesak contacted the International headquarters in Chicago for help after Leo Clark's resignation. International Vice President Ray Wentz, in charge of the Madison district, sent in Vern Noon to help straighten out the local's operations. Zalesak reluctantly agreed to accept Noon's suggestion that he run for the secretary-treasurer's office. Zalesak won handily over three other candidates. His starting salary was $37 a week less than his meat cutting job at Cardinal Market. The Cardinal's owner, Harry Gearson--”the best employer I ever worked for”--told Zalesak he could always have a job at Cardinal.

HIS EARLY WORK AS LOCAL 502 SECRETARY-TREASURER
Scope and Content Note: During his first week on the job as “financial secretary,” he attended the International convention in Atlantic City, where he learned much about union affairs. He then returned and asked the membership to re-elect the executive board, which continued to help him over the years. At the first membership meeting after his own election, he promised the members to “get 'em the best pay in the United States; I'll get 'em pension, I'll get 'em insurance and holidays. I'm gonna make this union one of the finest unions that there is in the United States. If and when that happens, and I reach that goal, no matter what age, I'm gonna submit my resignation at that time as their officer.”

GAINS MADE BY THE UNION WHILE ZALESAK WAS SECRETARY-TREASURER
Scope and Content Note: “In my opinion, ...when I left, we had the finest meat cutters' union.” The local had “the second highest-paid hourly wage” in the nation, a pension plan, health insurance, eye and dental care, prescription coverage and other fringes. Zalesak himself now receives pensions from the Meat Cutters International and the local.

EARLY NEGOTIATING PROBLEMS LED HIM TO SEE THE NEED FOR MORE ORGANIZING AND TO ABSORB SMALLER LOCALS INTO LOCAL 502
Scope and Content Note: In his first negotiations, in 1962, “I was as green as grass.” Even though union membership had climbed to 150, “we were just small potatoes” in a multi-employer bargaining session. Zalesak believed a larger membership would increase the local's bargaining leverage. Accordingly, he organized more meat departments, as well as other food industry workers in packing plants, and a seafood and pizza plant, among others. In 1963, Meat Cutter locals in Janesville and La Crosse, Wisconsin, merged with Local 502. Local 502 then became Local 444. In 1966, Eugene Myers was hired as a business representative; in 1969, John Sullivan, another business representative, was added. Local 444 also moved out of the office it had shared with the Clerks local in 1966.

END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

1972 CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF TOUGH AND TENSE BARGAINING
Scope and Content Note: Local union members believed they were $15 behind Milwaukee in wages, and that towns like Lake Geneva, Burlington and Whitewater were $10 or $15 behind Madison meat cutters. Zalesak believed it was not cheaper to live in smaller towns, that people in cities could take advantage of sales on different items, and that “You're gonna pay your employees for the work that they perform, not for their conditions of what their expenses are, or whether they're in a big town or a smaller town.” The membership sanctioned a strike when negotiations over wage increases seemed stalled. Zalesak organized strike captains. Members were prepared to walk out of stores on 16-minutes notice. About $40,000 was available to help strikers in a special “emergency fund,” which members had built with one dollar monthly contributions over the years. Zalesak and the union's bargaining team made a final offer late in the morning of April 27, the day the contract was to expire. When the employers' bargaining group had not responded by 7 p.m. that night, Zalesak and others informed the employers that the union would strike if a settlement was not reached by midnight. Zalesak bet a dollar with his bargaining committee that the companies would accept the union's offer, “which was quite a chunk--it was close to $2.40 an hour increase” and other gains over a three-year contract. Only the local president agreed with Zalesak. At 11:55 p.m., an employer spokesman appeared and told Zalesak privately that while the companies considered his offer “very unfair,” they nevertheless trusted Zalesak and would agree to the proposal. With a long, tired face, Zalesak returned to the bargaining committee in the hotel lobby. “I told 'em, 'We got a problem, fellas.' And God, they started reachin' for their money. And I says, 'We got a problem, fellas. We gotta go to work tomorrow morning.'” Getting that contract made Madison meat cutters the highest-paid meat cutters in the nation until California locals increased their wages a month or so later.

HIS CAREER “HIGHLIGHTS” WERE GETTING PENSIONS AND HEALTH INSURANCE FOR MEMBERS
Scope and Content Note: During the 1960s, he had difficulty convincing younger union members to seek pension and health insurance benefits instead of higher wages. Now, the same members thank him for his efforts. He gets satisfaction knowing that retired people on union pensions can live a little easier thanks to the union.

FURTHER CONTRACT GAINS LED TO HIS RETIREMENT IN 1975 AND TO A MERGER WITH LOCAL 73
Scope and Content Note: “I tried to do the job that I felt I was hired to do.” After gaining additional benefits in the 1974 contract negotiations, Zalesak announced his decision to retire as of April 1, 1975. When no successor to Zalesak could be found, the union decided to merge with Local 73 in Milwaukee. His retirement party in April 1975 was attended by many union and industry people and was addressed by Wisconsin Congressman Robert Kastenmeier.

ZALESAK'S POLITICAL ACTIVITIES ON BEHALF OF MEAT CUTTERS UNION
Scope and Content Note: He had gotten to know Kastenmeier while serving as a lobbyist for the state Meat Cutters association, and also as an executive board member for Meat Cutters District Four. “You gotta keep in touch with these people. When you feel you got to have some type of laws to protect the working people, those are the people you contact.” The Meat Cutters sometimes would donate $200 or so to political campaigns. He also knew several state politicians while he lived in Racine.

MORE ON THE 1972 CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
Scope and Content Note: These negotiations involved some 62 chain and independent stores. All were invited to attend bargaining sessions, but some of the smaller independents notified him they would accept whatever conditions the larger stores agreed to rather than have to pay for their own attorneys to attend the sessions. He recalls a time when 42 employer representatives attended a bargaining session. He was the spokesman for his seven-member bargaining team.

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR UNION BARGAINING TEAM MEMBERS TO BE WELL DISCIPLINED
Scope and Content Note: This importance is revealed in an anecdote about a bargaining session soon after Janesville-Beloit Local 358 merged with Local 502. Zalesak insisted that a representative from the Lake Geneva-Delavan area, formerly attached to Local 358, attend the sessions. A Kroger spokesman told union representatives they could strike if they would not accept the companies' offer. The lakes-area representative “clapped his hands together and he said, 'That sounds pretty good to me.'” Zalesak called a quick recess and jokingly threatened to throw the man out of a fourth-story window if another outburst like that one occurred. “You have to have control of these meetings.” He told bargaining committee members to ask for a recess to discuss differences of opinion or raise questions rather than air them openly in front of employer representatives. Employers often tried to divide union bargaining committee members by addressing them personally in meetings. Zalesak would tell them, “You're pointing the finger at the wrong person. You point the finger at me.” Because major food stores employ attorneys who do little else but negotiate contracts, it is especially important to control the union's position during negotiations.

ANECDOTE ILLUSTRATING THE IMPORTANCE OF A UNIFIED UNION BARGAINING POSITION: THE DEMAND FOR INCREASED WAGES FOR WOMEN IN 1972
Scope and Content Note: In these negotiations, the union agreed to demand across-the-board wage increases for women and men. Previously, men received higher increases than women, “and I just couldn't see (it).” At one point in the discussions, while union and management representatives met separately to examine offers, three company representatives knocked on the door and asked to speak to the union's team without Zalesak present. Zalesak agreed and retired to a restaurant for coffee. When he returned to the room, “I look at the committee, and I felt something not right.”

END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

CONTINUATION OF DISCUSSION OF THE ANECDOTE ABOUT 1972 NEGOTIATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Committee members, including the local's president, told him they did not believe increased wages for women was worth a strike, and that he should reconsider his position on that issue. Only two committee members supported Zalesak's view. Zalesak told the members they could complete the negotiations without him, and that he planned to take a long-overdue week's vacation. He returned to the restaurant for more coffee. Soon, the two who had supported him appeared and said the committee had made a mistake and asked him to return. He returned, got assurances the committee supported him, and scolded members for not voicing their objections at more appropriate times.

DO NOT STRIKE WITHOUT STRENGTH; STRIKE ONLY AS A LAST RESORT
Scope and Content Note: During a union membership meeting called in 1962 to consider contract provisions, two bargaining committee members grudgingly supported the contract. Zalesak told members he believed the contract was the best they could obtain, and chided the two members for not expressing their views during a break in negotiations. Zalesak said he was not happy with the provisions either, but believed the union then was too weak to sustain a strike. The need for more union strength led Zalesak to seek mergers with smaller locals. “We went to different towns, and eventually we covered 22 towns.” Added strength provided more bargaining leverage. However, “I always told the people, 'Talkin's better than walkin'.'” Some members criticized him for this position.

MORE ON THE 1972 CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
Scope and Content Note: About 30% of the union's membership then was composed of women. After years of receiving lower wage increases than male workers, the women were delighted with the new provisions. “They bought me more drinks after that meeting than I ever had. I didn't want that many.” Zalesak had agreed with women's demands for across-the-board increases for years, “but I couldn't get any support from the membership.” Men thought they were better than women. The wage increases forced employees “to become very efficient.”

MEAT CUTTING WAS CONSIDERED A MAN'S OCCUPATION
Scope and Content Note: He thinks employers excluded women from the trade because women had difficulty lifting the heavy weights. Women meat wrappers often complained to him about the weight they had to lift. Employers sometimes tried to force unwanted female employees to quit by requiring them to lift weights which only men were--by state law--supposed to lift.

THE UNION SHOULD PROCESS GRIEVANCES, NOT EMPLOYEES
Scope and Content Note: Zalesak did not want to involve employees in discussions with employers about employee-generated complaints, because the grieving employee might face abuse by a disgruntled store manager after returning to work from a personnel meeting.

ANECDOTE RELATED TO UNION EFFORTS TO ENFORCE UNION SHOP PROVISIONS
Scope and Content Note: Shortly after he became a local official in 1960, Zalesak called a membership meeting and urged members to make sure that meat department work was not performed by salesmen or other store personnel. Members had complained about shorter hours. Zalesak said they must be especially certain that salesmen did not put cold meats in meat cases. Shortly thereafter, an Eagle meat wrapper confronted a salesman stocking the meat case, told him not to do so if he was not a union member, and stormed out of the store in disgust when the head meat cutter swore at her and refused to support her position. She called Zalesak from home; he called the store manager and complained. After some discussions, the manager agreed to re-hire the wrapper but insisted she be transferred to the Middleton, Wisconsin, store because the manager believed she would not be able to work well with the head meat cutter. Claiming “she did nothing wrong to be shipped to Siberia,” Zalesak got her returned to her original store. The head meat cutter was transferred to the Middleton store. The wrapper received an ovation from store employees when she returned to the store.

FROM THIS AND OTHER INCIDENTS, ZALESAK GAINED MORE CONFIDENCE IN HIS ABILITY TO REPRESENT MEMBERS' INTERESTS, AND MEMBERS LEARNED HE WOULD SUPPORT THEM
Scope and Content Note: He told union members to report grievances accurately and honestly. Some 4,000 grievances were filed during his tenure. He told members, “If you're right, I'm gonna back you.” A union recognition grievance filed by the union against the Morris Seafood Company resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

ANECDOTE ABOUT HOW LEO CLARK DID NOT DEFEND MEMBERS WHICH ALSO REVEALS HOW EMPLOYERS TREATED EMPLOYEES WHO COMPLAINED
Scope and Content Note: Clark collected dues from members in stores but did not process grievances or listen to complaints. When Zalesak worked at the Madison Kroger store, the head meat cutter told him to punch out at 5 p.m. and then clean up. Zalesak complained to Clark. Clark came to the store's meat department and loudly repeated Zalesak's claim in the presence of the head meat cutter and other employees. “I thought to myself, 'Oh, my God! How diplomatic!'” Clark then left the store. “I went through the most two miserable weeks I ever did work for anybody.” On one occasion, Zalesak, who was well-known for the quality of his ground meat, had about 20 trays of hamburger ready for the meat wrapper to wrap and display. When the wrapper had put perhaps 50 packages in the case, she returned to say the head meat cutter wanted him to add more fat to all the meat he had ground. He did as he was told.

END OF TAPE 2, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

CONTINUATION OF ANECDOTE
Scope and Content Note: Zalesak re-ground the meat, only to have the head meat cutter inform him--again via the wrapper--that he had added too much fat, even though he had added only a pound and a half more to the 100 pounds. For the first time in 20 years, Zalesak lost his temper and began throwing aluminum trays against the back wall. “I know I was just abused.” The store manager tried to quiet things down. Zalesak added more lean beef to the hamburger mix but never caught up with his other chores that day. “And I was just burning. But I said, 'God, Charlie. Keep cool. Keep cool.'” “I think this guy was an exception.” He sometimes would over-order then take a vacation, forcing the store to sell the extra to restaurants for drastically reduced prices just to get rid of the merchandise.

SELF-SERVICE MEAT DEPARTMENTS
Scope and Content Note: Madison stores had self-service meat departments by 1958. In 1955, the Sentry store in Racine sent him to a workshop in Menomonee Falls to learn about self-service operations. Customers reluctantly accepted self-service. He thinks as many as 70% in 1962 or 1963 still opposed the concept.

AUTOMATION MUST BE BALANCED WITH WORKERS' NEEDS FOR DECENT LIVING STANDARDS
Scope and Content Note: Population pressures have forced companies to automate. He does not oppose automation as long as workers still can earn decent livings. “And I'd rather have you and two other guys working and getting decent wages and fringe benefits rather than have six people instead there and getting substandard wages.” Six workers provide more union dues than three, but it is also more important to provide income and security for families. Union contracts stipulated that attrition--not layoffs--was the only acceptable way to cut jobs due to automation.

THE TRANSITION FROM SERVICE TO SELF-SERVICE MEAT DEPARTMENTS REQUIRED LITTLE ADJUSTMENT AMONG MEAT CUTTERS
Scope and Content Note: Meat cutters were used to adjusting to different methods of cutting meat from company to company. He believed in readily accepting a company's cutting method. A meat cutter is paid to cut meat the company way and should not complain just because the system may differ from previous experiences. The introduction of power saws meant that bone dust and fat pieces had to be scraped from the meat; this was not necessary when meat was cut by hand.

CUSTOMERS REQUIRED MORE ADJUSTMENT TO SELF-SERVICE DEPARTMENTS THAN MEAT CUTTERS
Scope and Content Note: Companies learned customers feared stores put the meat's “worst side” on the bottom of the package. Zalesak suggested that Kroger put “the bottom side on top.” Some meat cutters did try to conceal bad cuts of meat in packages.

FOOD STORE COMPANIES HAVE TOO MANY SUPERVISORS
Scope and Content Note: Most employees are responsible and need little supervision--especially if they are paid well and treated fairly. He often told store managers and supervisors the company could save much money and many headaches by firing company supervisors. “Get rid of 'em,” he would say. “They're overhead. Give the money that they're earning to the people that are doing the job for you.” Employers laughed during contract negotiations when Zalesak mentioned this prospect, but he retorted: “Just go home and meditate on it. You guys go in the corner and meditate on that. You don't need a supervisor.”

MORE ON CHANGES RESULTING FROM SELF-SERVICE MEAT DEPARTMENTS
Scope and Content Note: Self-service departments and pre-packaged meats, together with state health regulations, eliminated the need for sawdust on floors. Stainless steel fixtures and bacteria-killing cleaning agents have been introduced to help suppress bacteria in meat departments. Some meat cutters prefer self-service meat counters because they do not like to deal with customers.

MORE ON SUPERVISORS
Scope and Content Note: “I always felt that there was too much management.” Workers most often were blamed for store business problems. Regional supervisors for each department are not needed. One supervisor, a former meat department employee whom Zalesak knew, confided that he had to quit his job because he could not treat employees as company policies required. Zalesak tried “to tell the employees, 'Hey--you're dealing with human beings, not animals.'” Supervisors want employees to “Go, go, go. They want you to go like hell and cut corners....”

HEAD MEAT CUTTERS SOMETIMES HAVE TOLD EMPLOYEES NOT TO TAKE TARES
Scope and Content Note: Supervisors pressure head meat cutters not to take tares--not to reset the scale to compensate for a tray's weight--in order to squeeze a little more profit from the meat department. If caught by a city inspector, usually the employees--not the head meat cutter--are blamed. In a Madison store where he worked, a city inspector required that an entire meat case be repackaged and weighed because a tare had not been taken. Over the years the union has supported journeymen and apprentices against the head meat cutter in such cases so that now tares are routinely taken.

HEAD MEAT CUTTERS OFTEN ARE LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN MANAGEMENT SUPERVISORS
Scope and Content Note: The head meat cutter's primary responsibility “is to make as much profit for the company as they possibly can.” “I can't find one instance in my many years that I was with the union that I found that a head meat cutter would stick up for anybody.” “They'd more or less put the blame on somebody else than assume the responsibility.” The Portage, Wisconsin, National once asked Zalesak to remove the head meat cutter from the bargaining unit, and Zalesak agreed. The head meat cutter and the store manager later were stunned to learn that Zalesak would not allow the head meat cutter to cut meat because only union members could cut meat. The incident resulted in hearings before both the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board and the National Labor Relations Board. Zalesak offered to take the head meat cutter back into the unit for a 25-cent-an-hour wage increase. A company vice president in Chicago finally straightened out the problem with the Portage manager.

END OF TAPE 2, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

PROBLEMS STEMMING FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF SELF-SERVICE MEAT COUNTERS
Scope and Content Note: To reflect new meat department operations, contract provisions specifically established job classifications and described job duties. Store managers sometimes tried to make lower-paid department personnel do the work of higher-paid people. Such contract violations were usually settled in the store manager's office rather than through arbitration. Zalesak often unobtrusively visited stores to observe meat department work. He always told union members to perform the work they were told to do but to report contract violations to him. Sometimes employees reported what they thought were contract violations only to have Zalesak investigate and discover otherwise. Women sometimes were told to tray or scrape meat--duties specifically reserved for meat cutters. He did not object if women performed these duties and were paid meat cutters' rates.

STORES HIRING APPRENTICES OFTEN DID NOT TRAIN THEM WELL IN MEAT CUTTING
Scope and Content Note: Apprenticeship was a 30-month period in which the meat cutter had to learn all facets of meat cutting. Some store managers, however, might hire an apprentice, lay off meat wrappers, and require the apprentice to spend most of his time wrapping meat. Zalesak recalls one apprentice who did little else but perform meat wrapper's duties for the first 22 months of his apprenticeship. When the man was unable to cut a sirloin tip for him, Zalesak told the head meat cutter to train the apprentice in meat cutting fundamentals. Zalesak believes the company had no intention of elevating the apprentice to journeyman and, after 30 months, “gave that kid such a hard time, he quit on them.” Zalesak was able to get his job back for him, but the man quit again after three months. Such company practices led to a contract provision requiring thorough apprentice training in all meat department operations.

HOW ZALESAK DEALT WITH COMPLAINING UNION MEMBERS AND TOUGH STORE MANAGERS
Scope and Content Note: He devoted much time after becoming secretary-treasurer collecting dues but also listening to members' complaints. Some members are not good union members--they seldom attend meetings but complain about contract provisions; they complain to the union about management and to management about the union. He tried to be reasonable in dealing with such people. He also tried to convince store managers that employees would do better work if they were treated more kindly.

HE TRIED TO HELP MEMBERS WITH PERSONAL PROBLEMS
Scope and Content Note: “I used to spend hours and hours.... (A)nd if you can help, you do it. Why not? What the hell? They're human beings.” Straightening out personal problems helped improve work on the job. He tells the story of an alcoholic whom he hired while he was the meat department manager at the Cardinal Market in Madison. The meat cutter was hired on the conditions that he not miss work because of drinking, and that his wife pick up his check at the store. The man worked well while Zalesak was there, but after he left to work for the union, the store owner fired him for missing 17 days' work in the first month after Zalesak left. One of the alcoholic's children many years later shared a house with Zalesak's two sons. Alcoholism is not a major problem among meat cutters.

HIS WORK LOAD AS SECRETARY-TREASURER
Scope and Content Note: His work load increased as the local's membership grew. At times, “I have negotiated...non-stop...for 37 hours straight to avoid a strike.” He often would work from 7 a.m. until 10 or 11 p.m. During negotiations, he had to do regular union business during the day and prepare proposals or counter-proposals late into the night. He handled most of the grievances in the third step. Zalesak hired Eugene Myers from Eau Claire to service the northern district of Local 502's (and later, Local 444's) jurisdiction. Myers initiated contract negotiations and the first stages of the grievance procedure, thus lightening Zalesak's work load. Other business representatives also helped service union members, but members preferred Zalesak's personal attention. “...I think I created a monster....” Zalesak once was so busy he did not notice a resignation letter from a business representative that had been in his briefcase for a week. The business representative explained that he disliked the long hours but mostly was frustrated because members wanted to deal directly with Zalesak. Mergers with smaller locals expanded the local's jurisdiction so that Zalesak annually travelled from 55,000 to 60,000 miles.

MORE ON HANDLING GRIEVANCES
Scope and Content Note: Prior to 1968, he handled the third stage of most grievances. Gene Myers handled the first two steps. After 1968, he asked Myers to assume more of the responsibility for all phases of grievance processing, promising to assist whenever needed. In such cases, he might be negotiating a contract and also have to participate in a grievance hearing.

MANAGER AT THE WHITEHALL PACKING COMPANY PLACED TELEVISION CAMERAS THROUGHOUT THE PLANT TO MONITOR EMPLOYEE ACTIVITIES

END OF TAPE 3, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

MOST COMMON GRIEVANCES AND COMPLAINTS INVOLVING RETAIL MEAT CUTTERS
Scope and Content Note: Infractions included people working outside of their classification, tardiness, stealing, and working off the clock, which was quite common the first five years he was an officer. “It took a long time to correct that, and I understand it's wide open again.” Meat wrappers would complain about the cold and the heavy lifting they were asked to do. Complaints about favoritism in scheduling overtime led to a contract clause requiring that overtime be divided equally among employees. Store managers sometimes sent a meat cutter home at 5 p.m. and kept an apprentice on duty an hour longer just to avoid having to pay higher overtime rates. “And my position on that particular thing was, if the meat cutter isn't there, who's training him (the apprentice)?”

ANECDOTE ABOUT A POORLY-TRAINED APPRENTICE MEAT CUTTER WHO WAS FIRED BECAUSE HE COULD NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN PORK AND CALVES LIVER
Scope and Content Note: Working a 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift, the apprentice was the only meat cutter on duty between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. A customer who ordered a pound of calves liver increased the order to three pounds when he noticed that the apprentice mistook the higher-priced calves liver for pork liver. A company meat supervisor happened to be in the store while the customer was checking out, caught the error, and fired the young apprentice. The “kid,” an apprentice for just three months, blamed himself for his dismissal, refused to talk with his parents about it, and brooded. Zalesak finally got him to talk about the incident and managed to get his job back for him. Zalesak believed he could have won the apprentice back pay in arbitration--although he concedes there are no airtight cases where arbitrators are concerned--but the young man happily accepted his job back without being compensated for lost time.

MORE ON PROBLEMS ARISING FROM AUTOMATION
Scope and Content Note: “I always told the companies that I don't want them to put in automation at the expense of employees--laying them off.” He insisted that jobs lost to automation result from attrition. He also encouraged employers to let employees work longer hours to compensate for an employee who quit and whose position would not be refilled because of new machines. Because automation also reduced the union's membership, union officials must expand their organizing efforts. “If you want to keep your level of membership, you have to.”

PROBLEMS ARISING FROM COMPANY EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY USING PREFABRICATED MEAT
Scope and Content Note: Zalesak especially objected to companies using precut chickens. When National tried to use cut-up chickens to reduce meat department personnel, Zalesak told company officials they could not do so until an agreement had been reached on adjusting wages for the employees who would remain. He argued that all employees should receive increased wages if productivity increased--for whatever reason. Between 1969, when pre-processed meat became a concern, until he retired in 1975, “we had pretty good control” in the contract over such practices.

KROGER'S CENTRAL MEAT-PROCESSING PLANT IN MADISON
Scope and Content Note: Kroger operated this plant between 1968 and 1971 or so. This plant required a new kind of contract, “because it was something between (a) packing house and a retail store.”

BIGGEST CONTRACT GAINS WHILE HE WAS A UNION OFFICER
Scope and Content Note: The pension plan and major medical insurance were important gains in the mid-1960s. Insurance first cost the employer about ten cents an hour; later, as coverage expanded to include eye and dental care and as costs generally rose, the employer contributed a dollar an hour more to the coverage. He has been a trustee for the union's insurance and pension plans. Getting a cost-of-living clause almost forced a strike. Members had to be “educated” about the value of fringe benefits and that “money isn't everything.”

IMPROVED WAGES AND FRINGE BENEFITS HELPED IMPROVE THE IMAGE OF BUTCHERS
Scope and Content Note: Referred to as “butchers” even in the 1960s, meat cutters “had a helluva image.” People derived their image of a meat cutter from accounts of stockyard butchering. Old-time meat cutters prefer to be called “butchers.” “It did improve the image when they started referring to them as 'meat cutters.'”

IT IS IMPORTANT TO INVOLVE MEMBERS IN THE BARGAINING PROCESS
Scope and Content Note: He often demanded to see employers' financial records if they claimed they could not afford to pay increased wage demands. Sometimes he paid an accountant to examine the books and provide documentation for the members. He might recommend whether or not to accept an employer's offer, but members always discussed the options and voted to accept or reject. Members did not want to force a store out of business. Members sometimes are unreasonable. A La Crosse, Wisconsin, IGA employee, for example, once persuaded other union members to strike over a 50-cent-a-week wage increase, and then showed up late for picket duty the first day of the strike complaining that Zalesak had not been able to settle the strike.

END OF TAPE 3, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

“...YOUR UNION IS AS GOOD AS ITS MEMBERS”
Scope and Content Note: He formerly devoted much time explaining contract provisions to members. Members now complain to him that education and service has not been as good since the merger with Local 73. Local 73 promised Local 444 members frequent service visits by Local 73 business representatives. Some now say they have not been visited in 18 months. When he was secretary-treasurer, members attended meetings regularly.

MORE ON THE MERGER WITH LOCAL 73
Scope and Content Note: “What I've been told is goin' on, and what I know has been agreed to, is two different things.... (P)romises and commitments were made and now are not being observed.” The merger agreement provided that two business representatives would be stationed in Madison. This has not occurred. “Because of that, only membership suffers....” Some members claim neither the president nor secretary-treasurer of Local 73 have ever visited their areas. Members are partly at fault for not demanding more service from the union.

SOURCES OF ZALESAK'S COMMITMENT TO THE VALUE OF UNIONS
Scope and Content Note: Experiences during the 1930s and 1940s helped shape his pro-union stance. He often took supper to his father, who worked up to 14 hours a day for J.I. Case in Racine, and watched him pound rivets into a thrashing machine. “I was just a kid, and I look at that fella, and he was really workin' hard.” When he was 54 or 55, his father lost his job to a much younger worker, even though the foreman knew he was one of his best workers. This incident soured his father's view on life. During the Depression, the family lost its house because a local builder failed to turn over house payments to the bank. His mother, who had developed seven ruptures from farm work in Czechoslovakia, became distraught and died. She was only 44 years old.

END OF INTERVIEW