In late 1980 the Rockefeller Foundation granted to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin money to support a project to collect oral remembrances of individuals involved in industrial union organizing in Wisconsin. This interview with Fred A. Erchul is part of that project.
Fred A. Erchul was born in Sudan, Minnesota in 1917. His parents emigrated from Yugoslavia when they were in their twenties, and his father went to work immediately in the mines of the “Iron Range.” They met in Sudan, married and raised ten children. Fred, a middle child, moved to Milwaukee in March of 1927 having been preceded by his father and two older brothers. He describes his family as “god-fearing, hard-working people,” with great respect for learning, though Fred was the only child to receive a formal education beyond elementary school.
Erchul's childhood was one of poverty; after his father's death, his mother was forced to seek county relief for support. The other children worked and helped Fred to go to a Catholic school when he was unable to adjust to public schools in Milwaukee. His brothers called him the “little professor” because of his education and because he handled all interpreting and business affairs for his mother.
After working his way through St. John's Cathedral High School, he attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College for one year. He quit due to the financial hardship and the realization that he was not eager to be a teacher.
He was referred to Plankinton Packinghouse Company in 1937, and by lieing about his age he got a temporary job. He worked there intermittently for five years until he got a permanent job as a shoulder sawyer in the hog department (a job which cost him half of a thumb).
When Erchul began to work at Plankinton he joined the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of America, and the union did intervene once on his behalf when he was a temporary worker. He did not become active in the union until after 1939 when the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee (PWOC) had gained jurisdiction, and a steward asked him if he would be a substitute at a meeting. Erchul was fascinated at all the important work done there and asked to become permanent “assistant steward.” He became active and was elected recording secretary in 1944, a position he held until 1950 when he was elected secretary-treasurer of the Milwaukee County Industrial Union Council, CIO. He had become active in county council activities as a member of the “right-wing caucus,” organized to oust the “left wing” group who were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers.
In 1959, when the AFL and CIO merged in Milwaukee he became secretary-treasurer of the new Milwaukee County Labor Council, and served in that capacity until 1979 when a struggle with blood cancer forced him to retire. Because of his love of singing, he was honored as the “Singing Secretary-Treasurer” at a “Sing-Along with Fred” dinner in May of 1979.
He now lives in “total retirement” with his wife, Frances, at a cottage on Chief Lake near Couderay, Wisconsin, where he enjoys the wildlife and preparing custom meat specialties in his smokehouse.
