Ralph Helstein
Biography/History: Helstein was born in 1908. and practiced law in Minneapolis and St. Paul in the 1930's. He worked with CIO unions, became General Counsel to the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee in 1942, and was elected president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) in 1946. Serving as president until the 1968 merger of UPWA with the Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen (AMBW), Helstein was noted for his commitment to civil liberties and opposition to racial discrimination. He also served on various CIO committees and the AFL-CIO Executive Board. He died in February 1985.
Scope and Content Note: In the interview, Helstein discusses many aspects of his 22-year leadership of the UPWA. Topics include the relationship between the UPWA and the AMBW throughout the years; principles of negotiation; his management of the 1948 UPWA strike and the emotional strain of being strike leader: the union's support of Truman for president: the CIO Caucus' attempt to force the purge of “reds” from the union; differences between the “Big Four” meat packing companies; efforts to end discrimination in the union; the Swift strike of 1956; contract gains over the years: the unsuccessful 1956 merger with AMBW: and the successful merger in 1968.

Helstein Interview Abstract and Content Notes

Herbert March
Biography/History: Born in New York City in 1913, March moved to the Midwest in 1930 where he was active in the unemployment movement in Kansas City and elsewhere. In 1933 he went to Chicago where he worked at Armour & Co. There he became leader of union organizing efforts by the Packinghouse Workers Industrial Union, Stockyards Labor Council, Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen, and the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee. March became the director of District #1 of the UPWA in 1943 and remained in that position until forced to resign by the Taft-Hartley Act in 1948. He remained employed by the union until 1954. March moved to California in 1955 where he worked as a sheet metal worker and lawyer until 1983.
Scope and Content Note: March discusses events from 1933 to 1954.

Joe Zabritsky
Biography/History: Joe Zabritsky was president of UPWA Local No. 40 in Cudahy, Wisconsin from 1948 until the 1970's.
Scope and Content Note: He discusses events from 1935 to 1968.

Sam Parks
Biography/History: Parks was active in the Wilson UPWA Local #25 during the 1940's. He came to the UPWA staff after the union's 1948 strike where he served in various capacities. Parks played an important role in District #1's anti-discrimination activities during the 1950's.
Scope and Content Note: His interview concerns the period 1935-1968.

Virgil Bankson and Don James
Biography/History: Bankson and James were top local officers of the UPWA's Ottumwa, Iowa local when the plant closed.
Scope and Content Note: They discuss 1938-1981 events.

Les Orear
Biography/History: Orear was one of the founders of the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee in the Chicago area. He was instrumental in building an activist core inside the large Armour plant (later Local #347) and served as an organizer and editor of #347's newsletters. He came on the UPWA staff in 1946 as an assistant in the organization department under Frank Ellis and later A.T. Stephens. In the late 1940's through the 1960's Orear edited the Packinghouse Worker. He oversaw general public relations for the UPWA and continued in this capacity with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters after the 1968 merger. As of 1983 he headed the Illinois Labor History Society.
Scope and Content Note: His interview concerns the years 1935-1980.