Ralph Helstein was the first attorney to head a CIO international union. In this position his sense of ethics, belief in democratic principles of free speech and equality, and interests in civil rights, grass-roots organizing, and the impact of technology on workers helped shape the historically radical and ethnically diverse United Packinghouse Workers into one of the most progressive unions of the post-World War era. Described by many as a pragmatic idealist and the most intellectual labor leader of his time, Helstein's analytic and rhetorical abilities, modest personal demeanor, and passion for ideas made him a natural spokesman and advocate for progressive causes and organized labor.
Ralph Leslie Helstein was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1908 and he grew up in Minneapolis as the only son of an Orthodox Jewish clothing manufacturer. He earned a B.A. in English literature (1929) and a law degree (1934) from the University of Minnesota. Immediately after graduation he began working for the National Recovery Administration, first in a staff position, and then as a labor compliance officer in Washington, D.C. After the NRA was disbanded in 1936 he returned to Minneapolis where he began a private law practice. In 1939 he joined Douglas Hall to found Helstein and Hall, a firm devoted exclusively to labor law.
Helstein began his association with the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee (PWOC) in 1937 as legal representative and contract negotiator. During the same period he helped to organize CIO unions in the automobile, oil, and electrical industries. He became general counsel for the Minnesota CIO Council in 1939 and is credited with negotiating the first guaranteed annual wage in the meat packing industry with George A. Hormel Co. in the same year. The year 1939 also witnessed Helstein's wedding to Rachel Brin, a social worker. The couple had two daughters, Nina and Toni, born in 1943 and 1946 respectively.
In 1942 Helstein moved to Chicago as the counsel of the PWOC. After the PWOC became the United Packinghouse Workers of America, Helstein was retained as general counsel of the new union. In this capacity he was involved in the negotiations surrounding numerous home-front labor disputes, including the National War Labor Board's take-over of a Cudahy plant in 1944. He also was active in groups concerned with fair housing and education in his Hyde Park neighborhood.
In 1946 Helstein, a compromise candidate, was elected president of the UPWA. Helstein's election caused a stir within organized labor, where his qualifications as a representative of blue collar workers were questioned. Helstein responded to his critics within the labor movement by familiarizing himself with every aspect of meat packing work and challenging his detractors to show that his background had hurt the union.
During this period Helstein participated in the Aspen Executive Institute and the activities of Highlander Folk School, served on the board of directors of the Industrial Areas Foundation and Kehilath Anshe Mayriv Temple, was a trustee of the Institute for Psychoanalysis, a member of the research committee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a frequent speaker at fundraisers sponsored by American supporters of the Israeli trade union movement, Israel Histadrut.
As UPWA president Helstein championed anti-discrimination policies in both the union and the work place and he permitted dissenters within the union to air their grievances so that unresolved conflicts would not damage the union's effectiveness. He applied similar reasoning to the question of Communists within the UPWA. Refusal to purge the union's ranks of Communists as well as its later association with the civil rights movement led to two HUAC hearings on the UPWA in 1952 and 1959, an AFL-CIO Executive Board investigation and report in 1959, and a UPWA hearing and report in 1961.
In 1965 Helstein reached the height of his career in the labor movement with his appointment to the AFL-CIO Executive Council. The same year he was appointed to the White House Task Force on Cities, where he helped investigate job opportunities for inner-city minority residents.
In 1968 UPWA merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen. Helstein served as vice president and special council to the merged union until his retirement in 1972. The issues of employment and the just distribution of wealth continued to occupy Helstein in his retirement. He was a founder and vice-chair of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), and he also served on the board of directors of Toward Freedom, a newsletter which focused on news from the Third World. Helstein also worked as a consultant for the Akbar Fund in Zavala County, Texas, investigating the newly-formed Chicano-American party, La Raza Unida. He also supported numerous oral history projects about labor history. In 1975 he taught “Topics in Labor History,” an upper-level course at Roosevelt University. In 1980 Helstein was elected to the Board of Directors of the Rath Packing Company during the period of the employee buy-out. However, increasing health problems limited his ability to participate, and he resigned in 1983. Ralph Helstein died at his home in Chicago, Illinois on February 14, 1985, following a heart attack.
