Subseries: Hampel, Paul R.

INTRODUCTION

AN OVERVIEW OF HAMPEL'S AFFILIATION WITH THE AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER WORKMEN (AMC&BW)
Scope and Content Note: Joined Local 73 in Milwaukee, September 1934. Has held continuous membership since then.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Scope and Content Note: Born Cudahy, Wisconsin, September 10, 1914. Spent childhood and attended schools there. Graduated high school in June 1932. Had planned to attend Lawrence College, and eventually to become a lawyer, but the Depression forced him to seek work in hopes of saving enough money to enter college in a year. He never was able to attend college. His first job in a meat market was with D & F Markets (Dunlap and Frankiewicz), an independent chain of some 13 stores. Market he worked in was in Cudahy. Made $15 a week for a 72- to 75-hour work week. Worked in various other D & F markets, and others, before working for Local 73, and later, for the International.

PARENTS' OCCUPATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Father employed at Cudahy Packing Company until a strike in 1921. He and others were blacklisted. Then worked for Power and Mining Company, installing equipment for electric generating companies, and mining equipment. Then, in 1940s, worked for Newport Chemical Dye Company as a lead-burner repairing tanks. Retired rather than move with the company to New Jersey. Mother was a housekeeper; raised six children. Father never belonged to another union.

MORE ABOUT WHY HAMPEL NEVER TRIED TO BECOME A LAWYER
Scope and Content Note: “The longer you put it off, the harder it becomes to do that.” He was married in 1937; he and his wife had their first child in 1939. It would have been harder to get the degree on a part-time basis.

HAMPEL'S FIRST JOB AND STORE OPERATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Got a job by knowing market manager and butchers in the store where the family shopped because prices generally lower than neighborhood grocery store. Both groceries and meat were sold; butchers cut meat, waited on grocery customers, stocked shelves. Customer received receipt from register, took it to a cashier in a separate “cage” or “office,” paid the bill, took stamped “paid” receipt to butcher and claimed packages. This was a fairly typical market of the day. In National Tea Co. and A & P stores, grocery managers were store managers; meat departments headed by meat cutters.

HOW HAMPEL WAS TRAINED IN MEAT CUTTING
Scope and Content Note: “I think it was just a matter of learning by experience.” Began by waiting on customers and stocking meat displays. He then would cut particular cuts of meat rather than wait for another meat cutter to do it. Beef entered the store in quarters; lamb came in whole; veal came in with hide on, which had to be skinned, and which “was a craft trade,” because hides were sold to tanning company without nicks or slices. Hampel learned to do this too. Hides left on to prevent moisture loss and to make handling easier.

PERSONNEL AND WORKING HOURS IN THE D & F MARKET
Scope and Content Note: Manager, four butchers, Hampel, and four or five extra butchers on Friday and Saturday. Work began at 7 a.m., “but in order to hold your job, you got there by 6:30.” Work was supposed to end at 6:30, but often stretched until 7 or 7:15. Saturdays, markets closed at 10 p.m., but butchers often stayed as late as midnight cleaning up.

HAMPEL LOSES JOB WITH D & F MARKETS BECAUSE OF UNION ACTIVITIES
Scope and Content Note: There had previously been a union at Cudahy plant and others in Milwaukee's valley. Local 73 formed in 1934. Friends of his got him to join the union in September 1934. Paid $3 initiation fee and dues. Became one of the first in the D & F chain to join the union. Transferred to a D & F store at 2701 North Third Street in Milwaukee. Then transferred to main store and warehouse at 941 North Third. Somebody in the company office overheard Hampel on an intercom from the office to the loading dock trying to recruit workers into the union. He was fired for this.

HOW MEAT CUTTERS GOT PART-TIME WORK
Scope and Content Note: He did work part-time for other markets and even D & F after that. To get weekend work, meat cutters had to wait outside markets on Thursday afternoons or Friday mornings in hopes of being asked to work Friday or Saturday. Only A & P and National Tea Co. didn't require employees to stand in line for work.

MEAT CUTTERS HAD DIFFICULTY HOLDING JOBS OR MAINTAINING WAGES, 1932-1934
Scope and Content Note: Hampel talked to meat cutters in other stores trying to get support for improving conditions. A meat cutter making perhaps $15 a week might be told by employer another meat cutter was available willing to work for $12 a week. Meat cutter either had to accept lower wages or lose his job. Hampel recalls one meat cutter with a family worked for $10 a week just to have income. Perhaps could earn $5 or $6 for Friday and Saturday (combined).

SOURCES OF HAMPEL'S UNION COMMITMENT
Scope and Content Note: Able to try to help organize because he was not tied down. He was single, could live at home. But also because unionism was instilled in family. Anecdote about father sending him to the grocery store when young to get a loaf of bread. Hampel brought a loaf home without a union label on the wrapper, and he was sent back for a union-made loaf.

HAMPEL BECOMES MANAGER OF D & F MARKET
Scope and Content Note: Got a job again with D & F Market on South 16th Street, a store with a manager and one meat cutter. Soon thereafter, was made manager of the store when the other manager transferred. Store measured 40 feet wide by 65 feet in depth. A & P store next door had no meat department, so no competition, although Hampel's market did sell groceries. Store had counters with marble tops and glass partitions up front. No refrigeration, so meat not displayed on counters in the summer. Doors left open in winter for “natural refrigeration.” Meat sometimes froze to marble slabs in winter; butcher had to pry loose.

LITTLE ANTI-CHAIN STORE SENTIMENT IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: Mayor Daniel Hoan and others opposed chains from socialist perspective, but most people accepted chain stores because prices generally lower.

CONTINUATION OF HAMPEL'S JOB HISTORY
Scope and Content Note: Hampel stayed with store until it closed in 1935 or 1936; then transferred to store in Bayview. Remained there for a year, then transferred to a new store at 27th and Vliet. By then, store name changed from D & F to just Frankiewicz Brothers Market. Was laid off in 1936 or early 1937. Didn't work for about a year. Had gotten married and was building a home. Began work again in 1938 for John Reinke on National Avenue.

END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

HAMPEL WORKS FOR JOHN REINKE'S MARKET
Scope and Content Note: Worked as sole meat cutter in this small, independent market. When business improved after six months to a year, an apprentice was added, reflecting the growth of unions and union standards.

INFLUENCE OF FEDERAL LEGISLATION ON GROWTH OF UNIONS AND ON HIS JOB AT REINKE'S
Scope and Content Note: National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), passed in 1933, established National Recovery Administration (NRA). NRA set wages for retail meat industry at $15 a week for about a 72-hour week. NRA declared unconstitutional in 1935. Section 7A of the National Labor Relations Act (1935) gave workers the right to join unions. This helped the union grow. Under union contract, he made $35 a week in 1938--a substantial increase over preceding years.

HOW APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM WORKED AT REINKE'S
Scope and Content Note: First contract providing for apprenticeship in retail meat industry was in 1936. New apprentice brought in began by waiting on customers, stocking shelves, cleaning meat from bones for hamburger. Reinke and Hampel taught him other skills of meat cutting. Final skill learned was cutting sirloins, T-bones and short steaks--most expensive cuts.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE, AND INTRODUCTION OF THE BAND SAW
Scope and Content Note: Contract required employer to furnish tools, but Hampel kept his own cleavers, knives, saws, etc. so others wouldn't use or abuse them. He still has some. In mid-1930s, band saw was introduced. Its purpose was “to help break the primal cuts--break the quarters and carcasses into their primal cuts of meat.” Band saw represented “the first instance of automation in the markets.” At D & F Market, used it mostly to saw frozen halibut. Easier to cut frozen fish. Also used it to cut soup bones and other bones. Most meat today cut by band saw. His reaction to the new band saw: “...we thought it was a blessing.” Made splitting a soup bone especially easy.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WORKING FOR D & F/FRANKIEWICZ AND REINKE
Scope and Content Note: Not as many pressures. He was given more responsibilities for merchandising.

LENGTHS OF APPRENTICESHIPS
Scope and Content Note: Apprenticeship was three years in the 1930s. Over the years, length has varied from place to place--in some cases, down to two years. Don't have to learn how to skin a calf because veal now arrives in quarters. Beef also comes in primal cuts. Store or meat department managers can order more precisely what they want these days, rather than worry about certain cuts they would have to dispose of if they had to break down a side or quarter in the store.

ADVENT AND EFFECT OF REFRIGERATED COUNTERS
Scope and Content Note: Introduced in the mid-1930s. Counters had coils of compressed ammonia under counter trays. Improved health conditions. Ammonia compressors occasionally leaked.

HAMPEL WORKED AT REINKE'S UNTIL 1945

WOMEN MEAT CUTTERS IN MILWAUKEE DURING WORLD WAR II
Scope and Content Note: “There were quite a number of female 'butcherettes,' as we called them, in the industry there.” They replaced men who entered service or went to work in war industries. Some women were just as “adept” as men at meat cutting. Recalls June Manthei and Pearl Bondar, two accomplished “butcherettes.” Some women remained in the stores after the war as meat wrappers. Some stayed on for awhile as meat cutters. No women head meat cutters (who were market managers), but women could be apprentices or “journeymen” and receive the same wages as men. No formal apprenticeship course for women as for men, because they thought women wouldn't be employed as cutters after the war. Market manager would train women as best they could. Men and women worked well together, cooperating for the war effort.

HAMPEL WORKS AT RETZLAFF MACHINE CO. AFTER THE WAR
Scope and Content Note: Was superintendent of set-up and production. In 1945-1946 period, some work was for the war effort. He left meat cutting in part because meat cutting was no longer considered an essential occupation, and because he had to drive a long way to work and gasoline was rationed. He had some technical training in high school for the job. Pay was slightly higher than in meat cutting. He continued to enjoy working with people. Shop was non-union. Some employees were “geniuses” at finding shortcuts. Some worked at piece rate, producing as much as 300% of normal. Hampel counseled such workers not to produce themselves out of a job, saying management would restudy the job and make them produce more for the same wage.

HAMPEL RETURNS TO MEAT CUTTING AT SODEN'S SUPERMARKET IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: Returned to the trade because it was part of his life. He liked people, the trade and the variety (it wasn't “routine or redundant”). Soden's was an independent market. Worked there until 1952.

CONVENTION, VACATION AND WORK IN VARIOUS INDEPENDENT MARKETS: JUNE 1952 TO APRIL 1953
Scope and Content Note: Had been elected delegate to 1948 Meat Cutters convention and was elected again in 1952 to the convention in San Francisco. Wanted vacation; took family. They were gone from June to August. When they returned, he had to find work.

END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

CONVENTION, VACATION AND WORK IN VARIOUS INDEPENDENT MARKETS: JUNE 1952 TO APRIL 1953: CONTINUED DISCUSSION
Scope and Content Note: Worked in small, independent stores part-time, looking for full-time job.

HAMPEL BEGINS WORK FOR LOCAL 73 IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: While still working part-time in a market, Harry Sutherland, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 73, asked Hampel to work part-time for the union as a business representative. Began full-time work in April 1953 after business agent Frank Trzesniewski suffered a stroke.

SUPERMARKETS--POST-WAR INNOVATION
Scope and Content Note: Because of meat shortages during the war, meat didn't need to be promoted--it sold itself. When meat was more plentiful after the war, stores tried to recapture customers for meat and other products. Separated meat from grocery departments and called stores “supermarkets.” Shopping carts replaced shopping baskets. Meat markets were still service-type markets in which cutters waited on customers. Checkout lanes replaced individual department cash register check outs. Refrigerated meat display cases improved with Freon systems. Meats often displayed in storefront window refrigerated cases. “Now, it was a different concept of shopping.” Self-service largely replaced service stores.

INTRODUCTION OF SELF-SERVICE MEAT COUNTERS IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: Began in 1952-1954 period. Made possible by improved refrigeration.

HARRY SUTHERLAND VISITS SELF-SERVICE MARKET IN DETROIT; TELLS MILWAUKEE MEAT CUTTERS TO READY FOR INTRODUCTION THERE
Scope and Content Note: Sutherland visited store with self-service meat counters in 1951 or 1952 in new Detroit shopping center. Learned how Meat Cutters Local 539 “had met the challenge,” reported to Local 73 executive board and general membership. Sutherland believed union should respond to self-service counters by maintaining “complete jurisdiction over the product” guaranteed in contracts.

WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN AGREEMENTS PROHIBITED WOMEN FROM USING “TOOLS OF THE TRADE” IN SELF-SERVICE MEAT DEPARTMENTS AND DELICATESSENS
Scope and Content Note: In informal agreements between union and employer, or in formal contracts of 1950s, women were prohibited from receiving meat wrappers' or deli workers' wages if they handled meat cutters' tools. Contracts defined activities women could perform. Hampel says this requirement was intended to prevent the employer from having women cut or slice meat without receiving meat cutters' wages. Specific duties also intended to define jobs of women meat wrappers. They received wages between beginning apprentice and accomplished journeyman but on separate wage scale. They could not use band saws, cleavers, slicing knives, steak knives, hand saws. Regulations were not intended to exclude women from being meat cutters. Pearl Bondar and June Manthei in fact continued to cut meat after the war and were paid journeymen wage rates. Another woman, Lee Koepke, was also a meat cutter (and union official), but Hampel didn't know her very well.

REASONS WHY EARLY 1950s CONTRACTS DEFINED BARGAINING UNIT IN SUCH DETAIL
Scope and Content Note: The 1950-1951 contract with National Tea Co. included a lengthy clause defining the bargaining unit. Was inclusion of the clause Sutherland's way to prepare for the eventuality of self-service meat counters, or the union's attempt to inform employers that it would continue to insist on a legitimate position in meat department jurisdiction? “I would think that there was a little bit of both involved in this.” Meat department was gradually losing some products over which meat cutters had jurisdiction--butter, lard, bacon, for example. The union believed continuation would result in fewer jobs for butchers. Central meat processing plants would even further erode jobs. Contract language was designed to reflect those concerns and protect jobs.

HOW SELF-SERVICE MEAT COUNTERS ALTERED MEAT DEPARTMENT WORK
Scope and Content Note: Meat cutters only cut meat all day long. Meat wrappers now wrapped, priced and displayed meat. However, the number of meat department employees was not reduced. Meat cutters did not react unfavorably to self-service counters.

WHY CONTRACTS PROVIDED THAT A MALE MEMBER OF THE MEAT DEPARTMENT HAD TO BE ON DUTY AFTER 6 P.M.
Scope and Content Note: “To protect the jurisdiction of the meat cutters.” If no male on duty, then work could be done by checker or manager, “who is now a grocery man rather than a meat man.” Had to be a “qualified” meat cutter who could cut special cuts of meat as needed, thus excluding apprentices in their first six months of training. Hampel thinks this provision would not have excluded women from cutting meat after 6 p.m. if they were “qualified” meat cutters.

MORE ON APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING
Scope and Content Note: Self-service counters had prompted an executive committee of the Meat Cutters to issue a statement discouraging apprentice training because the number of jobs was declining. But the Milwaukee local didn't discourage apprenticeships for that reason. Chicago apprentices still must attend Washburn Trade School for training. Milwaukee apprentices had been required to learn percentages, mark-ups, cuts of beef at the Milwaukee vocational school. The program was abandoned because employers didn't want to pay employees while in school. Companies decided to train apprentices in stores, where meat cutters wouldn't have to learn pricing because prices set by company.

END OF TAPE 2, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

PRODUCTIVITY
Scope and Content Note: A concern of stores in the 1950s. Independent store managers could set their own prices to meet their own profit goals, but chain managers had to conform to goals set by corporate officials. Productivity standards differed. Some stores measured by “pounds-per-employee-hour,” others “sales-per-employee-hour.” The union took the position that employees shouldn't lose jobs because of failure to meet productivity goals. Meat department managers couldn't get new employee in expectation of increased business; they had to request new employee on the basis of the previous week's productivity. “It was really a problem.” Stores never admitted doing time studies but did issue statements indicating what departments were expected to produce with the given number of employees and hours. Hampel thinks productivity standards incorporating time-study principles may have come from central meat-processing plants where such measurements could have been obtained. He was inside an A & P meat-processing plant, and “...it was quite a production-line process.” Instead of meat cutters doing various tasks as in a store, jobs here were specialized. The Milwaukee local union never developed its own standards for countering store productivity standards, as West Coast locals did. But the International issued PACE (Performance and Cost Evaluation) orientation programs designed to illustrate the many specific job duties--including even answering the telephone--which comprised the total job. The union also considered discussing a roast with a customer as “productive time.” Stores are mostly concerned with just profit, not with the union's position in PACE programs.

KROGER AND A & P CENTRAL MEAT-PROCESSING PLANTS
Scope and Content Note: A & P's plant was in Chicago; it serviced southeastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, perhaps down to central Illinois. Doesn't know whether Kroger closed its Madison plant because of high transportation costs or if it just closed when Kroger closed its stores in Wisconsin.

FACTORS DETERMINING WHETHER PRODUCTIVITY GOALS COULD BE MET
Scope and Content Note: Workers in some stores had problems, others didn't. Harder to meet productivity standards in low-income neighborhoods.

NEW WAYS OF STRUCTURING WORK IN THE 1950s
Scope and Content Note: No new work rules, and none were published. Wrappers placed the meat in the tray, sealed in on hot plate, weighed and priced. Meat cutters used band saws almost exclusively except for taking meat off bones. There was a new cubed steak machine. Using a band saw, meat cutters would cut meat, place it on belt line, and not see it until wrapped. A later process did all wrapping, weighing, pricing, stamping automatically. Meat wrappers now do very little wrapping--just displaying.

PERSONNEL EVALUATION PROCEDURES
Scope and Content Note: No formal method in the 1950s. Market managers might try to increase efficiency or productivity by simple personal encouragement or praise. “Constructive advice forms” and other more formal evaluation procedures probably were not introduced until the 1970s, when companies decided they needed written evidence to respond to the union's challenge to a disciplinary matter. Personnel handbooks listing company policies were not common in the 1950s either, though some chains may have issued them.

MOST COMMON COMPLAINTS BY MANAGEMENT
Scope and Content Note: “Probably not much different than they are today.” Tardiness and excessive absenteeism were common. Not much absenteeism on weekends because meat cutters knew this was a busy time, and they had to be at work. Most meat cutters had days off during the week because they worked weekends.

HOW THE NATURE OF GRIEVANCES HAS CHANGED
Scope and Content Note: They have “become more of a protection for the worker than had been prior to this time.” Few grievances filed prior to the 1960s except for discharge. (Causes for discharge in the 1950s most commonly were dishonesty and negligence.) Now grievances are more “technical,” concerning productivity, tardiness. Grievance procedure is “the one thing” at the workers' disposal to democratically protect themselves.

TYPICAL WORK ACTIVITIES FOR HAMPEL AS BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE FOR LOCAL 73
Scope and Content Note: During time he was business representative (1953-1958), he also was union president. Got phone calls all hours of the day and night. Might have to be at a store when it opened to make sure time cards were being punched correctly. Work day sometimes began at 6 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m. Believed it was important to contact employees often, so he visited each store in his area at least once a month.

UNION MEMBERSHIP
Scope and Content Note: Had 1,200 when he became president in metropolitan Milwaukee area. Later, Meat Cutter locals in the Fox River Valley were added, increasing Local 73's coverage up to Rhinelander. Unit meetings held in outlying areas.

END OF TAPE 2, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

INFLUENCE OF FEDERAL LABOR LEGISLATION ON EARLY HISTORY OF LOCAL 73 IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: Some organizing efforts made in Milwaukee before Hampel joined Local 73 in September 1934, thanks to spur given by passage of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in 1932. Act outlawed “yellow-dog” contracts and federal injunctions against picketing. Hampel perhaps attended a meeting where a labor lawyer mentioned how “labor's Magna Carta” helped unions locally. Section 7A of the NIRA also helped by permitting workers to join unions. Hampel's store, which he then managed, conformed to the NRA's code of $15 a week for either a 63- or a 72-hour week. Local union membership was roughly 400 by the time the NIRA was declared unconstitutional in May 1935.

OTHER MEAT CUTTER LOCALS AND OFFICERS IN MILWAUKEE IN THE 1930s
Scope and Content Note: There had been Local 222 at Cudahy Packing Company, which disintegrated after the 1921 strike. Also locals at Plankington, Armour and other packinghouses. Local 257, a fish handlers' local, was headed by Charlie Ott, president, and Ed Lauf, organizer. When Local 257 merged with Local 73, Lauf became a business agent for 73. Ed Schilling, organizer for Local 73, “disappeared” when an accounting of funds was requested. Unsalaried or underpaid, he used dues for living expenses. Things improved when Edward Borzykowski was elected financial secretary (in 1937).

UNION STRUGGLES AGAINST A & P AND KROGER IN THE 1930s
Scope and Content Note: Union membership in chain stores was strong enough by 1934 to seek union recognition. Because the Wagner Act not yet enacted, often had to resort to strike because no provisions for recognition by elections. When the union struck A & P, company closed store meat departments and leased them to market managers or other meat cutters as concessions. Kroger closed all of its stores in Milwaukee and Waukesha.

OTHER MEAT CUTTER LOCALS IN MILWAUKEE AND MERGERS AMONG THEM
Scope and Content Note: Local 369, poultry and egg handlers, headed by Walter Reid (later an International organizer), merged with Local 73. Joe Nowicki from 369 became a business agent for 73 after merger. Independent packinghouse workers were represented by Local 248. Industrial packinghouse union (Packinghouse Workers' Organizing Committee) organized most major packers in Milwaukee. Meat Cutters Local 248 had just the independent packers in the 1930s. Local 64, perhaps headed by Mike Gersch, represented sausagemakers. Local 64 merged with Local 248 “because of financial difficulties.” Matt Ellak from Local 64 and George Bohacek became International auditors. Some Fox River Valley locals also eventually merged with Local 73 “for economic reasons.”

ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL IN ORGANIZING AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
Scope and Content Note: Mergers did not necessarily reflect the International's strategy of trying to gain strength by enlarging the geographical jurisdiction. “The International union I think was interested in organizing whoever they could wherever they could....” Patrick Gorman (International Secretary-Treasurer) and Dennis Lane (President) travelled extensively by train to organize locals and support organizing efforts. Might address members in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Duluth, Montana (to speak to cattle and sheep butchers), Iowa. They made “a prodigious effort” to bring “unity and solidarity” to the union. Hampel thinks International membership was about 70,000 by the time of the 1940 convention in Milwaukee.

SUPPORT BY THE INTERNATIONAL AND OTHER UNIONS FOR GROWTH OF LOCAL 73
Scope and Content Note: “Milwaukee had always been a good union town....” Federated Trades Council and the Teamsters always helped in strikes by refusing to cross picket lines; Local 73 helped the Teamsters organize Berry Trucking Company by not handling products from packinghouses delivered by Berry. International might occasionally help financially, though not in early stages of the union's growth. Locals had always cooperated well. For example, in 1939 they formed the Butchers' Local Credit Union, which Walter Reid helped form. Now known as the Food, Commercial and Medical Employees Credit Union (FCM). Reid and William Mansfield from the International helped organize locally. Bill Tate, a black organizer, helped organize packinghouses in Milwaukee.

IF HEAD MEAT CUTTER IN INDEPENDENT STORES ORGANIZED IN THE 1930s, THEN WHOLE STORE WAS ORGANIZED
Scope and Content Note: This situation occurred because in most cases, the head meat cutter was also the store manager. But independent chains, at least, soon began to separate the head meat cutter from other grocery store employees because they didn't want to pay such high wages. Thus, grocery clerks were separated from meat cutters. Local asked Gorman for permission to organize clerks in the late 1930s, but he said agreement with the Retail Clerks International Association (RCIA) meant any clerks organized by meat cutters had to be delivered to the Clerks jurisdiction.

GORMAN'S AGREEMENT IN THE LATE 1930s WITH THE NATIONAL RETAIL MEAT DEALERS ASSOCIATION ALSO HELPED LOCAL ORGANIZING EFFORTS
Scope and Content Note: The agreement stipulated that the Association and its affiliates wouldn't resist unionization. In cases where there were two or more owners of a shop, one would be exempt; others had to join the union. Helped Local 73 organize some independent shops. The national Association's agreement was not binding on Milwaukee Retail Meat Dealers Association; “it was the moral power” of the national organization that helped.

MEAT CUTTER-CLERK RELATIONSHIPS
Scope and Content Note: Received no help from Clerks in 1934 A & P strike, because the union was not organized at that time. But other union members honored the picket lines. Only in Bayshore or Fox Point areas might there have been difficulty getting the picket line honored. After the Clerks were organized, relationships were good. Hampel recalls walking picket lines with Clerks in an unsuccessful effort to organize the Boston Store. Would also help organize clerks for RCIA, both for magnanimous and protective reasons. In 1954 or 1955, told Kohl's management that Meat Cutters would honor any Clerks picket line, leading Kohl's management to stop resisting Clerks efforts to organize. Meat Cutters signed up deli workers at Kohl's at about the same time. Also cooperated in organizing a Kroger store in Waukesha.

END OF TAPE 3, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

MORE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEAT CUTTERS AND CLERKS
Scope and Content Note: There were no jurisdictional disputes between the two in Milwaukee as occurred elsewhere. Milwaukee meat cutters abided by the national agreement worked out by George Meany in 1955 and by the directions of Pat Gorman not to organize clerks. Later agreements at International levels aimed at untangling contesting jurisdictional claims, but in some areas, deli workers whom Clerks had organized remained in RCIA. “There were some very, very bitter disputes” between the two unions, caused by the introduction of self-service markets.

MORE ON THE 1934 A & P STRIKE
Scope and Content Note: After the strike, meat departments in A & P stores were not managed by A & P until after World War II, according to Hampel's recollection. A & P opened a “warehouse market” on First and Beecher and then expanded into their other stores as the idea of a “supermarket” grew.

STRIKE AGAINST E.G. SHINNER'S MARKET
Scope and Content Note: Shinner's was among the numerous other independent chains operating in Milwaukee, including Buehler Brothers (based in Chicago), Independent Packing House Market, D & F (later Frankiewicz), Start Markets, Inc., Schubert's Markets, Max Kohl's, Harlflinger's Markets, Soden's Super Markets (a subsidiary of Independent Packing House Markets). Based in Chicago, Shinner's had five stores in the Milwaukee area. In 1935, the union, led by Harry Sutherland and Ed Borzykowski, decided to put “a recognition picket line” in front of those Shinner markets not yet unionized. The company got an injunction in federal court barring the picketing. Eventually (in 1938), the United States Supreme Court returned the case to Milwaukee “for some clarification.” The union decided to resume picketing and distribute handbills explaining their position. One picket-line slogan was, “All we want is a fair deal,” a reference to the Franklin D. Roosevelt slogan. The Milwaukee Police Department informed the union of the city's anti-handbill ordinance--saying it really was an anti-litter measure--and of the possibility of arrests. The executive board, of which Hampel was a member, decided that the board members' wives should distribute handbills, expecting arrests and also good publicity. Hampel convinced his fiance, Sadie, to join the other women. The next day, a picket line of one man and the board members' wives were arrested. Photographers were present. Women lunched on bologna sandwiches at the police station and were released on bail. They were fined $10 and costs. Neither the International nor any state or national labor federation believed the case merited financial support, though the International promised to help defray costs of the case if they won it. Arthur Richter, a local lawyer, promised he would charge only for paperwork if he lost the case but wanted a regular fee if he won. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the anti-handbill ordinance unconstitutional (in 1939). Hampel didn't know the cases hadn't been disposed of until years later when he sought a property deed and learned a judgment still stood for the $10 fine owed. And he married Sadie. Her parents “were quite aggrieved” by the incident, “so I had to protect her integrity, and I had to marry her. But I didn't do it because of that. I did it because I loved her. She was a true union person, all the way through....”

REASONS FOR UNION GROWTH IN THE 1930s
Scope and Content Note: Federal legislation did help, but also “we didn't have anything to lose, and we had everything to gain.” First contract, signed (he thinks) in 1936 and only two pages long, provides evidence of what could be gained. Journeymen received $25 for a 63-hour work week, including Saturday night. (Apprentices started at $18 a week.) “This, to us, was a boon.” Contract also provided for holidays on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas. “But there was no pay for these days. It was merely the fact that they were going to be recognized as holidays, and we would not have to be working on those holidays. We would be able to be home with our families.”

BIGGEST CONTRACT GAINS BETWEEN 1936 AND 1958
Scope and Content Note: By 1941, journeymen made $40 a week. War Labor Board (WLB) regulations meant that in 1942, union members got just a 15% wage increase, amounting to 41 cents across the board. (Decided to make it across the board rather than give more for head meat cutters and journeymen and less for apprentices.) From 1941 to 1946, WLB standards prevailed. But some employees received merit increases. Working hours were reduced over the years from 63 in 1936 to 40 in 1952 or so. Important to realize that the retail industry was exempt from 1938 wage and hour law which provided for time and a half for work over 40 hours a week. Eventually, retail employees were covered by federal wage standard laws. Self-service markets also opened opportunities to improve wages and conditions. Negotiated provision allowing a 40-hour work week to be derived from a combination of hours during the day from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., and over several days. Regular employees were guaranteed two and a half to three hours of overtime on Friday nights. So if the employee began at noon, worked until 6 p.m. with an hour off for lunch, then worked 6 p.m. until 9 p.m., would earn time and a half for the last three hours. Same if the employee worked eight hours starting as late as 4 p.m. Considered this something of a penalty for employers, because employees didn't want to work after 6 p.m. But Sutherland and the executive board decided late work was the coming trend, and the union should get as much as possible for employees under such conditions. There also were provisions for equal overtime opportunities. Wages just after World War II were “fantastic” because wartime wage strictures were removed.

HOW SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF LOCAL 73 CHANGED OVER THE YEARS
Scope and Content Note: No blacks in retail perhaps until 1955, but many Poles, Slovenians, Croatians, Germans, Irish, English, Italians. Women were ethnically mixed too.

END OF TAPE 3, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

MORE ON SOCIAL COMPOSITION
Scope and Content Note: Other blacks had merged into Local 73 from Local 369 packinghouse workers. Hampel signed up the first black meat cutter in 1955 or so. The man had been working in a store, but the manager hadn't told Hampel about him. “From that time forth, why, there was no bar for anyone who was of a different color or race from becoming a retail meat cutter....”

EFFECT OF TAFT-HARTLEY LAW IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: Not much effect on retail side of the industry, but did affect labor generally. The law did prohibit activities previously permitted. Section 14-B enabled the state to pass labor laws more restrictive than federal labor legislation. The law also prohibited unions from requiring that new employees be hired from a union hiring hall. Labor hurt by prohibitions against secondary boycotts. Taft-Hartley's list of “unfair labor practices” also “made it a little harder to organize....”

JOB WITH INTERNATIONAL IN CHICAGO
Scope and Content Note: Elected as business representative but not president in January 1958. Through conferences and other meetings, he had previously come to know members of the International staff, who had asked him to work for the International's Education Department. He had declined because it meant a move to Chicago. Asked again in August 1958, and he accepted, “because there was a little bit of internal friction in the union policy and the union executive board at that time.” Pat Gorman told him, “We're asking you to come on this job. You're not asking for a job. And there's a difference.” Commuted from Milwaukee from 1959 to 1962, then moved to Chicago. Was out of town about 40 weekends during the year doing educational work throughout the United States and Canada. Later became assistant director of education. Retired from that job in 1972 to become “director of building services and supplies.” Retired from the AMC&BW in 1979. Wife died in February 1979; they had planned he would retire when he reached age 65, so he did.

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES IN LABOR EDUCATION AT ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY
Scope and Content Note: The university has a “long-term” (32-week) labor education program. Frank McAllister was department head and asked Hampel to teach occasional courses to union members. “Some unions don't believe in education,” and McAllister knew Hampel would welcome the challenge to teach workers about union operations. McAllister convinced Gorman of Hampel's value to the program despite Hampel's schedule, and Gorman believed “that kind of talent” should be shared. He's been coordinating the first of a four-year program since 1972.

WHAT HAMPEL TELLS HIS STUDENTS ABOUT THE STATE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT TODAY
Scope and Content Note: “...The more things change, the more they stay the same. And in spite of the fact that we see much change going on here, they're pretty much the same as they were back in the 1930s...that we still have these battles to win.” Will meet challenges if don't shirk responsibilities to fellow workers. Some “work enrichment programs” will help make work places safer and better. Management seems to be more enlightened these days, despite some anti-union companies. Still, unions stand to lose many of the things gained since the 1930s. Because of various management tactics aimed at making encroachments or dismissing workers, unions must rely on the grievance procedure, “the industrial democracy on the job,” to protect workers. These will help people realize they have a stake in the health of their unions. White-collar workers have realized this value.

A SUMMATION

END OF INTERVIEW