The Milwaukee Worker gave extensive coverage to the year-long meat cutters strike of 1974-75.  That was a union busting, scab-herding effort by an association of eight local packing houses.

We were on the picket lines with them a couple times a week.  We built up great friendships.   We shot pool with Tiger George on North Ave.  We had “gentlemen’s lunch” of baloney sandwiches and saltines with Roy Crocket and his dad.  Had a sympathetic ear for Tony whose parents died homicide/suicide.  He was so short of money that he had to hide the toilet paper from his brother.  There was a whole crew of Mexican beef boners with whom we shared tamales.  And most memorable were the luggers, guys like Willie Bell, easily 6 feet 4.  It the cops weren’t around, these guys could force a line of scabs to turn around and go home.

e helped the union to build a huge “Rally in the Valley”.  This strike was a bellwether event.  If a union could be broken here, more attacks would come.  The turnout was heavy with representatives of most Milwaukee unions.  Lots of police.  Lots of tussling.  Some arrests.  I was near one of the paddy wagons and I heard Little Chuck calling me from inside.  “Hey Bill get me out of here.”  I nonchalantly wandered over there.  Nobody was looking.  I opened the door and away he ran.  Bill was once again taking an unnecessary chance.  That’s probably why my dad had another lawyer friend file for gubernatorial pardon for my two battery charges.   Governor Pat Lucey granted my pardon in 1973.

Ever since this pivotal confrontation, the labor movement has been in steep decline in Milwaukee.  Meatcutters Local 248 had doggedly taken up the challenge, but the aggressive corporate agenda won out.  A union busting law firm got its start right here.  It would supervise the dismantling of union power at major employers like Briggs and Stratton, Hormel, and Patrick Cudahy for the next two decades.