The Persistence and Demise of Ethnic Union Locals in New York City after World War II

JOSHUA B. FREEMAN

IN MAY 1966, at a stormy membership meeting of New York City's Greek Fur Workers Local 70, the general counsel of its parent body, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen, announced that it was being dissolved. After lengthy hearings and a report by an outside expert, the Meat Cutters concluded that having a union local with membership restricted to workers of a particular nationality violated the intent of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Accordingly, it decided to shut down the four decades old group, distributing its members among other fur worker locals organized along craft lines rather than by nationality.