Take It Easy, But Take It

"We, the United Packinghouse Workers, realize that the struggle to better our working and living conditions is in vain unless we are united to protect ourselves collectively against the organized forces of the employer. We, therefore, form an organization which unites all workers in our industry on an industrial basis with rank and file control regardless of craft, age, sex, nationality, race, color, creed or political beliefs consistent with democratic processes, and we pledge ourselves to pursue at all times a relentless and aggressive struggle to advance our interests. We recognize that our industry is composed of workers of all nationalities, of many races, of different creeds and political opinions. In the past, these differences have been used to divide us and one group has been set against another by those who would prevent our unifying. We have organized by overcoming these divisive influences and by recognizing that our movement must be big enough to encompass a...

United Farm Equipment & Metal Workers of America C.I.O. - Dues + Stewards pins spanning the years 1940-1949. FE was one of the 11 unions expelled from the C.I.O. in 1950 for refusing to kick radicals and communists out of their union leadership. They are part of a proud C.I.O. tradition of non discrimination along political and religious lines and held true to the end.