"75 Pickers Quit, Escorted Out of County by Police" from the July 20, 1948 Door County Advocate
75 Pickers Quit, Escorted Out of County by Police
Strike for Higher Pay and Smaller Charge for Board Than Scale Here
Seventy-five negro cherry pickers learned Tuesday that, if they are not here to fulfill their part of the bargain with the camp to which they are assigned, they can't loaf around Door county.
Striking at the M. W. Miller camp for 45c instead of 20c per pail (season rate) and asking for board at $1.00 instead of $1.50 a day, the negroes refused to go to work Monday. Twice Sheriff Hallie Rowe and Traffic Officer Joe Antonissen were called to the camp to see what could be done. No cause for complaint could be found. Meals were very good and no higher than elsewhere, the sheriff said.
That evening, the sheriff worked out a plan. On Tuesday morning, he and Officers Carmody and Antonissen would go to the camp at the start of picking and ask each and every one of the pickers if they wanted to work. Those who did not want to work would be loaded on truck and taken on their way out of town.
Get Ride to Green Bay
The plan was carried out, and 75 pickers were dumped off at the "Y" south of here. Shortly afterward, complaints started coming in that the ex-pickers were loitering around Cloverleaf. At the cheese factory there, the pickers bought half a can of milk and couldn't dig up enough money to pay for it. Harvey Ullman, cheesemaker, however, was glad to take what he could get to be rid of the intruders, he said.
Anyway, the complaints resulted in Sheriff Rowe making arrangements with the Miller company to furnish two trucks to pick up the entire group and furnish transportation to the employment office at Green Bay. Nothing has been heard since.
Elsewhere in the county a few disturbances have been reported but nothing of serious consequence. General satisfaction is shown with the standard picking prices which are worth more this year to the picker than last because of the larger crop.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[Despite considerable differences, I think this is the same incident reported by Sergio M. González in “Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin”: https://books.google.com/books?id=_rX4EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT108 ]
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