Union Man

Jim Smith was born in 1911 and spent his youth in Phoenix, Arizona. My Aunt Thelma told me about her husband Clyde's older brother Jim Smith. "As a young man Jim was six feet tall and weighed one hundred forty pounds. He was strong, quick, and wiry especially when he got in a fight. He almost always won his battles as a kid. His parents raised him to be religious and from age seventeen to twenty-one he preached in the Pentecostal Church of Phoenix, Arizona. He was good at preaching, but he felt restless and wanted to do something more physical. His father had started a cotton farm in Phoenix that eventually went broke. Jim and his dad went to work making lettuce boxes, trimming, and later packing lettuce to be shipped to all parts of the country. They joined the union of the A.F.L., C.I.O. in Phoenix. Shortly before this time, Jim rebelled. In 1933 he became a drinker of boot legged "likker". Some called him a rowdy boy. At age 25 Jim drove his Chevy coupe up and down Washington Street in Phoenix, Arizona shooting a twenty-two pistol in the air. The police stopped his car and Jim said, 'If you give me a ticket, I want you to give me enough tickets to shuffle like a deck of cards.' The officer gave him a ticket and let him drive away. Later in the day police knocked on the door of his home to arrest him for having several unpaid traffic tickets, and Jim ran out the back door.

Jim was tall and skinny but he was tough as nails. When he spoke, he could get a gang of workers to do almost anything because he could inspire them. Jim knew how to use his fists to protect himself and he knew how to fight with words. On many occasions the growers hired tough guys to break up farm worker strikes. The workers held their ground and fought back. With Jim as their leader under Jimmy Hoffa, many reforms were earned by their resistance. Jim Smith was elected president of the A.F.L., C.I.O. in Phoenix."

Aunt Thelma continued, "As a labor leader Jim was a target of the growers who fought the union. The union furnished him with a company car. One day as he opened the door of the car in Phoenix, it blew up in his face and knocked him down from the blast. He was lucky not to have been killed. Newspapers said the bomb had been planted by someone in the underworld from Las Vegas. The incident seemed to indicate Jim refused to cooperate with the Mafia."

Uncle Clyde Smith told me this story about his brother Jim. "He was in a hurry to get his wife to see a special doctor in San Francisco during the nineteen forties when Jim was in the Navy. He drove his chopped down Ford hot-rod from Phoenix speeding at ninety miles an hour. They stopped about half way up the coast of Southern California for a cup of coffee. Jim was not in a good mood as they sat at the bar where food was served. His wife was the only woman there. One of the big guys made an insulting remark and looked sideways at Jim's wife. Without a word Jim hit him on the button and coal-cocked him putting him to sleep on the floor. Jim stepped over the man and led his wife out to their car while the local patrons watched. Jim made it to the specialist in San Francisco in record time."

Many years later my cousin Buddy Budd won a college debate contest arguing the pros and cons of the Right To Work Law for the state of California. Jim Smith attempted to recruit Buddy as a speaker for pro union causes. Buddy is a giant of a man and he is not easily influenced. Jim and his two armed body guards offered Buddy a job as a speaker for the union but Buddy declined to take the job.

When Jim retired from the union he received a twenty five thousand dollar bonus and a good pension. The California legislature gave him a special resolution on January 1, 1975. Parts of it read, "Jim Smith retired from the joint council of the Teamster Union #38 after having served nineteen years. His career lasted forty six years in the labor union. Born in Bolivar, Missouri Dec.17,1911 he was educated in Phoenix, Arizona. He was respected by all workers since 1928. He accepted the challenge to become a C.I.O. organizer of the Lettuce Packer Union in nineteen thirty two. He became a picket captain in the 1939 strike in Salinas and Watsonville, California. Jim Smith was elected to two terms as general president of the United Packing House Workers Local Seventy Eight. He rose rapidly to a position of extraordinary responsibility as an organizer for the Western Warehouse and Produce Council."

Jim Smith is a good example of a young hell-raiser who turned around and did something good with his life. One thing I admire is that he had a firm point of view. The world will remember Jim Smith as Jimmy Hoffa's right hand man in the Far West.