XIII. GOVERNMENT HEARINGS FILES OF PRESIDENTIAL ASSISTANT, LES FINNEGAN, 1948-1961

Grouped in two main sequences: transcripts, proceedings and reprints of government hearings on communism and the UE, Labor Racketeering, and the GE Antitrust Case (1961) that are arranged by generating body and filed chronologically thereunder, and reference and clippings files on UE hearings and participants arranged alphabetically by subject name.

From 1948 to 1959 the UE and other alleged communist-dominated unions became the chief focus of congressional and federal probes concerning communist infiltration of American labor unions and vital defense industries. The IUE and Carey, seeking to discredit the UE's left-wing leadership in hopes of fomenting a disaffiliation movement among remaining UE locals, provided evidence and key witnesses to substantiate UE ties to the Communist Party of America (CPUSA) and suspected communist-front organizations. Carey's testimony before various House and Senate subcommittees is contained within this series. Several IUE members--formerly associated with the UE and CPUSA--were key witnesses in the HUAC hearings and the "Red" probes associated with the McCarthy era. Lee Lundgren, Samuel DiMiria, Ernst Pollock, and James B. McLeish appeared before the HUAC and provided statements on communist influence within UE districs and locals in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and the New England region.

Finnegan collated stenographic and Government Printing Office transcripts and reprints of HUAC hearings, House and Senate investigation proceedings, Subversive Activities Control Board Cases, and reports of state (Massachusetts and Ohio) commissions covering subversive and un-American activities. Though extensive, particularly for HUAC, the hearing transcripts are not complete. Among the major House and Senate subcommittee hearings are: the Kersten Committee probe of the UE (1948); Humphrey Committee investigation of communist domination of unions and national security (1952); McCarthy Committee hearings on subversive activities in defense installations (1955); Jenner Committee probe of UE activities in Erie and Pittsburgh, PA (1953); and the Eastland Committee investigation of the scope of Soviet Activities in the U.S. (1957). These proceedings and transcripts include the testimony of key UE officers and organizers implicated as Communist Party members. Among them are Leo Jandreau, James Matles, Albert Fitzgerald, Julius Emspak, John Gojack, David Mates, Ernest Demaio, Joseph Infante, Michael Jiminez, William Wallace, and Russ Nixon.

In conjunction with the various probes Finnegan generated reference files containing clippings documenting local press coverage of hearings and background data on key UE witnesses (Matthew Cvetic, Henry Philbrick and John Janowitz) later exposed as Federal Bureau of Investigation informants. The IUE was particularly interested in documenting the statements and testimony of UE witnesses invoking the fifth amendment with regard to their alleged Communist Party affiliation. Much of this information was incorporated within biographical dossiers which Finnegan and the IUE compiled for inclusion in anti-UE organizational literature.

In addition, this series contains a substantial (though incomplete) portion of the stenographic transcript proceedings of the Senate Select Committee Hearings On Improper Activities In the Labor Or Management Field for the period March-July, 1957. The McClellan hearings on labor corruption and racketeering include verbatim testimony by union officials and rank and file members, special investigators, law enforcement officials, journalists, and management representatives. The bulk of the testimony includes the questioning of key union officers representing the labor organizations under scrutiny: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (David Beck and James Hoffa), the Bakery & Confectionery Workers (James G. Cross), and the United Textile Workers of America (Anthony Valente). Members of the McClellan Committee included, Sen. John L. McClellan, Chairman, Sam J. Ervin, Jr., Karl Mundt, Barry Goldwater, Pat McNamara, Irving M. Ives, Carl Curtis, and John F. Kennedy. Robert F. Kennedy served as Chief Counsel to the Committee.

Finnegan also compiled the extensive proceedings of the electrical antitrust cases investigated by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly from April to July 1961. Chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver, the committee investigated allegations of an elaborate equipment price-fixing conspiracy (administered prices and non-competitive bids) by the major electrical manufacturing firms--including GE, Westinghouse, and Allis-Chalmers--in sales to the Tennessee Valley Authority, private utility companies, and municipal governments. These hearings sought to untangle the web of the electrical industrial cartel and to strengthen the case for enforcement of antitrust legislation. The IUE followed the revelations of the hearings closely and sought to maximize the public outcry against the electrical giants for its own collective bargaining advantage. Primarily, the IUE orchestrated a publicity campaign that questioned GE's credibility and the major electrical firm's contention that it could not afford to grant wage concessions and benefits to its employees owing to lagging profits and sales.