‘New Canaan There & Then’ is sponsored by Brown Harris Stevens Realtors Bettina Hegel, Joanne Santulli, Dawn Sterner and Pam Stutz.
Norman Dairy was the largest dairy business in New Canaan.
In 1914, Meyer Norman, who was born in Vilno, Russia in 1854 and emigrated to Stamford in 1884, founded the business on Old Stamford Road (the site of the current Elise Nursery.) Although it did not have cows, it purchased rich, high-quality milk from farmers in New York, which it then sold to residents in New Canaan, Norwalk, Darien, Stamford, and Greenwich. The business evolved from a distribution network of horses and wagons, to a fleet of trucks delivering milk, cream, cottage cheese, and eggs. And each driver carried a rule book with 32 Rules and Regulations governing his conduct.
It was also part of one of the biggest labor strikes in New Canaan history.
Beginning in January 1946, both Norman Dairy and Miller Dairy (the two largest) were under pressure from Local 338 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, A.F.L., to unionize all workers and increase wages. The dairies were unable to meet the demands and threatened to close. In an open letter in the Advertiser to Charles Conrad, the union president, the Miller brothers wrote, “You ‘organized’ our men; you ‘persuaded’ them that you could get more money for them despite the fact that the money was not there. You won a brilliant victory. I applaud you. But where is the victory? The golden goose is dead – the eggs no more.”
On Jan. 27, 1946, hundreds of picketers marched along Ponus Ridge. Other picketers intercepted a Norman Dairy truck in North Stamford and spilled 35 containers of milk into a nearby river. Another Norman Dairy truck was stopped, and this time the driver was beaten and the tires slashed. The police were called to settle the unrest.
After a tense few days and a series of hearings at Town Hall, the People’s Union was formed with Mrs. William J. Davis, Jr., an expert on labor relations, as vice-president. The goal was to start an organization that would demand changes to state and federal laws so that, as its Expression of Interest declared, the laws would be equally applied to “employer and employee, to union members and non-union members, to persons now employed, to returned veterans now seeking employment and to the plain citizens of Connecticut and the United States.”
The People’s Union brought to New Canaan spokesmen from major management and labor groups. It also studied labor legislation. Abraham Norman, son of Meyer who by then was running the Norman Dairy, testified in Washington, D.C. before the House Labor Committee. New Canaan’s state representative, Ira Hicks presented legislation in Hartford. Although Hicks’ bill failed in Hartford, it is considered to be the basis for the Taft-Hartley Act, also known as the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which restricted the power of labor unions, and was passed by Congress over President Harry S. Truman’s veto.
Meanwhile, the Norman Dairy reopened. The A.F.L. Teamster’s Union reimbursed it for its losses, and it remained in operation for another 25 years.
Not sure but thinkin’ my Dad may have worked there????
When did it become the Marcus Dairy?