This collection contains the case files for over 4000 labor arbitrations and mediations heard by Sam Kagel, his son John Kagel, and others during the years 1949 to 1997. The cases involve unions and companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and the West Coast primarily.

Sam Kagel emerged from humble beginnings in an immigrant family to become America's leading figure in the field of labor arbitration and mediation. Born in 1909 to Jewish parents who fled the Russian Empire for greener pastures in the United States, Kagel was raised in Jack London's old working-class neighborhood near the Oakland, California waterfront. As a young produce employee, he slipped watermelons to itinerant Wobblies, as the rebels of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were known, and read deeply in the writings of London, Frank Norris, Emile Zola, Anatole France and Upton Sinclair.

609 record cartons and 10 archives boxes

Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Labor Archives and Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Collection is open for research.