| Summary: | Greene writes regarding a recent worker registration campaign directed by the state council in response to the U.S. Labor Department's "Work or Fight" program; as part of the registration employees signed cards pledging that they would "work six days each week." This pledge led to "considerable trouble here with the servants," who then refused to work on Sundays as had been the "universal custom" in Opelika: "The attitude of the average negro servant has for some time been growing more and more independent in regard to labor. This card signed by them on Registration day has given them this opportunity which they have siezed [sic] upon to, in some cases, flaunt this position in the faces of their employers, and claiming that they have the 'protection of the law' in this position....We ask that you take up this matter with the Council of Defense and see if it can be corrected." The executive secretary of the state council responded first to Greene's letter, suggesting that the text of the card be adjusted so that "servants can be required to work more than six days if such is necessary." Hooper replied soon after, noting that Selma experienced a similar problem with servants, and that the state director for the U.S. Employment Service planned to give the African American citizens in Opelika "the correct interpretation of the Labor Department's policy in regard to the 'Work or Fight' clause."
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