The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America union (UCAPAWA) changed its name to Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA) in 1944. History The FTA sought to further organize cannery units and realized the best way to do this would be through organizing women and immigrant workers and in 1945 started finding success to these ends. The FTA started to experience problems when the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) began interfering in its organizing efforts. The IBT was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the FTA was affiliated with its rival, the radical, Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The IBT union was more conservative in regards to women and immigrant workers. It did not have much interest in integrating them into the union. It was far more concerned with making sweetheart deals and collecting union dues. This willingness to maintain the status quo made the IBT a favorite among California Processors and growers. This meant that they signed more contracts with processors and growers than the FTA, which ultimately undermined the more radical FTA union. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 further damaged the FTA. This act stated that American labor unions could not have communist ties and the FTA had many. Because of this act many of the organizers either left the union or were deported. It was at this time that the FTA as a whole was expelled from the CIO. This put the IBT in the center of the California cannery industry and it remained there for the next two decades. Shortly after expulsion from the CIO, FTA absorbed the International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America. It then merged with the United Office and Professional Workers of America and the Distributive Workers Union (formed by locals that had just left the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union) to create the Distributive, Processing, and Office Workers of America (DPOWA). Internal disputes and political pressures brought about DPOWA's demise by 1954, when it merged with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Communism and Anti-Communism The Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA) have had constant ideological and political battles between the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). A lot of what caused this constant friction was that the FTA had a lot of members who were involved with various communist parties and/or organizations. More importantly, "The real active Communist Party leaders within the