Alfred Hale Caplan; Union Leader, Labor Relations Consultant

Alfred Hale Caplan, 79, a labor relations consultant who aided Cesar Chavez. A native of Chicago, Caplan grew up in Los Angeles and began working as a truck driver for Thrifty Drug. He soon became a shop steward and then a leader of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, which represented workers at Thrifty, and by age 22, was an international organizing representative. After service in the Marine Corps during World War II, Caplan returned to Los Angeles to serve as president of his union’s local. He left the post in 1957 to become a labor relations consultant to management in the agriculture, scrap metal and packaging industries. A high point of his career came in 1971 when he negotiated the first contract between Chavez and grape growers. Caplan helped his wife, Frieda, launch her produce company, Frieda’s Inc. He was founding president of Temple Beth David of Orange County and established the Caplan Family Outreach Fund to encourage understanding of Judaism. On Feb. 5 in Los Alamitos, Calif.