Brunswig workers were underpaid compared to unionized grocery stockers, had a heavier workload, and needed to be familiar with many more items on the shelves. Unlike union grocery stockers, Brunswig workers had no job security. In the fall of 1937, 150 workers held a secret meeting of what became Local 26 in the basement of the Musicians Local 47 hall. Corona was elected recording secretary, since as a college student, he was considered “educated.”

The young warehouse worker was taken under the wing of an ex-Wobbly, Loyd Seeliger, who revealed to Corona a cornucopia of one-on-one organizing techniques. From Seeliger, Corona also learned to prefer a simple worker signup over NLRB elections.

Loyd couldn’t understand the idea of holding an election to decide whether or not workers wanted to have a right that, he believed, inherently belonged to them. . . . In his years of organizing, he never participated in an election. He just showed the bosses that he had signed up almost all of their workers and insisted that if they didn’t agree now to a contract, the union would strike. The bosses generally agreed.