Duyungan, prior to his presidency worked in a number of jobs such as smelting, cooking and as a contractor for agricultural workers in crops such as hops, apples, and peaches.
[6] As the Union President, Duyungan testified at the National Recovery Act hearings in San Francisco, 1934, where he attempted to expose practices of exploitation and corruption in Alaskan canneries.
He testified that, along with issues of drug and alcohol use, gambling and violation of contracts such as starting work times, there was the issue of sexual perversions white homosexual boys, some as young as 14, who were recruited and smuggled into Bristol Bay, and that typically older homosexual transvestites were hired as prostitutes for cannery workers.
Under Cabatit and Espe, the CWFLU made numerous attempts to organize farm workers during the winter months, and the two men also focused on promoting interracial cooperation and ending discrimination in the community.
Local 18257 successfully retained negotiation rights and dispatched its workers in 1937 despite pickets set up by the rival group.
Bitterness toward the AFL resulted from the incidents and led to a November 4 vote by the Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco locals to affiliate with the newly formed United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America-CIO (UCAPAWA).
On May 4, 1938 the issue was settled in Local 7's favor in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) supervised election.