Today in Labor History, September 5, the year was
On this day in Labor History the year was 1941.
The Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee, part of the CIO, and Armour & Company signed a master contract.
This was the first such contract in the meatpacking industry.
Within two years, three other major meatpackers also signed agreements with the union.
By 1943, the United Packinghouse Workers of America represented over sixty percent of the country’s packinghouse workers.
Two earlier efforts to unionize meatpackers had not been successful.
The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America was the first national organization dedicated to the unionization of the meat industry.
Between 1900 and 1904, this union focused primarily on organizing skilled butchers.
A 1904 strike proved disastrous.
The meatpacking companies used African Americans and immigrant workers as strikebreakers.
Black workers had been barred from participation and leadership in the union.
The second wave of unionization occurred when the U.S. entered WWI and Southern African Americans began to migrate to Chicago.
The Chicago Federation of Labor began another organizing campaign in the stockyards.
Many black workers were hesitant to support what they saw as the white man’s union.
During the 1921 strike management again tried to thwart workers solidarity along the lines of race.
Again the strike failed.
Many strike leaders were blacklisted for life from working in the industry.
The Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee recognized that they must be more inclusive in order to unite workers.
The union organized both skilled and unskilled workers, and across racial and ethnic lines.
When this union rebranded itself as the United Packinghouse Workers of America, its headquarters were in Chicago.
The union’s new approach to organizing resulted in the first master contract for the industry.
It stands as a reminder of what true solidarity can accomplish.
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