Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904-54This detailed study of the relationship between race relations and unionization in Chicago's meatpacking industry draws on traditional primary and secondary materials and on an extensive set of interviews conducted in the mid-1980s that explore subjective dimensions of the workers' experience. "An ideal case study to analyze one of the central problems in American labor history--the relation ship between racial identity and working class formation and organization." -- James R. Barrett, author of Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894-1922 "Meticulously researched, grounded firmly in extensive oral history and archival sources, and carefully argued, Down on the Killing Floor will be indispensable reading for everyone interested in race and labor." -- Eric Arnesen, author of Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz |
Contents
Hog Butcher for the World Chicagos Meatpacking Industry | 7 |
The Stockyards Labor Council | 44 |
Chicagos Packinghouse Workers in the 1920s | 73 |
Negro and White Unite and Fight The Rise of the Chicago PWOC | 96 |
Organizing the Stockyards 193740 | 130 |
Chicagos Packinghouse Workers during World War II | 167 |
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Common terms and phrases
activists activities African Americans Alschuler Amalgamated Amalgamated Meat Cutters American Armour author's possession Back-of-the-Yards Balskus Barrett Bittner black workers Brody Butcher Workmen campaign Chicago Chicago Defender Chicago's packinghouse CIO S-T Committee Communists company union Dennis Lane departments District election employees employment ethnic Executive Board folder foremen gang grievances Hank Johnson Helstein Herbert March Herbst History of Meatpacking interracial interview with Herbert Jane March Jesse Vaughn job actions July Kampfert killing floors Labor Board labor movement Lewis Lowell Washington Meat Cutters Meat Packing Industry membership ment militancy National Negro NLRB organization packers packing companies Packing Industry packinghouse workers percent Philip Weightman plant political Press PWOC PWOC's quoted Race racial Ralph Helstein rank-and-file recalled Sept shop-floor skilled steward stockyards stoppages strike Swift tion unionists UPWA Papers UPWA's UPWAOHP Vicky Starr wage Wilson women yards Zabritski