Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This 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
Synopsis
Rick Halpern examines the links between race relations and unionization in Chicago's meatpacking industry. Drawing on oral histories and archival materials, Halpern explores the experiences of and relationship between black and white workers in a fifty-year period that included labor actions during World War I, Armour's violent reaction to union drives in the late 1930s, and organizations like the Stockyards Labor Council and the United Packinghouse Workers of America.
Table of Contents
"Hog butcher for the world" : Chicago's meatpacking industry -- The Stockyards Labor Council -- Chicago's packinghouse workers in the 1920s -- "Negro and white, unite and fight" : the rise of the Chicago P.W.O.C. -- Organizing the stockyards, 1937-1940 -- Chicago's packinghouse workers during World War II -- The path not taken : the formation of the United Packinghouse Workers of America.