AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA AFL-CIO LOCAL 150

AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS & BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA AFL-CIO LOCAL 150. The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America came into existence nationally in January 1897. Unlike many unions, it contained both craft locals (in retail butchering) and industrial locals (in packing houses). The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America (AMC) was the first national organization dedicated to bringing up the working standards of the meat industry through unionization. At the turn of the century, AMC organizers united workers in the Chicago stockyards and packinghouses. They organized butchers of Irish and German heritage and central and eastern European immigrants who made up the majority of the workforce at growing companies like Amour and Swift. (1)

During the 1920s, black workers began entering packinghouses and earning skilled positions as butchers on the killing floors. During the early 1930s—and thanks in part to the New Deal’s pro-labor policies—black, white, and immigrant workers of all backgrounds took the lead organizing packinghouse workers in Chicago. These workers overcame ethnic and racial tensions in meatpacking plants that had kept workers divided and unable unite at the bargaining table. (2)

United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) was formed in 1943. Because of their large, active, and committed membership, UPWA was able to wield real power at the bargaining table. Through their solidarity, the workers of the UPWA were able to successfully bargain for increased wages and better working conditions. And they were able to use their tremendous power to benefit our entire society. UPWA was deeply involved in Chicago’s community-based struggle for racial equality. (3)

Not many people at that time believed that equal pay for black workers was possible—but unionized packinghouse workers had equality written into their contracts. Discussing pay equity for women did not become politically correct until the 1970s, but packinghouse workers had it written in their contracts in the 1950s. It was a union ahead of its time—regardless of color; sex, or immigrant status, union meatpackers got equal pay for equal work. (4)

Amalgamated absorbed several other unions, including the International Fur and Leather Workers Union in 1955, the National Agriculture Workers Union in 1960, and the United Packinghouse Workers of America in 1968. In 1979, the AMCBW merged with the Retail Clerks International Union to form the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butchers Union #150 signed a contract with CORN BELT PACKING COMPANY during the winter of 1920. (5)

See: DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY

    LABOR MOVEMENT

The 1948 Dubuque Classified Business Directory listed 620 E. 16th.

The 1955 and 1957 Dubuque City Directory listed 1516 Central.

The 1959 Dubuque City Directory listed 111 W. 6th.

The 1962 and 1964 Dubuque City Directory listed 1654 Central.

In 1972 its offices were located at 111 Bluff.

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Source:

1. "U.F.C. History," Online: http://www.ufcw.org/about/ufcw-history/

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. "Corn Belt and Union at Odds," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, August 3, 1920, p. 7