Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
LABOR MOVEMENT
This entry is being edited.
LABOR MOVEMENT. The rise of the organized labor movement in Dubuque began with the rise of industrialization in the 1850s. Dubuque's first union belonged to the typographers during that decade. (1) A meeting of all the "mechanics and laborers" of the city was called for July 28, 1864 at the DUBUQUE COUNTY COURTHOUSE for "the purpose of forming an association to protect themselves against the infringements of capital against labor." (2) Proprietors of livery stables in Dubuque followed this example by September, 1864 by establishing uniform prices. (3)
In November 1865 teamsters at several lumberyards struck successfully to raise their daily pay from $4.00 to $5.00. The Dubuque Herald's article commented that important to the success was the demand for lumber and the limited number of teamsters available. (4)
A wave of organized labor strikes struck Dubuque soon after the CIVIL WAR. An editorial in the Dubuque Daily Herald of January 1866 commented:
Strikes--Strikes are the order of the day. The shoemakers
struck and didn't get it, the boatmen have struck and ain't
got it yet, and now the fever has broken out among the fire-
men who will not run with the "masheen" any longer or let
"Skysey take the butt" unless each company is allowed $300
per annum. Their present salary, $100, would not pay for
shoe blacking after running through a mud puddle. The boys
are determined and mean "biz" this time and unless the
council grants their prayer every man will have to play on
his own fire. (5)
There was sympathy for the working man who found himself unwilling to continue working for poor pay--even if the "working man" happened to be black. (6)
Commendable Sympathy--We are informed that the whole crews
that lately left the service of the Packet company were
soliciting subscriptions yesterday, to aid the black crews
who are without money consequent upon their refusal to
work as per contract. The company owes each man $37.80,
not one cent of which will be paid unless they resume work
and continue until the season of navigation closes. In
passing a crowd of the black crews yesterday, one of them
was humming in melancholy tone the popular refrain:
All the work is dark and dreary
Everywhere I roam,
On darkies how my heart grows weary
Far from the old folks at home.
Sympathy did not necessarily last. Workers on other boats began striking for higher wages at the end of July 1866 and harvest season was approaching. An editorial in the Dubuque Herald remarked at the companies would have little problem filling their crews since there were many men looking for work along the Mississippi. (7) The company instead chose, by the end of the month, to go back to Cincinnati for additional black crew members and hired 206 as strikebreakers. (8)
The journeymen shoemakers of Dubuque went on strike on September 12, 1866. Calling on all the management, they presented their wage demands of increases ranging from twenty to twenty-five percent. When management refused to accept the demands, the factories closed. (9) The strike was short. Blaming "treachery of a few of the men who promised to stand firm yet kept pegging away at the old prices," the end of the strike and a return to the old wages was announced on September 16, 1866. (10)
Riverboat employees in 1873 saw their wages cut from $45-$55 to $35.00 by packet companies complaining of dull business. When the Red Wing reached shore in May, thirteen of the boat's employees left, but the boat continued on without them. (11)
An early union, the KNIGHTS OF LABOR, was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia. By 1888 the Knights had 30,000 members in Iowa. (12) Its rallying cry, "An injury to one is the concern of all," appealed to workers without regard to skill, race, or gender. (13)
Dubuque was the largest manufacturing city in Iowa during the 1880s. A profile of the city's working-class population in the mid-1880s indicates that a typical worker was employed ten hours daily with wage rates determined by age, job, and sex. Women and children, involved in low-paying factory, retail and service occupations, earned the least. Wages earned by women average one-third to one-half those of men. Boys received less than women and girls made less than boys. Common male occupations included blacksmiths, carpenters, machinists, railway workers, and teamsters. Unskilled male workers earned from $1.00 to $1.50 daily as compared to bricklayers who earned from $3.75 to $4.00. Common laborers rented homes while between one-third and one-half of the tradesmen owned their own homes. (14)
Prior to 1885, trade unions in Dubuque existed among printers, cigarmakers, locomotive firemen and engineers, tailors and bricklayers. Membership varied from twenty to forty. These groups protected their independence, decided work rules and wage scales, avoided politics, and held regular meetings. (15)
The lowest paying jobs belonged to women and children who worked in service and retail jobs. Men earned one-third more than women. Women received more than boys who earned more than girls. AFRICAN AMERICANS were left with work as cooks, servants or porters. Close supervision in the workplace meant little rest time, but many opportunities to be injured or die. Bad ventilation, explosions, fires, and unsafe machinery were common. Faced with such working conditions, workers attempted to band together.
Attempts to organize and bargain for wages and working conditions required courage. Opposition to organized labor came from company management that resisted even recognizing union spokespersons. Union organizers were dismissed. Lockouts and strikebreakers were employed; labor organizers often found public officials tending to side with management.
One of the first major breakthroughs in labor organizing in Dubuque came in the 1880s when the Knights of Labor organized building tradesmen and women garment workers at the H. B. GLOVER COMPANY and railroad workers on the Chicago and Northwestern.
In 1887 efforts of Dubuque manufacturers to lobby the Iowa Legislature to block passage of Iowa's first factory inspection acts led the Knights to organize a political party. The Labor Reform Party successfully elected Dubuque's first "labor" MAYOR, captured control of the city council and carried all other citywide offices. The January 1, 1887 of the Industrial Leader encouraged readers to follow independent political action. In February, a full slate of labor candidates was assembled for the municipal election. The Labor Reform Party declared the intention:
to have laws made and executed in the interest
of justice, of morality, and of productive labor;
so that the workers, who produce all the wealth,
may not sink into deeper poverty, while the idle
drones, who produce none, revel in increased
opulence. (16)
Party planks addressed extravagance in the budget, inequitable taxes, rising debt, the contract labor system of performing street work, and monopolistic practices of 'corrupt rings and political tricksters.' (17)
The results of the election were surprising. The Republican and Democratic strategy of portraying themselves and better for the general public failed. The entire Knights of Labor ticket were elected. Christian Anton VOELKER was elected mayor and John STAFFORD became the city recorder. (18)
The new council took controversial positions. In May the entire police force was discharged amid charges that it had been used to harass workers. Half of the new force was former officers and the other half all Knights. The subcontracting of labor was street work was abolished and replaced with day labor and the council gave a 40% increase in the daily wage for city work from $1.25 to $1.75 which was higher than wages paid to private sector labor. (19) The council also rejected the offer of the county supervisors to have county jail prisoners to city work. The council responded by claiming the use of such labor depressed wages, offered unfair competition, and was nothing other than involuntary servitude. (20)
When the Knights swept into office, Dubuque's total indebtedness exceeded $800,000--the highest of any city in Iowa. Working on their pledge to begin a more equitable system of taxation, the council instituted a 20% increase in city tax assessments. As a result, the indebtedness dropped about 15% allowing community projects that had been stopped to pay for debt service. (21)
During the time the Knights held public office, the goods and services produced in the city increased 20%; the local transportation system improved with two new railway lines, a new ferry company, a high bridge across the MISSISSIPPI RIVER; and a new fire alarm system was installed. (22)
Despite the achievements, political power for the Knights was soon ended. The local press and the Board of Trade attacked the new political party which was split by potential offers to join with one of the two major political parties. Within the Knights, arguments developed between those who believed in getting elected and those who felt lobbying was more effective. (23)
The fall election of 1887 brought Democrats back into power while the labor vote declined by 45%. In 1888 the Knights did not offer a separate ticket of candidates. The Citizen's Party of half Republicans and half Democrats won nearly all the city offices and most of the council seats. The Knights were never again to play an important role in local politics and they left independent politics in 1890. (24)
The unexpected death of John Stafford, weakened patronage of the cooperatives, and election defeats all conspired to further weaken the Knights locally. In one of its last efforts, the Knights led the efforts in forming the DUBUQUE TRADES AND LABOR CONGRESS, a citywide labor organization in July 1888. (25)
At the turn of the 20th century, Dubuque had the highest rate of union membership in Iowa with an estimated two-thirds of the city's workforce belonging to organized labor. (26) While this was true, economic forces were aligning to weaken the local economy. Local businesses were gradually driven out of business by larger companies. By 1910 the steamboat companies were out of business and the lumber industry had moved from the Mississippi Valley to northern Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest. (27)
Union organizing efforts from 1890 to 1910 focused on the building trades. Painters, iron workers, bricklayers, carpenters, sheet metal workers, and plumbers organized independent locals for each trade. Together these locals formed the Building Trades Council. The Teamsters became one of Iowa's strongest unions through help they received from the building trades.
A strike of motormen and coachmen against the UNION ELECTRIC COMPANY during the summer of 1903 lasted for seven weeks and resulted in the Iowa governor, his state labor commissioner, the president of the state labor federation, and a battalion of national guard troops coming to the city. (28) The belief that non-union strike breakers were brought to the city was supported when it was revealed they had all left Dubuque and were headed to Richmond, Virginia where a similar strike was in progress. (29)
By 1910 the estimated fifty unions operating in Dubuque made the city Iowa's labor movement stronghold. The local unions gained additional strength when they joined to form the Dubuque Trades and Labor Congress. The largest unions were those of the coopers, retail clerks, cigar makers, brewery workers, machinists, iron molders, and street railway employees. Despite several organizing campaigns, mill workers at the sash, door and blind factories of FARLEY AND LOETSCHER MANUFACTURING COMPANY and Carr, Ryder, and Adams remained unorganized until the mid-1930s.
Through WORLD WAR I, the role of organized labor in the business climate of Dubuque was controversial. Powerful unions were charged with obtaining wages too high for Dubuque manufacturers to compete economically with other major Iowa employers or to attract new industry. The HARMONY MOVEMENT, according to labor leaders, sought to weaken efforts to unionize companies. Labor advocates charged that some local businessmen conspired to keep new industries out of Dubuque to maintain a large pool of potential labor.
Hard times for organized labor came during the 1920s. Nationwide, union membership declined from over 5 million to a little over 3.5 million. (30) The" open shop" concept in which there was no recognition of organized labor was, it was claimed, renamed the "American Plan" to hide its anti-union nature. The machinists at KLAUER MANUFACTURING COMPANY and A.Y.MCDONALD MANUFACTURING COMPANY lost strikes. In 1922 an unsuccessful strike for higher pay lasted three months at the MILWAUKEE RAILROAD SHOPS in an attempt to raise the top rate to eighty cents. In 1924 representatives of six shop crafts, known as System Federation 76, of the Milwaukee line met in Dubuque to take positions on issues affecting the labor force. John Utzig of Dubuque was the federation president. (31)
Often unable to compete nationally, local business leaders' reactions to organized labor led to layoffs and a reduction in the workforce. Estimates have been made that between 1927 and 1934, over thirty firms closed down or left Dubuque. This resulted in the loss of 2,200 manufacturing jobs. Replacing these were thirteen new businesses employing only three hundred workers. (32)
The GREAT DEPRESSION led to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President of the United States and the start of the New Deal. Of all of these programs, the one which affected organized labor the most was the National Recovery Administration, called by its initials, the N. R. A. This agency allowed businessmen to fix prices and allocate production quotas through codes of competition. Included in the law was the famous section, Section 7(a), which provided that every code of fair competition must provide employees the right to form and join unions of their own choosing in order to bargain collectively with their employers. Section 7(a) served as a spark for the labor movement. Immediately, workers across the nation again began to form unions. (33)
In 1933 the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen organized at the DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY. Bell Telephone workers were organized later in the decade by the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). A bitter strike against ROSHEK'S DEPARTMENT STORE led to renewed strength in the Teamster's Union. The Upholsters campaigned to organize FLEXSTEEL INDUSTRIES, INC. and the farm equipment workers. In 1948 the United Auto Workers were successful at the JOHN DEERE DUBUQUE WORKS.
Through the late 1970s, manufacturing dominated the Dubuque economy. This changed rapidly. Affected by the national economic recession, between 1979 and 1982 John Deere reduced its work force from an estimated 8,700 to 5,300. The Dubuque Packing Company laid off 1,450 employees out of a total 2,700. In early 1982 when Deere temporarily shut down the Dubuque plant, the city's unemployment rose as high as 23%. Most of the jobs lost were in high paying manufacturing companies with unions. New jobs were generally in small scale and private chain stores that higher non-union employees and paid minimum wages. (34)
While manufacturing companies were reducing their mainly male work force, female workers entered the work place in significant numbers. Often taking seasonal jobs in the service sector, these employees received low wages with little of no benefits. Employment was non-union and part-time. (35)
Cities like Dubuque with a few major employers were more greatly affected by national economic conditions. The prosperity of the period from 1960-1980 increased Dubuque's population, while the recession of the 1980s led by some estimates to a loss of more than 10% of the population. (36)
Those fortunate enough to keep their jobs had to settle for reduced wages and benefits. Adjusting for inflation, workers in 1988 employed in production took home $5,448 less than they earned in 1981. Clerical workers took home $4,018 less and service employees lost $2,385. (37)
Reflecting the involvement of the federal government in labor issues, representatives of the conciliation service of the U.S. Department of Labor and officials of the AFL met in 1942 to resolve differences when several hundred workers belonging to the Battery Workers Union Local No. 22516 at the General Dry Batteries Company plant in Dubuque walked out. (38)
In 1979 the union members at the Dubuque Works were the last to agree to a new contract between the company and union. A twenty-two day strike ended with protest after the United Auto Workers informed the members that the Dubuque strike was illegal and unauthorized. Union members had rejected the contract by a vote of 3,239 to 506 one day before a district judge had issued an injunction against continued picketing. (39)
Recent years have witnessed fewer strikes and increased labor-management cooperation as the threat to American jobs is seen from foreign competition. Cooperation between labor and management led to the development of the DUBUQUE AREA LABOR-MANAGEMENT COUNCIL. Leadership of organized labor through these changing times has been provided by such leaders as Hugh D. CLARK, John GROGAN and Mel MAAS.
On July 1, 1975 collective bargaining was approved in Iowa for public school employees. Teachers in the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT voted to have the DUBUQUE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, a representative of the National Education Association, represent them and the first negotiated agreement with the District was written.
The faculty of the University of Dubuque gained a unique status in the 1970s by being the first in a private institution of higher education west of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER to request collective bargaining. The "Contractual Agreement Between the Faculty Association of the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Dubuque" was signed on June 4, 1974. Articles of the agreement included: recognition, board rights, association rights, student rights and freedom, academic freedom, faculty rights and responsibilities, working conditions, academic ranks, personnel policies, promotion, tenure, dismissals, termination and resignations, personnel files, grievance and arbitration, and salary and fringe benefits. Appendixes included the joint statement on rights and freedoms of students and the salary schedule. This agreement remained in effect until August 31, 1975. (40)
In December 1983 the question of whether the faculty would retain collective bargaining rights went before a hearing of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing resulted from a petition University of Dubuque administrators filed in November with the NLRB regional office in Peoria, Illinois. The non-union administrators asked the board to determine whether university faculty fell under a Supreme Court ruling that banned faculty at a private college from bargaining collectively (1980 Yeshiva decision). The Supreme Court had ruled that faculty at Yeshiva University, a private four-year college in New York were managerial employees that therefore not subject to the NLRB. University of Dubuque administrators argued that faculty exercised excessive managerial rights. The faculty at the time was bargaining as the Faculty Association of the College of Liberal Arts, an affiliate of the National Education Association and the Iowa State Education Association. (41) The action of the administration was seen as "union-busting" and picketing was carried out by members of the college faculty and teachers of the DUBUQUE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, also an affiliate of the Iowa State Education Association. (42) The National Labor Relations Board eventually ruled against the faculty which lost its collective bargaining rights. (43)
A glaring exception to the labor-company cooperation was the history of the Dubuque Packing Company and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 150-A. In 1980 "the Pack" was a major force in the economy of Dubuque, one of nine cities nationwide in which the company had plants. Workers "on the line" earned an average of $25,000 in annual wages plus an additional $11,000 in fringe benefits according to company estimates. This included an average of five weeks of vacation per year.
In 1980 the Dubuque Packing Company claimed to have lost $9.9 million primarily through its beef operations. Of the 115 men working in the beef kill, the youngest had 21 years of seniority resulting in a large number of benefits the company had to pay. The company wanted the production standard increased from 115.8 head of cattle per hour increased to 160. Union officials noted that with incentive pay, the workers were already slaughtering more than 115.8 but not 160. Union officials acknowledged that the company could build a one-story facility increasing efficiency over the five-story Dubuque plant were carcasses had to be moved from floor to floor. They also agreed that the company would probably gain from property tax concessions from any community near a new plant and that younger workers would cost less.
Blaming a changing market, high wages, and inefficient equipment, the company asked for wage and benefit concessions and closed parts of the Dubuque plant promising only to "maintain a presence" in Dubuque. The hog kill was closed in 1981 with a loss of 1,400 jobs when the company relocated the operations to Rochelle, Illinois. (See NLRB ruling below.)
In April 1982, officials of Dubuque Packing Company announced they would close the Dubuque plant on October 16th. This action had the potential of creating unemployment for 1,200 workers and possibly raising Dubuque's unemployment rate to 17.3 percent.
On May 12, 1982 United Food and Commercial Workers Local 150-A members voted to reject the company's latest 11-point benefit and concessions package. Mel MAAS stated the workers "had enough and decided the company was going to close the plant regardless." The concessions would have included a drop of base wages from $9.00 to $8.00, a loss of a week in vacation time, a limit on yearly vacations to three weeks, and an increase in worker payment of their medical insurance. (44)
Workers were angered by the closing. As early as 1974, Dubuque Pack had purchased new packing plants like one in Mankato it had leased since 1972. (45) Expansion in Mankato had included a new warehouse, installation of a rendering system and growth in the stockyards. (46) Union members in Dubuque considered such activities as threats used by the company to force wage concessions.
In the fall of 1982, the President and Chairman of Dubuque Packing Company Charles E. Stoltz sold the packing plant and its fleur-de-lis trademark for $30.5 million to a group which included Robert Henry WAHLERT. The packing plant resumed operations as FDL FOODS INC. The sale resulted in approximately five hundred employees being forced to accept lower wages or early retirement.
In 1984 a district court ruled that the company had to pay full retirement benefits to eligible employees. When the company was sold, officials indicated that they wanted to take away some of the employees health, medical, and insurance benefits. The court ruled that the company should comply with an arbitrator's decision in 1983 and pay the fees of the attorney representing the union.
In 1985 the headquarters was moved to Omaha, Nebraska to be more centrally located to its other plants, which were processing primarily beef at that time. The company again flourished and was later sold in a leverage buyout to BeefAmerica, a firm controlled by Eli Jacobs. Its gelatin operations were sold to the French company Sanofi. BeefAmerica went out of business in 1998 following a recall and a strike.
America's unions received an important announcement on June 14, 1991 as a result of company actions taken at the packing company. The National Labor Relations Board, in a unanimous ruling, found that the Dubuque Packing Company had violated federal labor law by refusing to negotiate with union workers over the movement of the hog kill operations from Dubuque to Rochelle, Illinois. (47)
The U. S. Court of Appeals said that the case posed "hard questions--some of the most polarizing questions in contemporary labor law." It then referred the case back to the NLRB for clarification of the bargaining obligation issue. The ruling placed the burden of proof on the employers as to why they should be free of bargaining with their unions when they choose to relocate. (48)
Dave Baker, president of General Drivers and Helpers Union Local 421 said in January 1991 that he was contacted by employees of the DUBUQUE CASINO BELLE in November of 1991. Iowa's riverboat gambling law then required that employees had to be paid 25% more than the federal minimum wage. Iowa's minimum wage increased forty cents in January, 1992 but the federal minimum had remained the same. (49)
On April 13, 2010 the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced it had assumed responsibility for the underfunded pension plan covering nearly 1,300 former employees and retirees of the defunct Dubuque Packing Co. (50)
The PBGC stepped in because the Dubuque Packing Co. Supplemental Pension Plan faced abandonment as its board of administration prepared to disband. The board had remained as plan administrator after Dubuque Packing liquidated and dissolved in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It was announced that retirees would continue to receive their monthly benefit payments without interruption, and other workers would receive their pensions when they were eligible to retire. (51)
The pension plan was 36 percent funded, with about $1.9 million in assets and nearly $5.2 million in benefit liabilities, according to PBGC estimates. The agency expected to cover the $3.3 million shortfall, and would take over the assets and use insurance funds to pay guaranteed benefits earned under the plan, which ended on March 31, 2010. The PBGC became trustee of the plan on April 8, 2010. (52)
The PBGC sent trusteeship notification letters to all plan participants. Under federal pension law, the maximum guaranteed pension at age 65 for participants in plans that terminated in 2010 was $54,000 per year. The maximum guaranteed amount was lower for those who retired earlier or elected survivor benefits. The PBGC expected that pension payments to retirees and beneficiaries under the Dubuque Packing plan will not be reduced by guarantee limits. (53)
In 2012 the DUBUQUE WORKERS' ACADEMY was offered by the University of Iowa, Dubuque Federation of Labor and the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
---
Source:
1. "Labor Unions in Iowa," Iowa Pathways, Online: http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways/myPath.cfm?ounid=ob_000290
2. "Labor vs. Capital," Dubuque Democratic Herald, July 27, 1864, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A36e8EsbUSoC&dat=18640727&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
3. "Uniform Scale of Prices," Dubuque Democratic Herald, September 21, 1864, p 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A36e8EsbUSoC&dat=18640921&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
4. "Struck and Got It," Dubuque Herald, November 14, 1865, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18651114&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
5. "Strikes," Dubuque Daily Herald, September 28, 1866, p. 3. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18660928&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
6. "Commendable Sympathy," Dubuque Daily Herald, September 28, 1866, p. 3. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18660928&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
7. "Struck for Wages, Dubuque Herald, July 24, 1866, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18660724&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
8. "Negro Crews Coming," Dubuque Herald, July 31, 1866, p. 4. Online:
9. "On A Strike," Dubuque Herald, September 13, 1866, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18660913&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
10. "Shoemakers Strike Ended," Dubuque Herald, September 16, 1866, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18660916&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
11. "Struck for Wages," Dubuque Herald, May 4, 1873, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18730504&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
12. "Labor Unions in Iowa."
13. "Iowa's Role in Labor History," Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters, Online: http://www.carpentersunion.org/about/iowas-role-labor-history
14. Scharnau, Ralph. "Workers and Politics--The Knights of Labor in Dubuque, Iowa 1885-1890, Annals of Iowa. Des Moines: State Historical Society of Iowa, Volume 48, Number 7 (Winter of 1987), p. 355
15. Ibid., p. 356
16. Ibid. p. 365
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., p. 368
19. Ibid., p. 369
20. Ibid. p. 370
21. Ibid. p. 373
22. Ibid. p. 374
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid. p. 375
25. Ibid. p. 376
26. Chaichian, Mohammad A. White Racism on the Western Urban Frontier-Dynamics of Race and Class in Dubuque Iowa (1800-2000), Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. 2006, p. 187
27. Ibid.
28. "Story of the Strike," Telegraph Herald and Times Journal, March 24, 1933, p. 14
29. "Echoes from Dubuque Newspapers," Clinton Mirror, July 4, 1903. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2281&dat=19030704&id=caIoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CAYGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6042,1191791&hl=en
30. Chaichian, p. 188
31. "Milwaukee Road Changes Over to Electric Power in Big Shops at Dubuque," The Milwaukee Journal, July 18, 1916. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19160718&id=QaxRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FiEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6055,3416556&hl=en
32. Chaichian, p. 189
33. "Iowa's Role in Labor..."
34. Chaichian, p. 193
35. Ibid., p 194
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., p. 195
38. "Dubuque, Iowa." The Milwaukee Journal, October 29, 1942, Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19421029&id=0O0ZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5CIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2779,5754495&hl=en
39. "Deere Employees Return," The Daily Reporter, October 13, 1979. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1926&dat=19791013&id=H1srAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dNkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2065,1543324&hl=en
40. ERIC-Contractual Agreement Between the Faculty Association of the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Dubuque and the University of Dubuque. Dubuque Univ., IA. Online: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED104194
41. Goessl, Joan. "UD Faculty May Lose Collective Bargaining," Telegraph Herald, December 15, 1983, p. 3A
42. Lyon, Randolph. President of the Dubuque Education Association from 1982-1986
43. Interview with Ralph Scharnau, January, 2015
44. "Dubuque Pack to Close," The Daily Reporter, May 12, 1982. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1907&dat=19820512&id=oWMrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pdkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2983,2256088&hl=en
45. "Dubuque Announces Purchase of Mankato Packing Plant," Jewell County Record, May 30, 1974. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1393&dat=19740530&id=aF1lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8JMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3290,3501346&hl=en
46. Ibid.
47. "Union Wins on Plant Moves," The Tuscaloosa News, June 16, 1991, Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19910616&id=vDgdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=06UEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5893,3892826&hl=en
48. Ibid.
49. "Union Meets Boat Workers," The Daily Reporter, January 30, 1992, Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1907&dat=19920130&id=bl4rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4dkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3699,2547628&hl=en
50. "PBGC Assumes Pension Plan of Dubuque Packing Co.," Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation," Online: http://www.pbgc.gov/news/press/releases/pr10-28.html
41. Ibid.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid.