Subseries: Gartzke, Frederick F.

INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Scope and Content Note: Born in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (1923), and lived outside of town with his parents and four siblings, none of whom became meat cutters. Gartzke's mother was a domestic; his father, a farmer.

REMINISCENCES OF LIFE IN OCONOMOWOC DURING THE DEPRESSION
Scope and Content Note: It was possible to buy a box of groceries “the size of a toilet tissue box” for $25 and three pounds of pork liver for 25 cents. City streets were paved with tar-covered wood blocks. His father worked repairing streets, and after school, the children helped the family by knocking tar off blocks so they could be used in the wood-burning furnace. “That was our fuel for the winter.”

CHILDHOOD JOBS AND WORK ASPIRATIONS
Scope and Content Note: He had various “neighborhood” jobs, including a paper route. “People then were just living from day to day.” People took what jobs they could get. No one forced him to get a job. He worked because that was a common goal. Recalls having 53 customers on his paper route. “That was my first real job.” He was paid one and a half cents on daily papers, and four cents on the Sunday papers. It was hard for young kids like himself to carry the accounts of monthly customers.

HOW HE BECAME INTERESTED IN BECOMING A MEAT CUTTER
Scope and Content Note: Started by riding on a grocery delivery wagon driven by a neighborhood acquaintance. He took over occasionally when the driver became sick, then delivered groceries door to door four times daily. Gradually learned how to work at the service meat counter for the store, to kill and deliver chickens, to make sausage, prepare veal, and other meat market duties.

WORK IN HENSCHEL'S MEAT MARKET IN OCONOMOWOC
Scope and Content Note: Small, independent market employing five men and two women, where Gartzke worked in the early 1940s for two years. “The girls answered the phone, the men cut the meat and delivered it, made the sausage, killed chickens, killed veal, and all of that.” He readied orders for delivery, and delivered orders “door to door.”

HOW HE WAS TRAINED TO CUT MEAT AND MAKE SAUSAGE
Scope and Content Note: Sausage was made every Tuesday afternoon. “We had to sit there and knead that sausage by hand...in a big washtub with all this meat and mixing it up.” Knew the sausage was ready if the 40- to 50-pound tub of meat could be lifted just by sticking hands into it and lifting it from the meat. Also learned how to kill and eviscerate chickens in the back room and the basement. “Charlie” killed veal on Tuesday afternoons. Still in high school, Gartzke was not considered old enough to slaughter veal himself. “I never did kill any calves. All I did was watch them.” Later he learned how to break down quarters of beef into primal cuts--ribs, chucks, rounds, loins.

DESCRIBES HOW QUARTERS WERE BROKEN DOWN
Scope and Content Note: The shank and brisket were cut from the forequarter, leaving the ribs and chucks. From the hindquarter came the clod and the flank. When he began, the sirloin tip was left on the sirloin rather than removed and sold separately as it is today. Loins were separated from the rounds, leaving the rump roast, the loins and the steaks from it, and some ground beef, which came from the hindquarters. All primal cuts were then re-cut into retail cuts. He learned this trade while working during the summers as a high school student.

SUMMER WORK FOR FARMERS' EXCHANGE
Scope and Content Note: Before working for Henschel's and learning this trade, he worked at the Farmers' Exchange (1942 to 1943), where farmers exchanged eggs and other items for groceries. Meat sold there was not as good a quality as at Henschel's.

TYPICAL WORK DAY AT HENSCHEL'S MEAT MARKET
Scope and Content Note: Began work at 7 a.m. getting ready for 8 a.m. deliveries. Returned from deliveries at 9 or 9:30. Routine continued throughout the day. Sometimes he made special deliveries phoned in. On days he had few deliveries to make, he learned how to make sausage, scraped wooden blocks, swept floors, cleaned up, and closed at 6 p.m. On Saturdays, they worked from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. On those nights, they washed grinders, cubing machines and counters. He made $22.50 for a 57-hour week. He made $27.50 for a 48-hour work week in his first meat cutting job.

END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HENSCHEL'S AND FARMERS' EXCHANGE
Scope and Content Note: Henschel's did their own slaughtering; Farmers' Exchange bought meat from Armour, Hormel, Plankington, Swift; either in quarters or, as with pork, in loins and butts. He learned more about his trade at Henschel's. Learned how to make sausage, killed own chickens and veal, smoked some hams. “We had a better clientele of customers at Henschel's than we had at Farmers' Exchange.” Henschel's catered to summer vacationers, the hospital, people with more money.

WORK AT THE FARMERS' EXCHANGE
Scope and Content Note: He took a job there because wages and hours were better. Made $27 a week for a 48-hour week. He worked after school and full-time in the summer. There were no benefits.

BEGAN WORK FOR NATIONAL TEA COMPANY IN OCONOMOWOC IN 1943, THEN WAS DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY SEVEN MONTHS LATER
Scope and Content Note: In the Army, Gartzke went to cook and bakers' school. Was in the Army three years.

RETURNED TO NATIONAL TEA WHEN RELEASED FROM THE ARMY IN 1946
Scope and Content Note: Burlington store needed a meat cutter, so instead of taking a month's vacation after his discharge, he returned to work in just five days. Service time counted toward pension. He worked for National 30 years.

GARTZKE MOVES TO BURLINGTON
Scope and Content Note: Generally he liked Burlington, though not the weekend commutes to visit his mother, who had moved to Milwaukee. Lived with his boss in Oconomowoc. His wife was then a checker in the same store. They were married in 1951. She worked for 25 years as a checker. He was transferred to the National store in Elkhorn in about 1971.

MOST IMPORTANT CHANGES IN WORKING FOR NATIONAL TEA FOR 30 YEARS
Scope and Content Note: The change from service to self-service meat departments, and from quarters to primal cuts, were the most important. “We didn't have to handle...meats so much....” Cold cuts used to be sliced by hand; now they are pre-packaged.

MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING CONDITIONS
Scope and Content Note: Began working 48 hours a week and gradually lowered to 40 hours. The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen (AMC&BW) helped protect workers from employers who might otherwise be able to dismiss employees with little or no cause.

IMPROVEMENTS IN MEAT INSPECTION LAWS
Scope and Content Note: When he began, only wholesalers were inspected by government inspectors. Retail markets were not. Retail inspectors first made an appearance after World War II.

OTHER CHANGES GARTZKE THINKS ARE IMPORTANT
Scope and Content Note: Packaging of meat and meat process are much different.

HEALTH AND SAFETY PROBLEMS OF MEAT CUTTERS
Scope and Content Note: Cold affected some meat cutters. He wore long underwear for protection. Cellophane wrap allegedly gives off fumes when burned or sealed in meat departments which may injure lungs. He does not know anyone who has developed lung problems from these fumes. Health and safety inspections generally helped keep work places clean and safe. A friend, also a meat cutter, had leg stripped from varicose veins when only 27 or 28 years old.

BIGGEST GAIN IN CONTRACT PROVISIONS DURING THE YEARS HE WAS A MEAT CUTTER
Scope and Content Note: Benefits in general, but especially days off, hospitalization, seniority, vacations. By the time he retired, he had five weeks of paid vacation a year. “That was one of my biggest losses.” “I didn't need it, I just missed it.” He also appreciated eye care and dental care benefits. He brought work pressures home with him and especially looked forward to vacations to help relieve accumulated tensions. Only married meat cutters with children could take vacations during summers in Lake Geneva stores, because that resort town did most of its business in the summer season.

END OF TAPE 1, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

DESCRIPTION OF TYPICAL GROCERY STORES OF THE 1950s
Scope and Content Note: Stores had aisles lined with grocery products. Produce departments were not refrigerated. Produce was displayed on wooden racks in the mornings, returned to refrigerators in the evenings.

CHANGES IN THE MEAT DEPARTMENT SINCE THE 1950s
Scope and Content Note: Meat was displayed in refrigerated cases. Before pre-packaged meats, some kinds of meat had to be re-cut. Wrapping machines, grinders, primal cuts, pre-ground hamburger all helped cut down on work loads. Chickens also began to arrive at stores prepacked. In the 1950s, meat cutters would cut and tray meat; conveyor would transport it to the wrapper who wrapped, weighed and priced meat. Computers later were added which did weighing and pricing automatically.

WEEKLY AND DAILY WORK SCHEDULES
Scope and Content Note: Market manager, with help from the district manager, set work schedules. Meat cutters could not take either Mondays off (meat had to be unloaded and cut) or Thursdays through Saturdays (weekend business). Later the “meat specialist...kind of ran the show.” Meat cutters learned daily tasks primarily from experience: they knew what had to be done to keep the counters full. Meat specialist often would rearrange cases and make other changes.

RELATIONSHIP OF MEAT DEPARTMENT TO STORE LAYOUT
Scope and Content Note: Big-profit items were put near the store entrance; impulse items in the middle of the store; hard-to-sell items “were put in a convenient place.” Name-brand products were put at eye level. Stores put produce and meat departments first in customer traffic in the 1950s and 1960s. “A woman built her grocery shopping around her meat and her vegetables.”

GARTZKE'S ROLE IN MERCHANDISING MEAT
Scope and Content Note: It was important to have meat counters looking good. “I always had that saying of 'eye appeal is buy appeal.' If it don't look good, you ain't gonna sell it, no matter how low the price is.” He also would instruct meat wrappers to pull and perhaps rewrap or dispose of old meat or broken packages. “If it didn't look right to you, get it out!”

PRODUCTIVITY
Scope and Content Note: Concerns about productivity arose during contract negotiations. “You were always working against dollars per man hour.” Management representatives compared current year's performance with past performance, sometimes comparing periods when productivity increased due to special sales or quantity purchases by organizations with same calendar periods when there were no such sales. Productivity was measured by how well the daily tasks were completed and by the department's overall sales per man hour or tonnage. Productivity figures were computed from figures on weekly forms listing the amount of meat received and sold, and the number of employee hours worked. One week's figures could determine what the company expected the following week. If sales declined, employee hours might be cut. Special chicken sales of 39 cents a pound meant total meat department tonnage had to be increased to offset lower prices. “You had a hell of a time making your dollar per man hour.” “You'd just cringe whenever you had a chicken sale, because there was no dollar volume there.” Beef sales produced more work but at least helped increase dollar volume and tonnage.

HOW MANAGEMENT TRIED TO GET WORKERS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Scope and Content Note: “Their famous saying was 'Don't work harder. Work smarter.'” That meant “cut corners”; save time. Company suggested that meat cutters grind 50 or 100 pounds of hamburger instead of 25 pounds. Company “meat specialists” especially encouraged meat cutters to cut corners, but often customers would ask for help and take Gartzke away from tasks, thereby slowing down his “production.” Employees cooperated as much as possible to help meet company productivity goals.

NEW MACHINES AIMED AT HELPING TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Scope and Content Note: There were grinders, cubing machines (to make cubed steak from round steak), wrapping and scaling machines, and machines which stuffed sausage by air. High-pressure machines were developed to reduce clean-up time to as little as 30 minutes.

GARTZKE'S VIEWS ON CUSTOMERS
Scope and Content Note: Generally he did not like to wait on customers, because “most of them were fussy customers.” Some preferred to see meat cut fresh rather than buy the same cut, almost as fresh, from the counter.

END OF TAPE 2, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

BOXED BEEF
Scope and Content Note: First introduced into National stores in 1968 or 1970. Company seminars for meat cutters “proved” that buying boxed beef in primal cuts was more “efficient” than buying beef in quarters. Boxed beef was easier to unload than quarters. Pork was brought in loins, hams, butts; never in quarters. National bought its boxed beef from wholesalers like Kenosha Pack, Iowa Beef Packers, Mumford and others. National had its own central meat-processing plant in Chicago.

REACTION OF GARTZKE AND OTHER MEAT CUTTERS TO BOXED BEEF
Scope and Content Note: It increased the work load because it reduced the number of work hours. He liked not having to lift such heavy weights, but there still was much work to be done by fewer employees.

NEW MEAT WRAPPING MACHINES ALSO REDUCED EMPLOYEES' WORK HOURS

MORE ON THE REACTION TO BOXED BEEF
Scope and Content Note: In some ways, it was very helpful. If they wanted a sale on round steaks, they had to order just rounds, not whole quarters, which had to be trimmed. Overall though, “you were just about the same as you were before, with less help.” National continued to use boxed beef until its stores were closed in 1976. Boxed beef is not a thing of the future; “it's here.” The “ma and pa” stores will continue to decline.

WORK SUPERVISION
Scope and Content Note: He. was supervised by the meat market manager, who in turn reported to the company's “meat specialist.” Company's head meat buyer had overall supervision. His main responsibilities were to keep up production and keep the meat department clean and orderly.

NATIONAL'S MEAT DEPARTMENTS HAD UNIFORM APPEARANCE AND HAMBURGER PREPARATION POLICIES
Scope and Content Note: Meat counters were arranged the same way in all National stores for most of the years Gartzke worked for the company. National was especially concerned about maintaining strict standards on the fat content in hamburger (no more than 30% fat). Some meat cutters and market managers lost their jobs for not maintaining this standard. Machines were devised to test fat content. Meat cutters made hamburger from lean boneless beef, bought in 60-pound boxes, to which they added trimmings from choice beef. Ground chuck was 81% lean, 19% fat. State inspectors would report violations of fat content level to company meat specialists, who in turn would visit stores where violations occurred and reprimand the meat cutters. The union would also be informed.

WORK RULE VIOLATIONS RESULTING IN REPRIMANDS
Scope and Content Note: These included not rotating stock, dishonesty, tardiness, mis-wrapping meat. Not many people were written up for violations. Absenteeism was a problem. “It's like they say in the car business: 'Don't buy... any cars made on Monday.'” Alcoholism on the job was not a frequent problem but it did occur.

MOST COMPLAINTS ABOUT WORK PERFORMANCE WERE HANDLED BY STORE MANAGERS

CUSTOMER RELATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Customers with complaints often wrote company headquarters. “Some of the meat cutters were a little bit short with their customers.”

MOST COMMON EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT
Scope and Content Note: Working conditions, job pressures, disputes about vacation time and the length of apprenticeship. They also complained about co-workers whose absenteeism resulted in more work. The grievance procedure has worked well. He never filed a grievance.

END OF TAPE 2, SIDE 2

INTRODUCTION

GARTZKE'S UNION AFFILIATION
Scope and Content Note: Joined the union in 1953. The National store where he worked was not unionized at that time. Impetus to organize came from comparison of wages and hours with Milwaukee meat cutters. Meat cutters had to pay the same grocery prices as did summer vacationers in Lake Geneva but were not making high enough wages. Before joining the union, they worked 48-hour weeks. Mike Weiss, from Local 358 in Janesville, organized the store. During the summer, there were six meat cutters employed in the store; in winter, the store employed two full-time and one part-time cutter. The union had an induction ceremony for new members. The Committee on Political Education (COPE) provided political and union education for members. Gartzke attended meetings regularly. The union discounted dues for members who travelled some distance to attend meetings. Meetings were well attended by local meat cutters and wrappers, but not that well attended by members from outlying areas. He never held union office or served on union committees.

UNION MEMBERS HAD DIFFICULTY GETTING MEAT CUTTERS IN INDEPENDENT STORES TO JOIN
Scope and Content Note: It took many years to convince such meat cutters to join the union, even though they made as much as $3 an hour less than union meat cutters.

GARTZKE PARTICIPATED IN MEETINGS ON CONTRACT DEMANDS
Scope and Content Note: Members had opportunities to make their concerns known. “If you don't get up and talk, it's your own damn fault. You only get out of it what you put into it.”

THE UNION HAD LITTLE CONTACT WITH EMPLOYEES IN THE STORES
Scope and Content Note: At first, the business representative would collect dues in person every month. Then dues were mailed in.

THERE WERE NO STRIKES IN GARTZKE'S STORE
Scope and Content Note: Employees sometimes worked without a contract and always received retroactive pay after the contract was ratified.

MANAGEMENT BALKED MOST OFTEN ABOUT DEMANDS FOR WAGE INCREASES

THE COMPANY GENERALLY ABIDED BY CONTRACT PROVISIONS.

COMPLAINTS BY MANAGEMENT ABOUT THE UNION ABIDING BY CONTRACT PROVISIONS WERE NEGOTIATED AND SETTLED BETWEEN UNION REPRESENTATIVES AND CORPORATE MANAGERS

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE RETAIL CLERKS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION (RCIA)
Scope and Content Note: Clerks were not organized in his store until 1960 or 1965. Meat Cutters and Clerks had a good working relationship.

GARTZKE'S REACTION TO MERGER BETWEEN LOCAL 358 AND LOCAL 502 (MADISON) IN 1962
Scope and Content Note: He had to travel farther to union meetings, but the merger “gave us more clout. We were bigger then.”

HE THINKS UNIONS SHOULD STICK TO STRICTLY UNION BUSINESS AND NOT BE INVOLVED IN POLITICS
Scope and Content Note: Unions may endorse candidates, but “I'll vote the way I want to.”

OVERALL, HE FOUND HIS WORK SATISFYING
Scope and Content Note: What Gartzke liked most about his work: “To be able to meet people--be involved with people.” He was able to help people meet budgets. He still regrets not having become a male nurse just after he was discharged from the Army. It is becoming more difficult to find gainful employment as a meat cutter.

HE LOST HIS JOB WITH NATIONAL TEA WHEN THE COMPANY CLOSED ITS STORES IN DECEMBER 1976
Scope and Content Note: He worked two years at an independent supermarket before retiring in 1979. Employees knew the stores were in financial trouble long before they were closed. There were layoffs, department closings--”you could see the handwriting on the wall.” Losing all the vacation time he had accumulated “was one of my biggest shocks.”

THERE ARE NOT MANY LONG-TIME MEAT CUTTERS STILL EMPLOYED
Scope and Content Note: Some have found work elsewhere. And young people “don't stick” with the trade because “they don't like confinement” and are impatient.

END OF INTERVIEW