Title: Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. Local P-1: Records
Inclusive Dates: circa 1946-1974

Creator:

• Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. Local P-1 (Ottumwa, Iowa)

Call Number: Micro 603; Audio 656A

Quantity: 7 reels of microfilm (35 mm) and 4 tape recordings

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the Meat Cutters Ottumwa, Iowa, Local P-1, and its predecessor, the United Packinghouse Workers of America Local 1, which represented employees of the John Morrell Company plant in Ottumwa until it closed in 1973; plus a few records of Local 1187, which represented workers at Ralston Purina in Ottumwa. Included are minute books; local bulletins, 1954-1973, concerning politics, union elections, community affairs, and work life; and correspondence and subject files, 1945-1973, concerning the Iowa State Federation of Labor and its Committee on Political Education, labor efforts in the 1972 Presidential election, the 1969 strike against Iowa Beef Packers and Neuhoff Packing Company, and contract negotiations. Also included are financial records, 1951-1972; grievance records, 1952-1971; and oral history interviews, some on tape and some as transcripts, 1974, with Virgil Bankson, former chief steward; Frances Calhoon, office steward; Donald Jones; and Earl Richards.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0603

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Local 32 of the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee (PWOC) won certification as bargaining agent for the employees of the John Morrell Company's Ottumwa, Iowa, plant in December 1937 and represented its workers, in one form or another, until the plant closed in 1973. In 1943 the Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO) dissolved the PWOC and chartered the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA). Local 32 became Local 1 of the UPWA. The UPWA became the United Packinghouse, Food and Allied Workers, AFL-CIO, in 1960 (but retained its UPWA initials) and in 1968 merged with the rival Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America (AMCBWNA). UPWA Local 1 became Local P-1 of the AMCBWNA. Before 1968, Local 1 belonged to UPWA regional District No. 3; after the merger it came under AMCBWNA District No. 11.

Morrell's Ottumwa plant began operations in 1877 and remained the company's home office until the AMK conglomerate acquired the Morrell Company in 1967. AMK merged with United Brands in 1970. The Ottumwa plant processed both cattle and hogs and at peak production in the 1970's employed over 2,750 people. Over the years the plant faced recurrent threats of closing and the company reversed its 1970 decision to shut down only after negotiating a “memorandum of agreement” with the union. After 1970 the company drastically changed plant operations and sharply reduced the work force. United Brands closed the Ottumwa plant in 1973.

Labor organizing efforts at the Ottumwa plant began at least as early as the 1920's and continued through 1970 when office employees joined production workers in Local P-1. A great deal of conflict, including strikes and other job actions, accompanied union activities, especially in the earlier years. For example, in 1956 UPWA President Ralph Helstein appointed an administrator to govern the Local during a period of worker unrest which culminated in a company lock-out. Prior to the 1970 “memorandum,” and again in 1973 with the plant closing, the union focused its efforts on protecting workers' rights in the areas of pensions, seniority, transfer, severance pay, and welfare provisions.

An Executive Board of elected officers governed the Local. The Board included an elected chief steward who served as a full-time union employee coordinating grievance activities and leading the steward system. Virgil Bankson, a long-time Morrell employee, served as chief steward for eighteen years before the plant closed. The membership also elected a bargaining board and several other committees.

The records of Local P-1 arerganized in six series: Bulletins; Correspondence and Subject Files; Financial Records; Grievances; Minute Books; and Transcripts of Oral History Interviews. Only the interviews document the origins and history of the Local before the 1950s; the bulk of the records dates from the late 1960s and early 1970s. There are also a few records of UPFWA Local 1187 which represented workers at the Ralston Purina plant in Ottumwa. These are filed separately in the series of correspondence (reel 4) and financial records (reel 5).

The BULLETINS are brief mimeographed handouts, 1954-1973, prepared for the local membership providing information on union meetings, local union business, politics and elections at all levels, community affairs, and matters affecting work within the plant. They provide details unavailable elsewhere on work life and union activities. The bulletins are arranged chronologically.

The CORRESPONDENCE AND SUBJECT FILES, 1945-1973, consist of materials created or received by the Local president, secretary-treasurer, and chief steward. Correspondence with the International Union consists largely of materials mailed to all locals. The Iowa State Federation of Labor folders deal with state and national politics, especially the State Committee on Political Education (COPE). Labor efforts in the 1972 presidential election are especially well documented in this material. The general correspondence relates to community affairs; to union assistance to individual members, especially in dealing with government agencies; to activities of other local unions in Morrell plants; and to various other matters. Several folders include information on the long 1969 strikes against Iowa Beef Packers, Inc. and Neuhoff Packing Company. The correspondence is arranged by subject.

FINANCIAL RECORDS, 1951-1972, include a ledger of back dues, welfare, and other accounts, circa 1951-1956; audit reports, 1962-1968; monthly reports of membership and fees, 1964-1968; and cash books, 1965-1970, showing details of all Local receipts and disbursements and monthly summaries of financial conditions.

The records relating to GRIEVANCES, 1952-1971, show a brief statement of the issue and, often, a record of its disposition. They are generally arranged by plant department and thereunder by grievance number.

The ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS were conducted by Leslie F. Orear, director of publications, AMCBWNA, and Francis A. DeLoughery, archivist, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, in Ottumwa on January 14-15, 1974, with former employees and long-time union members. Interviewees included Virgil Bankson, former chief steward; Frances Calhoon, a steward active in organizing plant office workers; Donald Jones; and Earl Richards. The interviews touch on work life and conditions for both production and office employees, the plant closing, details of Ms. Calhoon's retraining as a welder, and union activities from the 1920s through the 1940s, including organizing efforts by the CIO. Orear and DeLoughery each recorded the interviews separately; the AMCBWNA offices in Chicago prepared the transcripts from Orear's tapes which remain in the International Union Library. The transcripts of Orear's tapes are filed with the papers (reel 7). DeLoughery's tapes, part of this collection, include two of the three transcribed interviews. The DeLoughery tapes also include several brief, untranscribed, interviews and conversations as well as an untranscribed portion of the end of one of the interviews.

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin also holds records of the international offices of the AMCBWNA and the UPWA. Among the latter are many papers relating to Local 1, especially in the correspondence files of the president and secretary-treasurer, the grievance records, and the contracts and agreements files.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, via Leslie F. Orear, Chicago, Illinois, January 21, 1974 and January 13, 1975. Accession Number: M74-25

Processing Information

Processed by John Fleckner, December 20, 1976.

Micro 603	Series: Bulletins
Reel   1	1954-1971
Reel   2 Frame   1	1972-1973
	Series: Correspondence and Subject Files	⇧
Reel   2 Frame   140	Agreements, 1946, 1970-1973
Reel   2 Frame   327	Building Corporation, Local P-1, 1967-1971
Reel   2 Frame   419	Charities, 1968-1969
Reel   2 Frame   462	Committee on Political Education (COPE), 1969
Reel   2 Frame   496	Constitution and By-Laws, Local P-1, 1971 edition
	Contract Negotiations
Reel   2 Frame   514	1959, 1964-1966
Reel   2 Frame   653	1967-1969
Reel   2 Frame   696	Agreements, 1959
Reel   2 Frame   788	Proposals and Working Papers, 1959
Reel   2 Frame   945	District No. 3, UPWA; District No. 11, AMCBWNA, 1968
Reel   3 Frame   1	District No. 11 (continued) , 1968-1973
Reel   3 Frame   183	Election Campaign, 1972
Reel   3 Frame   363	General Correspondence, 1965-1973 January
Reel   4 Frame   1	Helstein, Ralph, 1968-1972
	International Union Correspondence
Reel   4 Frame   61	AMCBWNA, 1967-1969
Reel   4 Frame   263	UPFWA and AMCBWNA, 1967, 1968
Reel   4 Frame   384	Iowa State Federation of Labor, 1968-1969
Reel   4 Frame   488	Local 1187, UPFWA, 1965-1967
Reel   4 Frame   513	Membership List, undated
Reel   4 Frame   649	Miscellaneous, 1967-1971
Reel   4 Frame   711	John Morrell Company, Correspondence, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1972
Reel   4 Frame   763	Plant Closing: Clippings, 1972-1973
Reel   4 Frame   771	Prosten, Jesse, Packinghouse Department, AMCBWNA, 1968-1972
Reel   4 Frame   802	Ralston Purina Company, 1972
Reel   4 Frame   815	“Scabs,” circa 1947-1950
Reel   4 Frame   832	Seniority Lists, 1972
Reel   4 Frame   934	Steward System, circa 1945-1955, 1959, 1968
Reel   4 Frame   982	Stoher, Glen M., 1952
Reel   4 Frame   985	Union Activities Time Sheet, 1972
Reel   4 Frame   1006	United Charities Committee, Local P-1, 1969-1972
	Series: Financial Records	⇧
Reel   5 Frame   1	Accounts Ledger: Back dues, Welfare fund, etc., circa 1951-1965
Reel   5 Frame   69	Audit Reports, 1962-1968
Reel   5 Frame   109	Cash Book and Financial Secretary's Report, 1965-1970
	Dues Deduction
Reel   5 Frame   589	Office Workers, 1971-1972
Reel   5 Frame   632	Ralston Purina, 1972
Reel   6 Frame	Employee Salary Data, 1964-1967
Reel   6 Frame   90	Local 1187, 1965-1969
	Financial Reports
Reel   6 Frame   114	1965-1966
Reel   6 Frame   185	1969
Reel   6 Frame   210	1970-1972
Reel   6 Frame   277	Financial Reports, Local 1187, 1967-1969
	Monthly Report of Membership and Fees
Reel   6 Frame   308	1964-1966
Reel   6 Frame   459	1968
	Series: Grievances	⇧
Reel   6 Frame   535	circa 1958-1967
Reel   6 Frame   486	1965-1968
	Series: Minute Books	⇧
Reel   6 Frame   872	1952 October-1964 February
Reel   7 Frame   619	1965 October-1968 June
Reel   7 Frame   649	1967 May-1971 April
	Series: Transcripts of Oral History Interviews, 1974	⇧
Reel   7 Frame   861	Conversations between Virgil Bankson, and Earl Richards, 1974 January 14
Reel   7 Frame   869	A conversation with Virgil Bankson, 1974 January 15
Reel   7 Frame   807	Conversation with Frances Calhoon, Donald Jones, and Virgil Bankson, 1974 January 14
Audio 656A	Series: Tape Recordings	⇧
Audio 656A/   1-2	Conversations with Frances Calhoon, Donald Jones, and Virgil Bankson, 1974 January 14
Audio 656A/   3	Untranscribed interviews
Audio 656A/   4	Untranscribed interviews; A Conversation with Virgil Bankson, 1974 January 15