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recent history of the Chicago meat-packing industry and its workers examines how the industry grew from its appearance in the 1830`s through the early 1890`s. Meat-packers, the author argues, had good wages, working conditions, and prospects for advancement within the packinghouses, and did not cooperate with labor agitators since labor relations were so harmonious. Because the history maintains that conditions were above standard for the era, the frequency of labor disputes, especially in the mid- 1880`s, is not accounted for. The work ignores the fact that the 1880`s were crucial years in American labor history, and that the packinghouse workers` efforts were part of the national movement for labor reform.
In fact, other historical sources for the late nine- teenth century record deteriorating housing and high disease and infant mortality rates in the industrial community, due to low wages and unhealthy working conditions. Additional data from the University of Chicago suggest that the packinghouses were danger- ous places to work. The government investigation commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt which eventually led to the adoption of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act found the packinghouses unsanitary, while social workers observed that most of the workers were poorly paid and overworked. The history may be too optimistic because most of its data date from the 1880`s at the latest, and the information provided from that decade is insufficiently analyzed. Conditions actually declined in the 1880`s, and continued to decline after the 1880`s, due to a reorganization of the packing process and a massive influx of unskilled workers. The deterioration in worker status, partly a result of the new availability of unskilled and hence cheap labor, is not discussed. Though a detailed account of work in the packing- houses is attempted, the author fails to distinguish between the wages and conditions for skilled workers and for those unskilled laborers who comprised the majority of the industry`s workers from the 1880`s on. While conditions for the former were arguably tolerable due to the strategic importance of skilled workers in the complicated slaughtering, cutting, and packing process (though worker complaints about the rate and conditions of work were frequent), pay and conditions for the latter were wretched
. The author`s misinterpretation of the origins of the feelings the meat-packers had for their industrial neighborhood may account for the history`s faulty generalizations. The pride and contentment the author remarks upon were, arguably, less the products of the industrial world of the packers ---- the giant yards and the intricate plants ---- than of the unity and vibrance ofthe ethnic cultures that formed a viable community on Chicago`s South Side. Indeed, the strength of this community succeeded in generating a social movement that effectively confronted the problems of the industry that provided its livelihood.
In fact, other historical sources for the late nine- teenth century record deteriorating housing and high disease and infant mortality rates in the industrial community, due to low wages and unhealthy working conditions. Additional data from the University of Chicago suggest that the packinghouses were danger- ous places to work. The government investigation commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt which eventually led to the adoption of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act found the packinghouses unsanitary, while social workers observed that most of the workers were poorly paid and overworked. The history may be too optimistic because most of its data date from the 1880`s at the latest, and the information provided from that decade is insufficiently analyzed. Conditions actually declined in the 1880`s, and continued to decline after the 1880`s, due to a reorganization of the packing process and a massive influx of unskilled workers. The deterioration in worker status, partly a result of the new availability of unskilled and hence cheap labor, is not discussed. Though a detailed account of work in the packing- houses is attempted, the author fails to distinguish between the wages and conditions for skilled workers and for those unskilled laborers who comprised the majority of the industry`s workers from the 1880`s on. While conditions for the former were arguably tolerable due to the strategic importance of skilled workers in the complicated slaughtering, cutting, and packing process (though worker complaints about the rate and conditions of work were frequent), pay and conditions for the latter were wretched
. The author`s misinterpretation of the origins of the feelings the meat-packers had for their industrial neighborhood may account for the history`s faulty generalizations. The pride and contentment the author remarks upon were, arguably, less the products of the industrial world of the packers ---- the giant yards and the intricate plants ---- than of the unity and vibrance ofthe ethnic cultures that formed a viable community on Chicago`s South Side. Indeed, the strength of this community succeeded in generating a social movement that effectively confronted the problems of the industry that provided its livelihood.
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