The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-06-15
STOCK YARDS BUTCHERS
COMING BACK TO UNION
Great Revival Being Experienced
Among Butchers in Packing
Houses.
Men Are Just Getting Over the
Effect of the Big Chicago
Strike.

Workmen in the various packing CEN
ters are again organizing. Already a
majority Of the skilled men have re-
turned to the union fold, and within
a few months the union expects to
again ask recognition and written
agreements with the big packers.
When the butcher workmen return
ed to their places at the close Of the
big packing-house strike lii Septem-
Der, 1904. they returned as union men,
but that condition did not last long.
The unskilled men. in whose interest
the strike was called, lost heart and
dropped out. The skilled men stuck
to the organization for a time, but
foremen and minor officials In the
packing-houses made matters so un-
pleasant for many Of them that they,
too, lost interest in the union.
The organization was so badly de-
moralized that it could not help it's
members, and the result was that the
union, which had a. membership Of
$4,000 in Chicago stockyards at the
time of the strike, fell off to less than
500 active men.
TO add to the decentralization of the
union an independent faction started
up in the East. This faction, led by
job Kennedy, formerly of Chicago,
made most Of the failure of the strike
as a argument for a new organization
on different lines. When the ANAL
gamated Meat Cutters and Butcher
Workmen was at the zenith Of it's
strength, at least three-fourths Of its
membership in the big packing houses
was composed Of unskilled workers.
The union was industrial IN its ten
denotes and aimed to organize under
one head every perso engaged in the
packing business except skilled me-
chanics, such as machlnists, engin-
eers and others who were members
of their respective crafts.
For several months organizers have
been secretly at work in the packing
houses, and they have met with a
| measure of success. They are follow
ing the plan adopted by the seceders
and are bending their efforts to get
only skilled men into the union. They
do OF admit that they have abandoned
entirely the former idea Of uniting all
the workers under one head; but it is
always much easier to get skilled men
to join a union than unskilled men,
so they are trying to build up with
the skilled men first
Michael Donnelly, president Of the
organization, has never lost faith in
| the butchers. In spite of all the op-
position placed in his way he has
clung to the hope that he would again
build up the union to its former pro-
|
| him almost a hopeless task, but re-
| Gently matters have begun to come his
way When Donnelly first attempted
| to organize the men in the Chicago
stockyards in 1900 he gave the idea
up as hopeless. He returned to the
! city in 1901 and determined that he
| would start union if it took him q
| lifetime
For weeks he went to saloons fire.
! quented by butchers in the evening
and cautiously talked unionism among
! them. He visited them at their homes
and talked with their wives. He
thought he had accomplished a great
deal when he got nucleus of 16 men
! to agre to form union. Once the
work was fairly started the rest was
! easy Within two years he practically
had every department in the big pack
ing houses organized. and secured one
concession after another from the
| packers.
1t was the old story. The butchers,
| so long forced to accept whatever
conditions were imposed on them,
suddenly awoke to their power Their
| heads were turned with success, and
the abuse of organized power soon
made itself apparent in the packing
| houses.
Donnelly himself remained fairly
conservative, but he was unable to
control the powerful organization he
had built up. He listened to the radi-
Gals and gave his sanction to the Sec
ond strike, which proved to be the
ia tai mistake in his career as a labor
leader. He weakened at the moment
when he should have def;ed the in
surgents and forced them to abide by
the agreement they had made with
the packers. 1t would probably have
cost him his position, but it might
have saved the organization from
rushing to its own destruction.
But whatever may be said of Don
nelly's mistake as the leader of a
great strike, there is no question of
his ability as an organized. He still
has the confidence of the butcher
workmen, as they all realize that he Is
incorruptible. The bitter feeling
which the strike engendered is diving
OUT and the butchers are applying for
membership in the union in great
numbers, not only in Chicago, but in
the other packing centers.
OF the butcher workmen EMPLOYED
in the big packing houses approxi-
mately 10000 are skilled men. Nearly
half that number are employed in Chi
cago, and there are six active unions
of them IN this city. In the inde-
pendent plants at the stockyards
every man is again in the union, and
the organizers declare that before the
summer IS over the butcher work.
mems union will be in position to
again assert itself.
Mr.. Union Man:-Notify your Shoe
| 1at -Er1.-.