United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 81 photograph collection, 1900-2003

The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America (AMC & BW of NA), a labor union representing retail butchers and packinghouse workers, was chartered by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1897, consolidating seven local unions in Chicago. The AMC & BW of NA was committed to craft unionism, with 56 departments representing various workers in the meat industry. Workers in each craft within a city had their own council, executive board, business agent and contract. In early 1900, nine Seattle butchers formed the Protective Union of Butchers, Local 81. This local was the first butcher trade union in Washington State, and would officially be chartered Local 81 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America on April 2, 1900.

In the early days of the local, fines assessed to the union consumer for purchasing non-union goods and union seals worn by members were major organizing tools. The local’s first offices were housed at the Old Seattle Labor Temple on 6th and University. Early union meetings were a weekly social affair consisting of initiations, music, wine, cigars, speeches, and boxing matches between slaughterhouse and retail shop workers. By 1909, a fine was placed on members if they did not attend at least one meeting per month.

In 1902, Local 81 held its first strike in solidarity with non-union Frye-Bruhn Packinghouse workers. Although failing to organize the packinghouse, this strike set the stage for Local 81’s deep historical relationship with Packinghouse Union Local 186 (which would be formed three decades later). Local 81 and the packinghouse workers would strike again in 1917, winning some gains but again failing to organize the packinghouse. In 1904, Local 81 introduced one of its first benefits, the Amalgamated Sick and Death Benefit, which would last another 60 years. In 1906, the Amalgamated began printing celluloid Market Cards for proud display in union butcher shops.

During the 1920s, employers nationwide sought to undermine the power of organized labor by imposing the open shop under the auspices of the “American Plan”. Advocates of the plan promoted an anti-radical, anti-labor, pro-business agenda, justifying union busting and equating patriotism with unbridled capitalism. The Program’s genesis was the social context of the post-World War I United States. Many citizens felt an increased sense of nationalism in the wake of the war, and power of growing radicalism and labor strength embodied by the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Seattle General Strike of 1919 inspired a conservative backlash during the First Red Scare (1919-1921). In the context of this rightward shift, advocates of the Plan branded organized labor “un-American” and “Bolshevik”. Under this cloud, Local 81 expanded into Olympia and Bremerton and was a politically active part of the Seattle Labor Council throughout this turbulent decade. The union was strong enough to force employers to use union labor for building maintenance and repair, and to boycott goods on the Labor Council’s “unfair” list. Political tensions arose in the mid-1920s between the Washington State Federation of Labor (WSFL) and the Seattle Central Labor Council (SCLC). One of the forces impelling reconciliation between these two groups of unions was the meat cutters’ politically self-motivated re-affiliation with the WSFL. According to Dembo (1983),

Similarly, Meat Cutters Union Local No. 81 re-affiliated with the WSFL. The Meat Cutters had successfully convinced the Seattle City Council to pass a health ordinance for butcher shops and were looking for support in the expected court battles. The Meat Cutters were trying to use the ordinance to restrict Japanese meat markets whose late hours ‘gives them a chance to smuggle in bad beef,’ and had sued one of the Japanese markets for violating the ordinance, vowing to carry the case to the highest courts if necessary. This was just one of the forces impelling reconciliation between the SCLC and WSFL unions. (pp. 416-417)

After its organizing campaign and growth of over 18% in 1926 and 1927, membership in the WSFL declined in 1928. Heading into 1929, a large issue confronting the SCLC was a wave of Filipino immigration.

Throughout the 1920s, immigration from the Philippine Islands increased. While Filipino immigration was relatively small compared with past influxes of newcomers from China, Japan, Mexico, and Eastern Europe in decades past, the labor community reacted harshly. Soon, the Federal Walsh bill (SB 13900) was proposed, with the goal of repealing legislation permitting Filipinos who had served in the United States military from becoming naturalized citizens. Both the SCLC and WSFL supported this anti-immigration legislation. The Seaman’s Union immediately demanded restrictions on Filipino employment from the WSFL. Conflict surrounding Filipino immigration came to a head during the Great Depression.

While many locals participated in scapegoating Filipino workers for the economic downturn, Local 81 showed its solidarity with all workers, and refused to join other unions in their anti-Filipino crusade. When reports came in that Filipino workers at Frye, a notoriously anti-union meat packing plant with a long battle history with Local 81, had participated in a strike with other workers against intolerable working conditions, Local 81 thanked these workers, acknowledging their contribution to the labor movement in Washington State. This more progressive mentality with regard to immigration put Local 81 at odds with the general labor movement in Washington State during the 1920s and 1930s, and pushed for more enlightened policies for the future. Dembo (1983)

In 1929, Local 81 helped to establish the Washington State Council of Butchers.

Despite the rise of grocery chains and the formation of the Food Dealers Association, the union managed to gain important ground during the Great Depression. While union membership shielded workers from the worst conditions associated with the Depression somewhat, membership in SCLC-affiliated unions declined by 35.47% from 1930 to 1934 and unemployment rose by 230%. Local 81 assessed members to provide unemployment benefits to out-of-work members to ease the effects of growing unemployment during the Depression. The union also continued to organize despite an unfavorable economic climate. In a display of militancy lacking in the labor movement for a number of years, Local 81 won an important four-year struggle with the Frye Meat Packing Company, longtime-open shop packinghouse employers, successfully forming Packinghouse Union Local 186 in the mid-1930s. Local 81’s long, bitter strike to organize packinghouse workers at Frye in the midst of the Depression and in light of their previous failed organizing attempts is indicative of the militant spirit of “The Fighting 81st” during the era. Local 81 was also successful in establishing a meat inspection program, ensuring that only licensed meat cutters could work in city markets. The program eventually spread to the rest of King County and served as a tool for controlling working conditions.

While Local 81 was on strike at Frye, the United Garment Workers Local 17 (which would merge with Local 81 in 1994) fought lockouts by A.V. Love Dry Goods Company. The company’s new owners, refusing to meet union demands, chose to lock out all union employees. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, the National Recovery Administration demanded wage and hour standards in the retail grocery industry, opening the door for Local 81 to temporarily establish an 8-hour workday.

Soon, other industries in the Puget Sound organized, representing dock workers packinghouse workers, transport workers, steel mill workers, and aircraft workers. This widespread organizing in the Puget Sound area shifted economic and political power in favor of trade unions like Local 81. World War II’s labor shortages brought female meat cutters and sausage workers into Local 81; the first female meat cutter was Francis Kennedy. Other results of the economic power shift resulting from war labor shortages included the introduction of time and a half overtime compensation and a manager’s premium.

The 1940s saw further Local 81 successes. In 1946, Local 81 became the first union local in Washington State to strike for a five-day, forty-hour workweek. After striking for just a week, they won both a five-day, forty-hour workweek and a second week of paid vacation annually. During the same year, Local 81 moved its offices into the new Labor Temple at 2800 1st Avenue. Meetings held in this space included weekly executive board meetings and bi-weekly union membership meetings. Members living within the city limits were required to attend at least one meeting per month, while those living outside Seattle were required to attend meetings at least once per quarter. Fines for missing meetings could be substituted for contributions to the Local’s blood bank. In September 1947, meat cutter Art Astmus guided the local into forming the Edison School, a union-sponsored apprenticeship school which would help the Local to define its jurisdiction and set apprenticeship and food safety standards. Later in the 1940s, Local 81 first defined its jurisdiction in its contract language as “the cutting and handling of all meat, fish, poultry, and rabbit products” to protect their bargaining unit work from being given to clerks. Female deli workers were unionized in 1950, ending Local 81 members’ prohibition from cutting and wrapping meat for self-service cases. The first female meat wrapper, Vivian Keeler, was paid on a lower scale than her male counterparts for working the same job at the same rank, a tradition that would last even after 1967’s non-discrimination contract clause. In 1955, under a newly elected slate of officers including Business Agent Freddie Frey, Assistant Business Agent Ed White and Recording Secretary Charlie Sandvidge, Local 81 established a Health & Welfare Trust and Plan with the Retail Dealers. They also joined with the national labor movement to defeat two right-to-work initiatives aimed at destroying the closed shop and undermining union power. In 1955, the Amalgamated merged with the International Fur and Leather Workers Union. The Fish Workers’ Union joined Local 81 in the 1950s, at the height of post-WWII power for the local. They were up two thousand members and won significant improvement in working conditions going into the 1960s.

Contract negotiations in fall 1959 were strong for Local 81, but they felt pressure from the weaker agreements the Retail Clerks Union was signing and increases in chain dominance and meat production technology. In 1960, the Amalgamated merged with the National Agriculture Workers Union. The 1960s saw internal tension within Local 81. Political tensions were evident in the 1962 election of Mel Roundhill to replace Ed White as Recording Secretary of the Local. Following the 1964 strike, a hotly contested election for chief executive officer resulted in a narrow victory for Conrad “Connie” Johnson over the incumbent Freddie Frey. Conrad Johnson had run many unsuccessful campaigns for office in Local 81 and was a fierce supporter of the apprenticeship program. In spite of the rise of Allied Employers, Inc. and the dominance of grocery chains during this time period, Local 81 defended and strengthened its contract. After a strike in 1964, Local 81 strengthened its contract by including company-wide seniority language and protections for the 40-hour workweek. In the same situation in 1967, Local 81 added journeyman-on-duty language to further protect its members from deteriorating working conditions under Allied Employers and grocery chains. Critical arbitrations also occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s, namely the Peck (1966) and Gillingham (1970) arbitrations which strengthened the 40 hour guaranteed workweek and foundations for seniority language, respectively. In 1968, the Amalgamated merged with the United Packinghouse Workers of America, with whom they had been participating in coordinated bargaining against national meat packing companies since 1953.

In addition to problems caused by Allied Employers and grocery chain dominance, this period presented special challenges stemming from the rising power of the Retail Clerks Union. Because of their weaker contracts, Local 81 experienced pressures to adjust work agreements to their more liberal practices, especially regarding working hours and part-time vs. full-time employment. In addition to permitting part-time employment more readily in their contract language, the Retail Clerks required store-wide rather than company-wide seniority policies. These pressures, in addition to the devastating inflation of the 1970s and movement of packinghouse work to right-to-work states, were not enough to stop Local 81 from maintaining strong contracts.

The late 1970s were burdened with inflation, employers moving labor to right-to-work states, a conservative backlash against organized labor, and hard struggle with Allied Employers consisting of a series of short, successful strikes. Under these conditions, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America and the Retail Clerks International Union merged to become the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the largest union affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Significantly, Local 81 was the only Amalgamated local to vote against this merger. With the Retail Clerks’ contracts effectively working against the progress of Local 81 over the past decade, it is no surprise that Local 81 members were hesitant to join their ranks. The President of the new UFCW International Union was William H. Wynn, President of the Retail Clerks Union and one of the designers of the merger.

Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 signified the dawn of an even more conservative and anti-labor era. Local 81 suffered losses of over three hundred members in jobbing house de-certifications. Taking advantage of palpable tensions between the meat cutters and retail clerks, employers settled negotiations with the clerks and attacked Local 81’s meat cutter contract. The resultant 1983 strike at Lucky Stores resulted in widespread lockouts at other Allied Employers companies and 71 bitter days on the picket line for Local 81 members. Lucky members were forced to return to work under threats of permanent replacement. The local came away from this strike demoralized, having lost their cost-of-living escalation clause, reductions in Sunday and holiday premiums and a smaller pension contribution rate than the retail clerks received. Beneficial meat production restrictions were lifted, and the meat cutters’ health plan was merged with the weaker retail clerks’ plan. Strike expenses nearly depleted Local 81’s assets.

In contrast, the UFCW International grew aggressively during the 1980s. They merged with the Barbers, Beauticians and Allied Industries International Association in 1980, the United Retail Workers Union in 1981, the Insurance Workers International Union in 1983, organized 136,000 workers between 1984 and 1985, the Canadian Brewery Workers Union in 1986, organized another 81,000 workers in 1986, almost 100,000 in 1987, and over 100,000 in 1988.

The grocery strike of 1989 yielded much better results for Local 81 than the strike at Lucky six years earlier; they altered their strategy to coordinate bargaining with other Puget Sound locals, teaming up against employers. In May, a strike at Food Giant resulted in lockouts in other King County Allied stores. Local 81 held their ground, and the strike lasted 81 days. In the end, Local 81 kept their Sunday wage increases, increased pension contributions, increased wages, and improved health and welfare benefits. The immense public support for Local 81’s picket lines sent a clear message to employers and ushered in a time of relative peace for labor unions during the 1990s.

After the 1989 strike, Local 81 President Anthony Abeyta led the Local to invest its hard-won surpluses successfully, allowing the local to purchase its own office space in Auburn. In 1992, 1995, and 1998, early contract settlements were reached by the Local with significant improvements to health and welfare benefits. In 1998, an early retirement program was put in place allowing members with 30 years of experience to retire with full benefits at age 55. In 1998, under the new leadership of President Michael Williams, Local 81 merged with the packinghouse union representing workers in the Associated Grocers centralized meat cutting plant in Tukwila, UFCW Local 554. Local 81 also took over contracts representing workers at the Safeway and Associated Grocers warehouses, Draper Valley Poultry, Lennons Casing Plant, Turner & Pease, and newly-merged garment factories Item House and C.C. Filson, Co. In 1999, a full-time organizer came on board to expand Local 81 in the discount grocery, food processing, and textile industries. Threats from the discount grocery industry and centralized meat cutting and prepackaging practices were addressed, and continued to be an important issue after the year 2000.

In 2003, 80,000 UFCW members nationally went on strike to protect their wages and benefits. In 2004, President Dority retired and the International Executive Board appointed the third International President of the UFCW, Joseph T. Hansen. In 2005, along with the Teamsters, SEIU, UNITE-HERE, Laborers, and the United Farm Workers and Carpenters, the UFCW left the AFL-CIO to form the Change to Win Federation. On August 8, 2013, the UFCW International re-affiliated with the AFL-CIO in a statement from its President, Joe Hansen.

On April 1, 2012, UFCW Local 81 merged into UFCW Local 21.

References:

Centennial celebration: Official program. Seattle, WA: Steve Conway.

Dembo, J. (1983). Unions and politics in Washington state: 1885-1935. New York: Garland Pub.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 81 Records. (2000).

Local 81 Presidents

• William Warren 1900-1908
• Joe Hofmann 1909-1944
• Harry Hansen 1945-1949
• Al Jussett 1950-1954
• Fred Frey 1954-1964
• Konrad Johnson 1965-1975
• Sid Casey 1976-1984
• Esther Baxter 1985-1987
• Anthony Abeyta 1988-1999
• Michael Williams 2000-2012