The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove: Welfare Capitalism in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1921–1933

Abstract

More than sixty-five years after the Amalgamated Meat Cutters called off its strike in February 1922, the memory of defeat remained vivid in the minds of packinghouse workers who struggled through that long, desperate winter. Stephan Janko remembered reporting for work at Armour and Company after it became clear that the cause was lost. “When we went back inside of that plant it wasn't like men. It was more like a bunch of poor dogs that had been whipped for forgettin' who the master was.” A skilled butcher, Janko found himself at the mercy of a vengeful foreman who forced him to cart scraps at unskilled wages while a scab performed his job. “I never wanted to hear the word ‘union’ again in my life,” he recalled, “and I never wanted to stick my neck out for nothing. Just wanted to work and take home my pay.”