The Middle Years(1920-1960)
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The public reaction to the rise of organized labor in the 1920s did not directly impact the Fighting 81st. The union continued to grow under the steady guidance of Joe Hofmann, expanding its membership into Olympia and Bremerton. Only the packinghouse workers felt the brunt of this decade of company unionism and the yellow-dog contract. Joe Hofmann kept Local 81 in the forefront of Seattle Labor Council politics, the union playing a key role in the Seattle Labor Council in the 1920s. The office and meeting rooms of Local 81 were in the old Labor Temple on 6th & University. Early contracts required employers to use union labor in building, repair, and maintenance work and avoid using goods placed by the Labor Council on the ‘unfair’ list. Hofmann also pushed Local 81 into the Farm-Labor politics of this decade. The Seattle ‘Blue Laws’ brought an end to Sunday work.
The Great Depression and the resulting political revolution of 1932 had great impact on Local 81. In 1928, Local 81 engaged the Frye Company in a 4-year struggle to break the open shop. Local 81, assisted by the Amalgamated, helped establish the Washington State Council of Butchers in 1929. By the mid-1930s, they at last broke the hold of the open shop packinghouse employers on the meat industry. Local 186 established itself as an independent packing house union in Seattle.
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This victory occurred during the Great Depression. Responding to growing unemployment, the Local assessed members to provide unemployment benefits for out-of-work members. The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt also brought government into active intervention in the retail grocery business. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) initially demanded the development of wage and hour standards in every industry. Local 81 established temporarily an 8-hour working day under this code (although eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court). Most importantly, the Local approached the Seattle city council and established a meat inspection program. This inspection program guaranteed that only licensed meat cutters could work in city markets. The code became an effective tool for controlling working conditions. Eventually this code would be extended to King County as well.
A second important development of the 1930s was the strengthening of the grocery chain. The first chain store in Seattle was the U & I. The first Safeway store opened in 1935 at 1st and Pike. This rise of the chain led to the rise of the Food Dealers Association in Seattle, and a group which unified employers in resisting efforts to improve working conditions yet offered Local 81 the opportunity to work on common regulation and political objectives.
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Joe Hofmann had an able assistant in this years, and full-time secretary of Local 81, Harry Hansen. Together they led the Fighting 81st during the 1930s, the local growing to over 500 members. By 1935, Local 81 had managed to bring down the workweek to 9 hours per day, and a 6-day or 54 hour workweek. No markets opened before 8:00 A.M. or closed later than 6:00 P.M. No overtime was allowed. Journeymen worked for $36 per week. As Puget Sound workers organized on the docks, packinghouses, transport, steel mills, aircraft industry, economic and political power shifted to trade unions. By 1941, Local 81 was able to reduce the workweek to 48 hours and a starting time of 9:00 A.M.. For their 6-day workweek, cutters received $45. In 1941, the Local achieved a second significant benefit: a week of paid vacation. Joe Hofmann lobbied in Olympia to achieve a statewide licensing law. During this period, Local 81 launched a fundraising event which would continue for the next two decades: an annual stag show.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the advent of World War II, brought more changes to Local 81. Labor shortages brought female meat cutters into Local 81 as well as female sausage workers. The first female meat cutter was Francis Kennedy. Labor shortages also forced the Local to agree to the practice of overtime at time and a half. A manager’s premium was also introduced. In 1942, weekly pay with overtime rose to well over $70 per week. In 1944, Harry Hansen took over as Business Agent, although Hofmann remained active in the State Butcher organization as well as Local 81.
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In 1946, Local 81 made its mark on Washington State Labor history when it became the first Washington local to strike for a 5-day, 40 hour workweek. At a crucial union meeting on March 24, 1946, Local 81 members voted as follows: "40 hours shall constitute a week’s work, Monday through Saturday." They immediately initiated strike action and within a week achieved this objective. In 1946, Local 81 sponsored a resolution at the State Federation of Labor to make this a standard throughout the state. Thus the Fighting 81st became the first Amalgamated union to achieve a 5-day workweek, basic pay still rising to $60 per week. Shops were open Monday through Saturday, 9 to 6. They also achieved a second week of paid vacation.
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The late 1940’s saw the beginning of another important change for Local 81: a union-sponsored meat cutter apprenticeship school. The first school began at Edison School in September, 1947, under the guidance of Art Astmus. Initially this program struggled for attendance, but in 1949 Local 81, working in concert with the city of Seattle, required all apprentices to attend the school to be licensed. Thus was established a city-sanctioned program of apprenticeship meat cutting for Local 81 and eventually King County.
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By By the late 1940’s, changes in grocery retailing and improved refrigeration, deli meats, and the self-service case brought more change to Local 81. In the late l940’s, Local 81 first defined its jurisdiction in its contract as ‘the cutting and handling of all meat, fish, poultry, and rabbit products,’ to protect its members from grocers to use clerks in meat department work. In 1950, Local 81 added female deli workers to their membership. Initially Local 81 members were prohibited from cutting or wrapping any meat for self-service cases. But in 1950, the Local admitted the first meat wrapper to the union, Vivian Keeler, and developed a contract scale for "female" workers. They also merged with the fish workers union. Local 81 brought on its first legal counsel: Pressley Gill.
In 1946, Local 81 moved into its second home, the new Labor Temple on 2800 1st Avenue. They held their first meeting in the Labor Temple on November 5, 1946. These rooms would serve as Local 81’s home for the next 50 years, executive board meeting once a week and union meetings being twice a month. City union members were required to attend a meeting at least once per month, those outside the city quarterly. Fines assessed for non-attendance could be waived with the contribution of blood to Local 81’s Blood Bank. In January, 1949, Harry Hansen died having led the Local for five years. Joe Hofmann returned briefly to lead the local from January, 1949 to July, 1950 when illness finally forced this icon to retire. In August, 1950, the Local elected its first non-meat cutter as Business Agent, Al Jussett, an Amalgamated organizer. Al Jussett along with Ed White and a third full-time officer added in 1953, George Arnold, would lead the Local from 1950 till Jussett’s death in July, 1954. A new generation of leadership emerged in Local 81 with the election of Freddie Frey as Business Agent, Ed White as Assistant Business Agent, and Charlie Sanvidge as Recording Secretary in August, 1954. Their first accomplishment was the establishment of a Health & Welfare Trust and Plan with the Retail Dealers in January, 1955.
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The Local also successfully joined the broader labor movement to defeat two right-to-work initiatives in this decade. Of interest was the International organizer who replaced Jussett: George Chihuly, Tacoma meatcutter and father of Dale Chihuly, renowned Washington State glass artist. Dale remembers being raised in the basement of Freddie Frey’s home.
By the late 1950’s, Local 81 had grown to well over 2000 members. Forty hours constituted a week’s work, Monday through Saturday. The Local allowed Sunday and Holiday work only in the cases of emergency and then at double time. Shifts could start at 7:00, 8:00, or 9:00 A.M. A third week of vacation was added for those with 15 years with a company. Wages for journeyman meat cutters was $110 per week, for journeyman meat wrappers, $88 per week. The Local had strengthened its contracts in the jobbing houses and among meat sales drivers, representing well over 300 members. It was height of post-war power for the Fighting 81st..