The Early Years: 1900-1920
An early Seattle Buther shop on Western Avenue
Early in 1900, nine Seattle butchers met to establish Protective Union of Butchers, Local 81, Seattle Washington. William Warren was elected as President, J. Denton as Vice-President, F.G. Tapert, Secretary, Jay Summers as Treasurers, Gus Meirs, Sergeant-At-Arms, and J. Casura as Labor Secretary. They immediately applied for a charter from the Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher Workmen of North America, organized on the east coast in 1897. This charter was delivered and signed on April 2, 1900. Thus was the birth of today’s oldest retail butcher union in North America, the Fighting 81st of Seattle, Washington.
The first move of the local was for an early closing day for at that time markets were kept open as late as 8:00 P.M., meat cutters working 80 hours per week. After a struggle of about eight months and with the assistance of the Western Central Labor Union(Seattle Labor Council), the young local succeeded in obtaining a 6:00 P.M. closing Monday through Friday, 10 P.M. on Saturdays, and a half day on Sundays(a 66 hour workweek and no overtime!). This hours struggle and standard became the bedrock of Local 81′s earliest contracts.
Turn of the century market proudly displaying union card
Their organizing tool was the union consumer: “The Butcher’s union of this city has discovered the most effective weapon for the use of organized labor. It is for all union people to demand the working card of all other union people when patronizing business houses. Make the butcher show you an up-to-date card or refuse to buy from him.”(Seattle Union Record). Fines were assessed members seen purchasing goods from non-union markets. In June, 1903, the union ordered its members to “wear the union button on the left lapel of your working gown, with the letters ‘AMC & BW of NA, AFof L’ on the border, and the knife, saw, cleaver, and steel in the center.” Thus the proud seal of the Amalgamated became the organizing tool of the young local.. With the help of the growing Seattle labor movement, Local 81 established itself as the strongest retail union on the Pacific Coast.
“Seattle union men and women will not have to go far for a market where the men are perfectly willing and anxious to better their own condition and elevate their trade, by keeping up the standard of wages and obeying rules which give more pleasure and time for the wage earner to be at home with his family.”(Seattle Union Record).
In 1904, the Amalgamated introduced one of the first benefits of the Fighting 81st, the Amalgamated Sick and Death benefit provided to members in good standing. For the next 60 years, this benefit bound butchers to Local 81 and the Amalgamated.
In 1906, the Amalgamated provided new celluloid union market cards, still visible in retail butcher markets(the oldest being signed by Homer Call, then Secretary-Treasurer of the Amalgamated).
The first strike of the Fighting 81st occurred in 1902 when retail butchers joined with their brothers in the packing houses to support the efforts of Frye workers to organize the Frye-Bruhn Packinghouse. Thus began a long history of partnership between the retail and packinghouse butchers. In these early years, the packinghouse butchers were members of Local 81.
Early union meetings were weekly and a combination of initiations, speeches, music, wine, cigars, and boxing matches between the burly killers of cattle and the retail butchers. In1909,a fine was placed on members who failed to attend meetings once a month.
The family of Joe Hofmann - Ellen, Martha, and little Joe.
On February 6, 1906, Joe Hofmann was initiated into Local 81. Born in 1880 into a family of Austrian sausage makers on a ship bound for America, Joe grew up in Kansas City. Joe arrived in Seattle in the early 1900s. By the late 1900s, Joe Hofmann had become the forceful and imaginative red-headed leader of the Seattle butcher union, a position he would hold for the next forty years.
One of the earliest records of Joe Hofmann was his message to union butchers regarding the 1909 Labor Day parade: “The Butchers’ uniform will be a white cap, white gown and a white apron with red silk ribbon for apron string, and a pair of straw cuffs.” The following letter best reflects his passion for Local 81 and trade unionism:
“The union extends its deepest sympathies to Bro. McLaughlin, whose wife was buried this week. Our union donated a beautiful floral wreath. It is when such affliction comes to us that we realize the priceless benefit of aid and sustaining power that we derive from organization. Few men who have gone through these trials, soothed and assisted by fellow workmen in their craft through the bonds of unionism, ever find it in their hearts to desert the ranks.”
Business Agent Hofmann and his Model T Ford
And Joe Hofmann insured that the price was high for those who deserted the ranks.
Joe Hofmann led Local 81 during the great strike of these early years: the Frye packinghouse strike of 1917. The Frye Company provided meat for most Seattle shops and could control thereby the local shop owners. In 1917, Local 81 sought to assist Frye workers in achieving a union shop and reduced hours of work. The Company responded by attempting to break the power of the Seattle local of 250 meat cutters. At the end of this struggle, the Fighting 81st achieved a $30 workweek, although work hours continued to be well over 60 hours for another 20 years and the Frye Company an open shop for the next ten years.
The Middle Years(1920-1960)
Local 81's earliest offices were in the old Seattle Labor Temple at 6th and University
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.
Union meeting at Seattle Labor Temple in the 1920's
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.
1937 Labor Day Parade delegation led by Harry Hansen
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.
Early Local 81 softball team
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.
Joe Ford's Universal Meat Box in the 1930's
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.
Early Safeway market at 6th & McGraw Street
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.
Dan's Market in 1958
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.
The Recent Years: 1960-2000
Delegates to 1960 New Jersey Amalgamated convention
Freddie Frye guided Local 81 into the l960′s. One of Local 81′s most successful negotiations was in the fall of 1959 when it achieved several firsts in negotiations: a pension program at a 10 cents per hour contribution rate (effective October 1, 1960), sick leave (beginning on the 4th day), and a third week of vacation after 15 years. Wages rose to $112 per week and $95 per week for wrappers. They achieved this by agreeing to a 3-year contract. They religiously maintained their hours standards of no selling of meat prior to 9:00 A.M. or after 6:00 P.M. and no selling of meat on Sundays or Holidays.
The rise of the Retail Clerk Union and the increasing retail dominance of the chains (Albertson’s and QFC both appeared in the late 1950′s and early 1960′s) created special challenges for Local 81. Increasingly the chain stores introduced new technologies into the meat markets: cry-o-vac beef being the most evident with the introduction of cutting rooms in their warehouse operations. The rising strength of the retail clerk union also brought new pressures upon Local 81 to adjust their work agreements to the more liberal practices of the clerks union, especially with regard to working hours and part-time workers..
Early display of self-service meat case
The decade of the 1960′s was marked by internal political tensions and strikes both in 1964 and 1967. The first evidence of this political change was the election of Mel Roundhill to replace Ed White in 1962 as Recording Secretary. The strike of 1964 led to a hotly contested election for chief executive officer between Freddie Frye and Conrad Johnson (the latter who had run many unsuccessful elections to become an elected officer of Local 81 during the 1950′s and remained a principal promoter of the meat cutter apprenticeship program). In one of Local 81′s closest elections, Conrad Johnson defeated Freddie Frye by a vote of 604 to 583. It would be Connie Johnson’s role to lead Local 81 into the era marked by the emergence of Allied Employers, Inc. and the dominance of the grocery chain stores.
As grocery stores expanded their hours, its became increasingly important for Local 81 to insure that the Union defend their 40-hour workweek. They achieved this by developing language to provide a 40-hour guaranteed workweek and company-wide seniority language. The 1964 contract contained these two critical provisions. The 1967 contract took a third step in developing journeyman-on-duty language. Local 81 also engaged in two critical arbitrations in this decade(named for the arbitrators in each case): Peck(1966) and Gillingham(1970). Both of these decisions strengthened the 40-hour guaranteed workweek for members and provided the foundation for its seniority language for the next four decades. Local 81, unlike the Retail Clerks, developed the foundation for full-time rather than part-time employment, company rather than store-wide seniority. It was assisted in these endeavors by its new legal counsel, Hugh Hafer and John Rinehart.
Under the leadership of Conrad Johnson, assisted by Mel Roundhill, Rutledge, and Sid Casey(a fourth business agent being added in 1970), Local 81 defended and strengthened its contract in these years. It maintained the prohibition on the selling of meat before 9:00 A.M. although it allowed the selling of meat until 9:00 P.M. No selling of meat was allowed on Sundays or Holidays. The Local achieved a fourth week of vacation in 1967 as well as funeral leave. The Local also introduced a non-discrimination clause in their contract. Journeymen meat cutter wages were $3.82/hour, $3.35/hour for journeyman female workers(not until 1971 did the contract refer to meat wrappers).
In the Olympia area, Local 81 allowed Sunday and Holiday work, but extracted an increased premium pay. In its 1971 contract, Local 81 allowed Sunday and Holiday work but at the rate of double-time. Pension contributions were 20 cents per hour. Sick leave was allowed on the 3rd day of illness. A crucial cost-of-living formula was also placed in the contract. In 1971, a birthday holiday was added to the contract. (In 1977, one’s anniversary date was added as a holiday.) By 1979, journeyman meat cutter wages stood at $9.29/hour and journeyman meat wrappers at $7.72 per hour. Pension contributions had risen to 60 cents per hour. Aided by cost-of-living clauses, wages had doubled between 1967 and 1979. In 1976, Connie Johnson retired as chief business agent, to be succeeded by the team of Sid Casey, Mel Roundhill, Mel Savage, and in 1978, Steve Anderson.
1983 picketers at North Auburn Albertson’s store.
1983 picketers at North Auburn Albertson's store
The devastating inflation of the late 1970′s produced a wave of reaction against organized labor in the United States. Local 81′s history parallels this attack. The decade of the 1970′s saw a see-saw struggle with Allied Employers and a pattern of short, but largely successful strikes. The Fighting 81st maintained strong contracts in both the retail and jobbing houses. There was however a steady erosion of membership in the packing houses, as the emergence of more rapid transportation and refrigeration brought increasing economic pressure as employers moved their production to right-to-work states. A measure of this was the merger of the proud Amalgamated with the Retail Clerks International Union in June, 1979, forming the United Food & Commercial Worker’s International Union. Interestingly Local 81 was the only Amalgamated local to vote against this merger.
The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the breaking of the air traffic controller strike set the stage for a further attack upon organized labor in the 1980′s. Local 81 lost over 300 members early in the 1980′s in a series of jobbing house de-certifications. In 1983, sensing divisions between the meat cutters and the retail clerks, the employer community settled with the Retail Clerks but launched an attack upon Local 81′s contract. Local 81 struck Lucky’s stores. Other Allied members locked out Local 81 members and, for the first time, locked out Local 81 members in Kitsap County.
Local 81 members steadfastly maintained their lines. Under the threat of permanent replacement, Lucky members returned to work reluctantly while the picketing continued for a total of 71 days. When a settlement was reached and after much internal strife, our members went back to work, though the sting of the bitter strike lingered for many years. The cost-of-living escalation clause was lost. Sunday and holiday premiums were reduced to time and three quarters. Pension contributions were increased to ninety cents, but less than the retail clerk contribution increase. Specific language was added that allowed fine ground beef into the markets without restrictions. Local 81′s medical plan was merged with the retail clerks.
With all the strike related expenditures, Local 81′s assets were nearly depleted. In its 1984 elections, the Local reduced its full-time officers to three: Esther Baxter(President and the first meat wrapper to lead a UFCW Local), Tony Abeyta (Secretary-Treasurer), and Steve Anderson, (Recording Secretary). Serious talks commenced about merging Local 81 with Local 1105. The 1986 contract negotiation fortunately avoided another strike, but at a price of introducing a substandard service counter contract with a lower wage and benefit standard and also allowing further expansion of the employer’s ability to introduce prepackaged and priced products into the markets. For the first time in its history, the Local settled for lump sum bonuses rather than hard wage increases.
The 1987 election was another watershed election for Local 81 with the selection of Tony Abeyta as President, Michael J. Williams as Secretary-Treasurer, and Steve Anderson as Recorder.
Delegates to the 1988 UFCW Convention in San Francisco
Tony Abeyta, a Safeway meat cutter with little ties to the factions which fragmented the Local in 1983, ran on a platform of ending concessionary bargaining, opposing a merger with the clerks, and promoting internal unity within Local 81′s office. One of his first tasks was to return Local 81 to a four staff office with the addition of an organizer/business agent, Steve Conway. He also set upon the task of building stronger relations with the retail clerks.
The stage was thus set for perhaps one of Local 81′s most successful strikes since 1964: the grocery strike of 1989. The Employer community entered the negotiations with a desire to change the Sunday premiums. Local 81 and 1105 entered the bargaining with a common goal of ending the decade of concessionary bargaining. Local 81 and Local 1105 and other Puget Sound locals carefully coordinated their bargaining strategies. In May, Locals 81 and 1105 struck Food Giant, followed by a lockout in other King County Allied stores. This strike/lockout would last 81 days.
Abeyta leads protest outside Allied headquarters in Bellevue.
When the smoke cleared, Sunday premiums remained intact, although Local 81 reduced its premium to time and a half in exchange for increasing pension contributions, hard money wages increases were obtained, and a full maintenance of health and welfare contributions. Most importantly, the public support for the striking and locked-out grocery workers sent a message to employers that the decade of the attack upon organized labor was over(a lesson repeated in the successful Aerospace Machinist strike that fall). This strike set the stage for a decade of labor peace in the grocery industry.
Local 81 emerged from this strike with strong reserves. Under the leadership of Abeyta, the Local invested its surpluses wisely, an investment strategy which eventually allowed the local to purchase its own office building in Auburn in 1996. In 1992, 1995, and 1998, Local 81 managed to achieve early settlements, the most significant improvements being made in both the pension and health & welfare programs. By 1998, Local 81 had achieved an early retirement program which allowed its membership to retire with full pensions at 55 years of age and thirty years of experience. Unlike many unions which saw a steady erosion of health and welfare coverage, Local 81 continued to achieve improvements, and in fact established a Retirees Health & Welfare Plan in 1998. Wages steadily increased so that by the end of the decade Local 81 had some of the highest wages on the Pacific Coast. This had been achieved with no take-aways in the contract and no expansion of the duties of the service counter workers(an expansion in California which had gutted their contracts). Abeyta crowned his administration by establishing a Retirees Club and also dispatching Business Agent Steve Conway to the State Legislature to assist the Local and the state labor movement with their many needs, the first member of Local 81 to serve in the Washington State Legislature. After a serious stroke, Abeyta retired in May, 1999, leading to our current leadership: Michael J. Williams (President) , Steve Anderson(Secretary-Treasurer), Mel Hosman(Recording Secretary), and Steve Conway(Executive Assistant/Business Agent).
Governor Gary Locke cuts ribbon at Local 81's new Auburn office
The most worrisome development in the late 1990′s was the continued inroads made by prepackaged, pre-priced meats and products. In 1998, Associated Grocers announced the setting up of a centralized meat cutting plant in Tukwila. After arduous and protracted negotiations, and under the leadership of newly-elected (1999) president, Michael J. Williams, Local 81 merged with the packinghouse union representing these employees, UFCW Local 554. In addition to this crucial representation of the centralized workforce, Local 81 also took over responsibility for contracts at the Safeway and AG warehouses, Draper Valley Poultry, Lennons Casing Plant, Turner & Pease, and the newly-merged garment factories, Item House and C.C. Filson Company. In 1999, Local 81 also hired a full-time organizer to expand Local 81 in the quickly expanding discount grocery industry as well as the food processing and textile industries.
Local 81 thus enters its second 100 years with a membership of over 2000. Its finances remain on solid footing due to its wise investment strategies and the strength of the American economy.. It continues to face important challenges. The continual expansion of non-union discount grocers–most importantly, Walmart, K-Mart, and Warehouse Market– threatens the family-wage standard of the grocery and meat cutting industry. The threat of further expansion of centralized meat cutting remains real, already causing a disruption of the Associated Grocer membership. Increasingly many chains are looking toward expanding their use of prepackaged products. Only the increasing public concern for service and food safety stand as barriers to its expansion. Today’s meat cutter and wrappers must be as skilled in service as production, a task made difficult by the continual cutbacks in market hours. Local 81 also has a need to assist its seafood members who represent a growing part of the membership, both in improving their contract as well as the professionalism of their trade. It must also, like the Local of yesteryear, expand its influence in the Puget Sound food processing industry, if only to protect the wage, benefit and hours standards of its membership and the threat of centralized meat cutting.
Abeyta welcomes members to Local 81's new Auburn office
Local 81 enters the 21st century with as large a membership as it has had in the previous century, but a membership with greater geographic and work-related diversity. Local 81 members today have many claims on their time. We should remember the importance given this Local by its pioneers of the past, their dedication and sacrifice in building one of the strongest contracts in the country. Throughout its history, the Fighting 81st has always found the collective wisdom to elect leaders to guide them through hard times—Joe Hofmann in the 1910′s and 1920′s, Conrad Johnson in the 1960′s, and Tony Abeyta in the 1980′s. This collective wisdom has been the source of its strength and independence. We must never forget this legacy and work to give Local 81 the priority in our lifes that it so richly deserves.
