| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Struggling with "Iowa's Pride": Labor Relations, Unionism, and Politics in the Rural Midwest since 1877. By Wilson J. Warren. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000. xv + 185 pp. Illustration, notes, index. $34.95, cloth; $19.95, paper.)

In 1877, T. D. Foster established a branch of the English meatpacking firm, John Morrell and Company, in Ottumwa, Iowa. Wilson Warren paints Foster as a patriarch, subjecting both industry and community to his own somewhat flexible "evangelical paternalism" for nearly four decades. In general, however, Morrell and Ottumwa seem to have gotten along rather well. 1

Early union influence in the Ottumwa packinghouse was not especially strong. In 1901, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen (AFL) began organizing among Morrell workers. Strikes were called (and lost) in 1904 and again in 1921. Thereafter, a new management team (Foster's sons) instituted an "employee representation plan" and a system of welfare capitalism. Only in 1933, some would argue, in the context of the New Deal, would a serious trade union spark be struck. In 1937, the CIO chartered an Ottumwa local of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), which developed into an effective union. . . .

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