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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Rath Packing Company; Civil rights; Discrimination in employment;

Abstract

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a controversial law making discrimination by sex unlawful. Compliance with Title VII presented problems for The Rath Packing Company as well as the meat packing industry in general. Use of separate seniority lists for assigning males and females to jobs had been a long time practice in the meat packing industry, but such lists became unlawful July 2, 1965. The problem of merging separate seniority lists into one list for both sexes, and then using the new single seniority list to assign jobs to those being discriminated against, was difficult due to the complicated plant seniority, department seniority, and job classification practices in use at Rath's. The problem was further complicated by Rath's declining production and unfavorable marketing situation. To trace the development of the Rath problem, it was necessary to understand the perspectives of both the Company and the Union. Local 46 "Union Bulletins" from January, 1964, to January, 1967, chronologically presented the development of the Union's viewpoint. Documents compiled by the Industrial Relations Departments at Rath's revealed how the Company worked to solve the matter. Personal interviews with involved officials from both the Company and Union further revealed the complexity of the issues as both sides interacted. It took many Company-Union meetings, lawsuits, and conciliation sessions with members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before a solution was found. The task of returning laid off women to work on jobs they could perform was accomplished by using the ABC Agreement, which was basically the same as the Swift & Company concept adopted by the International U.P.W.A. and its affiliates. The conclusions and implications that can be drawn from this study are summarized as follows:

1. The Swift & Company Agreement seems to be working in the meat packing industry in general.

2. The basic Swift & Company Agreement was worked out through collective bargaining prior to any guidelines from the government, the courts, or the International Union.

3. The Swift & Company Agreement should be regarded as tentative and open to recurrent negotiations, and will serve as a guideline for new agreements.

4. The ABC Agreement negotiated at Rath's, which is basically the Swift & Company Agreement, has not completely fulfilled its intended purpose of returning females to jobs where sex discrimination is not a recurring issues. A recurring excessive margin transfer of employees is actually perpetuated by the ABC Agreement.

6. Specifically, the ABC Agreement has permitted Local 46 to use seniority in such a manner to cause additional economic costs to Rath's.

7. Rath's unique position as an independent meat packer in which production has been declining, has meant the ABC Agreement as presently negotiated, has produced undue financial obligation on the Company.

8. The clear implication is that any company in a similar declining production and unfavorable marketing situation may find the ABC Agreement unacceptable. In conclusion, if conditions continue to remain the same at The Rath Packing Company, a revision of the ABC Agreement seems imminent.

Year of Submission

1967

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Education and Psychology

First Advisor

Robert L. Frank

Second Advisor

William Elster

Third Advisor

Robert E. Claus

Comments

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Date Original

1967

Object Description

1 PDF file (143 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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