This pathbreaking study traces the rise--and subsequent fall--of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA). Roger Horowitz looks at local leaders and meatpacking workers in Chicago, Kansas City, Sioux City, and Austin, Minnesota, closely examining the unionizing of the workplace and the prominent role of black workers and women in UPWA. 

Horowitz shows how three major firms in U.S. meat production and distribution became dominant by virtually eliminating union power. The union's decline, he argues, reflected massive pressure by capital for lower labor costs and greater control over the work process. In the end, the victorious firms were those that had been most successful at increasing the rate of exploitation of their workers, who now labor in conditions as bad as those of a century ago.

Following World War II, women living in small towns and on farms across the Midwest woke every morning, packed their lunches, and headed out for a long day of work in a nearby factory. Many of these women never envisioned themselves as industrial workers, but the political and economic changes after World War II offered new opportunities and experiences for hundreds of women.
        How did this transition into industrial work affect a woman’s sense of self? How did this new workforce change the dynamic of families and communities? While women choosing to work outside of the home may seem to have been a mundane decision, it caused tremendous change within families and with household roles. These alterations in daily life rippled throughout midwestern culture and society, even changing the landscape of small towns into decentralized industrial centers.