FINAL EXAM

WORK & COMMUNITY

1. What did being “working class” mean to the author of Packinghouse Daughter and what difference did it make to her life to be raised in a union household?

The author views growing up working as the intellectual and emotional foundation of her life. It is where she learned about the value and dignity of hard work, especially blue collar work. It forged her perspective on the role of social class and class conflict in American society. It’s also the repisitory of powerful childhood memories of her family, especialy her parents, and their relationship with other meat-packing workers and their families in Albert Lea, Minnesota, her hometown. Finally, it was her father’s union status, including his relatively high wages, and the workmen’s compensation he received after he got injured, that made possible the aurthor’s schooling, the purchase of a car, and other benefits,and that allowed her to escape the working class and to join the ranks of the professional middle class as a scholar. In short, her working class “roots” made her what she is today.

The central “event” of the book is the meat-packing strike of 1959 that sharply divided Albert Lea. The workers are “locked out” and months of conflict ensue. Through her father, she learns an entire lexicon of terms about labor organizing, including “scabs” and “yellow-dog contracts.” On page 157, she says that she came through this period with two-gut level convictions: first, that justice almost also resides with workers, and second, that employers are consumed by greed and generally untrustworthy. She also comes to see the power of collective bargaining, and of unions, without which workers – like those Latino and Asian immigrants who have replaced the white European meat-packers of old – are left completely at the mercy of the owners.

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