Background
Catfish industry in Mississippi
In the 1980s, the U.S. state of Mississippi was a center for the aquaculture of catfish. [8] [13] In a 1988 article, The New York Times reported that "Mississippi is the source of 80 to 85 percent of the catfish grown and processed annually". [8] [note 4] This growth coincided with a growing culinary popularity of catfish in the United States. [8] Between 1978 and 1987, the amount of farm-raised catfish meat processed in the United States rose from 22 million pounds (10 million kilograms) to 280 million lb (130 million kg), with a statistician for the United States Department of Agriculture saying that the amount was roughly doubling every three years. [8] That year, sales of catfish exceeded $300 million (equivalent to $830 million in 2024). [10] By 1990, 37 plants had been built in the state to process the fish into meat, [11] and approximately 6,000 Mississippians were employed in the industry. [14] A majority of both these plants and the workers were located in the state's Mississippi Delta, [11] [14] a region in the western part of the state located between the Mississippi River to the west and the Yazoo River to the east. [10] By 1990, this region had become the most productive in the United States for catfish production and processing. [8]
Geologically, the Delta benefitted from the clay content of its soil and its shallow aquifers, which allowed for the creation of ponds needed for the raising of catfish. [15] While catfish farming operations in the Delta had begun in the 1960s, the industry experienced a boom in the 1980s. [11] This was due in part to increased mechanization in the cotton industry—historically one of the largest industries in the Delta—which caused an uptick in unemployment and created a large labor pool to work in the catfish industry. [11] As a result, many farmers who traditionally grew either cotton or soybeans began raising catfish. [11] Workers were also attracted to the industry due to the wages, which were considered higher on average than other industries in the region. [8] In 1988, the average hourly wage for someone working in catfish processing was about $4 ($10.63 in 2024). [8] The workforce for the catfish industry, as well as the overall population of the Delta region during this time, [8] was largely African American. [14]
Delta Pride
In the late 1980s, the largest producer of processed catfish meat was Delta Pride. [8] [4] [16] [17] [note 3] The company, which was founded by Samuel Hinote in 1981, [10] was a cooperative owned by over a hundred catfish farmers in the region. [8] [note 5] Under the arrangement, the fish farmers would sell their fish to Delta Pride and share the profits received by the cooperative. [11] Concerning the company's size and prominence, The New York Times called it the "industry wage leader" and the "General Motors" of catfish processing. [11] In 1987, the company operated three plants, with its main facility in Indianola, [10] a city in the Delta that had a population of around 8,000. [11] In 1987, the company, which employed over 1,000 people, [note 6] processed approximately 100 million lb (45 million kg) of fish. [8] By 1990, catfish production had become the largest industry in the city, [11] and Delta Pride was the single largest employer in Sunflower County. [2] The number of manufacturing jobs in the county had roughly doubled between 1980 and 1987, largely because of the catfish industry, [8] and the county also had an unemployment rate of 11.9 percent, which was lower than the surrounding area. [8]
Unionization efforts
In late 1985, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)—a 1.6-million-member labor union that was the largest affiliate of the AFL-CIO—mailed 100,000 cards to residents of the Delta, requesting that the recipients fill out and mail the cards to UFCW Local 1529 in Memphis, Tennessee, if they were interested in seeking union representation. [10] According to a director for the UFCW, the local union received a large number of responses from workers in the region's catfish industry, prompting the union to initiate a unionization drive. [10] Union organizer Bobby Moses oversaw the drive, which was headquartered in Greenwood, Mississippi, and specifically targeted Delta Pride. [10] As part of their efforts, the union reached out to local black churches and black businesses for support, and the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP also supported the union drive. [10] The union also worked with Black Workers for Justice, which supported the effort. [19] In response, the company hired the New Orleans-based law firm of Kullman, Inman, Bee & Downing, to assist in advocating against unionization. [10] The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), based on complaints from the union, accused the company of firing pro-union workers, making threats, and conducting surveillance, though the company denied these charges. [10]
Issues expressed by Delta Pride employees
Working conditions
According to United Press International, which interviewed several workers in 1987, the main issue expressed by Delta Pride employees was the way in which they were treated by their supervisors. [10] Sarah White, who worked as a skinner for Delta Pride in the 1980s, said that the company's management would fire workers "for any reason, just because they didn't like your attitude, or if you talked back at them". [10] According to White, several workers were fired for being pregnant or sick. [10] Workers could also be fired for being too slow, with supervisors often timing employees at their tasks with a stopwatch. [11] Some workers at the plant complained of having to stand in fish entrails for several hours straight. [14] Additionally, multiple employees stated that they had experienced eye, throat, and skin irritation due to the high level of ammonia in the plant's water supply. [20] Repetitive strain injuries were also reported, with at least one employee having developed carpal tunnel syndrome. [11] [2] Due to the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the Delta, replacement workers for fired employees were often readily available. [11]
One of the largest points of contention between the workers and company management concerned access to restrooms. [3] Restroom visits were rationed, with employees allowed only six five-minute restroom breaks per week, in addition to their thirty-minute lunch break and two other fifteen-minute breaks. [11] [3] Per some employees, women workers needed to get permission before going to the restrooms and were often followed by their supervisors. [14] Their visits were timed, with supervisors banging on the restroom door after five minutes. [10] Additionally, the stalls lacked individual doors. [10] [20] The penalty for three violations of this restroom policy was often the loss of a days' work, and three additional violations often resulted in firing. [11] According to historians Angela Boswell and Judith N. McArthur, the restroom policy was the "tipping point" towards eventual labor action. [21]
In the Mississippi Delta, commercial catfish farming has replaced cotton culture, but although the "crop" is different, it is still harvested and processed by black laborers for powerful white landowners. The region's economic transformation has changed, without improving, African American women's work lives: assembly-line jobs skinning and gutting catfish under the scrutiny of white supervisors with stopwatches have replaced field labor under white overseers.
Numerous employees and commentators have compared the work environment at Delta Pride to those of the plantation complexes in the Southern United States. [23] Aaron Henry, the president of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, said in 1990 that the employees' anger towards Delta Pride was driven by "a combination of race and economics, coupled with the philosophy of the plantation", while Dick Stevens, the president of another catfish company based in Isola, Mississippi, said, "I don't think there's any doubt about the plantation mentality around here". [11] This comparison was also highlighted by the fact that, while most of the employees were black women, [19] most of the management was made up of white people. [20] Additionally, some workers said that there were rumors that white male supervisors gave sexual favors of better wages or positions to female workers. [14]
Wages
In a 1992 book, historian James C. Cobb stated that the primary reason workers expressed for unionizing was "the desire for better wages and working conditions". [14] Concerning this former part, Peter T. Kilborn of The New York Times stated that the average worker at Delta Pride in 1990 was earning an hourly pay of $4.05 ($9.75 in 2024), compared to the federal minimum wage of $3.80 ($9.15 in 2024). [11] At this rate, the average full-time worker made an average yearly income of $8,424 ($20,275 in 2024), which was below the poverty threshold of $12,675 ($30,506 in 2024) established by the federal government for a single parent of three children. [11] However, the union stated that this figure was inaccurate and that the actual average hourly pay for a Delta Pride worker was only $3.90 ($9.39 in 2024). [3] At the time, most of the employees of Delta Pride were single parents. [11] Industry-wide, the average pay was slightly below $4 ($9.63 in 2024) per hour. [20] At Delta Pride, the company assisted workers in applying for welfare programs. [11] [14] White also stated that there had been some instances where workers on the first shift would arrive at 8 a.m. but not be allowed to clock in until catfish arrived at the plant, which sometimes occurred several hours later. [10] Per White, there had been several times when workers were physically present at the plant for eight hours but were only paid for three hours of work. [10]
Unionization vote
In October 1986, workers at Delta Pride unionized with the UFCW, [10] [24] with a vote of 489 in favor and 349 against. [25] A day prior to the vote, in an attempt to sway the workers against unionization, Delta Pride gave workers time off to attend a company-hosted barbecue where a pile of $182,000 ($522,000 in 2024)—representing the amount the company said workers would lose annually in union dues—was on display. [19] Despite this, the union drive, which was largely led by black women including White, Margaret Hollins, Rose Turner, and Mary Young, [20] succeeded, with the employees of Delta Pride becoming unionized under UFCW Local 1529. [9] [11] Speaking of the successful drive, Cleve McDowell, a field director for the NAACP in Mississippi, told The Washington Post , [19]
This is the beginning of a second era of civil rights for us here. We are going past public accommodations and the right to vote and looking at economic power.
On June 29, 1987, the first labor contract between the union and the company went into effect. [10] The contract would run for three years, expiring in mid-1990. [6] At the time, Hinote was still involved in the company, serving as its president. [10]
Issues facing the industry in the late 1980s / early 1990s
While there had been 37 catfish processing plants in operation in Mississippi during the 1980s, three of these had closed by 1990. [11] In the 1980s, the industry had instituted a form of price fixing in which processing plants agreed to pay farmers $0.80 ($1.93 in 2024) per pound of fish, which cost farmers approximately $0.70 ($1.68 in 2024) to raise. [11] However, this price fixing ultimately hurt many farmers due to their stakes in the processing cooperatives. [11] Speaking in 1990, Larry W. Joiner (then-president and chief executive officer of Delta Pride) said, "From a processing standpoint, the industry is sick. Processors are selling for less than their cost of production." [11] From 1988 to 1990, Delta Pride, which employed about 1,000 individuals, [note 7] failed to generate a profit. [11] In 1989, this was in spite of roughly $144 million ($365 million in 2024) in sales. [3] As early as 1988, Delta Pride was trying to mechanize the filleting process at their Indianola plant, though this was limited due to the technology available at the time. [8] [note 8]
Contract negotiations in 1990
In July 1990, the labor contract between the company and union expired, [2] with the two sides negotiating on the terms of a new labor contract. [20] According to historian Kieran W. Taylor, the company aimed to stall these negotiations, with the goal of breaking the local union. [6] According to the Los Angeles Times , the company and union disagreed over the terms of the new contract, with the company offering hourly pay raises of between $0.35 and $0.90 ($0.84 and $2.17 in 2024). [1] The union, however, requested higher wage increases, as well as improvements to the company's pension plan and the creation of a committee for workers' health and safety. [1] Per the union, because of an increase in the federal hourly minimum wage to $4.25 ($9.81 in 2024) that was to take effect on April 1, 1991, the company's offer would only equate to an hourly increase of about 6.2¢ ($0.15 in 2024) per hour over what they would legally be required to pay. [3]
Per the Associated Press, the workers were equally concerned about wages as they were about working conditions, with the news agency reporting that workers had complained of high incidents of injuries, being timed by supervisors, and the company's poor restroom policy. [4] Concerning the injuries, in December 1989, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the United States Department of Labor had fined Delta Pride $32,800 ($83,200 in 2024) for workplace health and safety violations that the department said had resulted in workplace injuries. [2] While the company contested the fine, it also hired consultants to help institute changes intended to prevent further injuries. [11] [3] Concerning the restrooms, the company's proposal included a maximum of six restroom breaks per week, which the union rejected, instead seeking an end to the restrictions on restroom breaks. [26] According to White, in response, the company proposed adding five minutes to the employees' lunch break and requiring restroom visits to be made during that time. [26]
After several weeks of negotiations, [6] the company made its final offer to the union in late August 1990. [2] According to Richard Schweid of the Los Angeles Times , this offer included an hourly wage increase of 6.5¢ ($0.16 in 2024) per year for each of the three years that the contract would be in place. [2] However, the union rejected this proposal in early September, [note 9] with members voting 410 against and 5 in favor of accepting the deal. [5] [3] [6] Following the rejection, Delta Pride refused to engage in further negotiations with the union. [2]
