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The Rath Packing Company was a meatpacking company located in Waterloo, Iowa, between 1891 and 1985.
George John Rath (variously referred to as George Rath and John George Rath) was born in 1821 in Breitenau, Württemberg province, Germany. He came to the United States in the late 1840s and eventually settled in Dubuque, Iowa. In Dubuque, Rath began a merchant business, making and selling soap and tallow candles. He also began a pork packing operation. By 1873 he had a new partner in both endeavors: His son, E. F. (Edward Frederick) Rath, doing business under the name George Rath and Son.
In February 1891, the Rath's small pork packing plant and retail market in Dubuque was destroyed by fire. The fire came at a time when many growing towns in Iowa were trying to attract meat packers to relocate or open operations in their communities. A packing plant was a major acquisition for a small but ambitious town. Such a business meant locally-available fresh meat, employment, and typically created a livestock market, all adding to local commerce and prosperity.
The Raths were approached by the Waterloo, Iowa, Board of Trade (a Chamber of Commerce forerunner) and were eventually won over. Incentives included $10,000 in capital, land for a plant, and tax concessions. At some point during this process, George J. Rath decided not to leave Dubuque and not to continue in the meat packing business, rather to stay with his mercantile business. His son E. F. Rath, and John W. Rath, a cousin from Ackley, Iowa, began the Waterloo venture.
The Rath Packing Company (Rath) of Waterloo (Iowa) opened for business on November 24, 1891, on the Cedar River. Initially, the company concentrated on hogs, but by 1908 the company was also slaughtering beef and soon lamb as well. Business thrived; lucrative contracts to supply meat to the Armed Forces during both World Wars helped the company grow. Growth and profitability were also spurred between the 1930s and 1950s by innovations such as the fancy dry curing of bacon and the vacuum canning of meats. By the company's fiftieth anniversary in 1941, the small regional packing house in Waterloo had grown into the nation's single largest meatpacking facility with branch facilities in 12 states. By the end of World War II, Rath was the fifth largest meatpacker in the U.S. Through two world wars, stock market panics, depression, and drought, the company had failed to show a profit in only four of its years.
The years following World War II brought labor troubles. A 1948 strike at the Waterloo plant resulted in the death of a striking union member and a riot. Iowa National Guard troops were called in to restore order. Holding firm, Rath management eventually outlasted the union in negotiations, but labor relations remained sour. [1]
The 1960s and 1970s were difficult times for the meat packing industry. Competition was fierce and the industry had become high volume, low margin. Profitability was hurt by a decline in per capita pork consumption beginning in 1960. By the mid 1970s, Rath's 50-year-old four-story plant was obsolete. [2] The new model for packing houses called for single-level plants with continually moving automated disassembly lines. In addition, Rath's workforce was predominantly middle-aged, older than the industry average for packing houses, and thus burdened with higher than average wage and benefit costs.
In 1980, Local 41 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union which represented most of the labor force, negotiated a plan that, in exchange for wage and benefit concessions from the workers, gave them control of Rath's board of directors.
The employee-owned Rath operated at a loss in 1981-1983. After a series of further financial setbacks, Rath ceased operations in December, 1984 and was liquidated in 1985. [3]
Philip Danforth Armour Sr. was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicago-based firm of Armour & Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made $8,000 in the California gold rush, 1852–56. He opened a wholesale soap business in Cincinnati, then moved it to Milwaukee. He made millions selling meat to the United States Army during the Civil War. In 1875, he moved his base to Chicago. Armour's innovations including bringing live hogs to the metropolis for slaughter, inventing an assembly line system for the dis-assembly of hogs, canning the product, economy of scale and efficiency in detail. He systematically utilized waste products, boasting that he made use of "everything but the squeal". The introduction of refrigerated rail cars opened a national market for him and competitors such as Gustavus Swift. Armour expanded into banking and speculation on the futures market for pork and wheat by 1900, his plants employed 15,000 workers; his own wealth was in the range of $50 million. The urgent Army need for meat during the Spanish–American War of 1898 led to highly publicized complaints about "embalmed beef." Armour retired from business in 1899, and devoted himself to philanthropy in the Chicago area, including low-cost housing for industrial workers, and the major institution of higher education, the Armour Institute of Technology.
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The Dubuque Packing Company was a former meat packing company that operated under a variety of names in Dubuque, Iowa from 1891 until 2001. It was recognized for the quality of its products, and in the 1950s became the second-largest employer in the city. The company was widely known in the community as "The Pack." The company used the fleur-de-lis logo as its trademark.
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The Rath Packing Company Administration Building, also known as Adams Store Inc., is a historic Late Gothic Revival building in Waterloo, Iowa.
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The Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Sioux City, in the state of Iowa in the Midwestern United States, was built in 1918–19 as a speculative venture under the name Midland Packing Plant. After going into receivership, it was acquired by Swift & Co. in 1924, and continued to operate until 1974. It was then purchased by a Sioux City businessman and converted to an enclosed mall, the KD Stockyards Station. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Dunleith and Dubuque Bridge, also known as the White Water Creek Bridge and the Bergfeld Recreation Area Bridge, is a historic structure located in Dubuque, Iowa, United States. This span was part of a seven-span approach to one of the first bridges constructed over the Mississippi River. It was part of a railroad bridge that connected Dubuque with Dunleith, Illinois, now known as East Dubuque. The bridge was fabricated by the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie himself traveled to Dubuque to advocate for his company to build the bridge. The bridge was erected by Reynolds, Saulpaugh and Company of Rock Island, Illinois. The approach, of which this iron truss was a part, was completed in 1872. It was used by the Illinois Central and other railroads.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Iowa in March 2020. The first known cases were three individuals who had traveled on a cruise in Egypt before returning home to Johnson County on March 3. Initially, case clusters were focused at meatpacking plants and congregate care facilities. By late October, community spread had become a concern, and some areas of the state had reported over 20% test positivity. A headline stated that "Iowa hospitals fear overwhelming patient surge if coronavirus cases continue to climb."
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