Meatpacking

Unionization Comes to the Slaughterhouse

In the late 19th century, livestock and meatpacking industries had spurred Kansas City’s growth into an industrial giant. Almost 200,000 miles of railroad tracks covered the United States, and the refrigerator car had been patented, improved, and nearly perfected. This gave the meatpacking industry a huge boost, which in turn created the need for more workers along every step of the slaughterhouse process.