Labor Unions and Lead

Labor Unions and Lead

Labor Unions
OSHA
Worker Rights

This artifact is a snapshot of a Labor Day celebration at Union Hall at 2502 M St. in Omaha, Nebraska in 1943. This picture highlights the growing controversy between industry workers and their employers. Only about half of the seats are filled in what should be, and has historically been viewed as a, day to celebrate workers in the United States.
The history of labor unions is long and storied. Its foundational goal was to protect workers from exploitative and abusive working conditions demanded of them by their employers. Beginning in the late 19th century, it combated long hours and unfair wages. Workers during this time worked an average of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. (Economic Policy Institute) Many unions were born across the nation, and Omaha was no exception.
Given that Omaha has been a hub for industry and trade, it is easy to see how it became the birthplace for some of the fiercest unions in the country. Omaha was even home to the American Federation of Labor at one point in the late 1880s. (Pratt, 2005) One of the most notable labor unions formed in Omaha was called Teamsters. It encompassed many industries, from canning and meat packing to teachers and public employees. The breadth of its scope lended itself to be successful, even during tough economic times. (Teamster.org, 2019)
The contentious relationship between unions and industry in Omaha is well documented, as numerous Omaha World Herald articles wrote of the politics behind allowing or disallowing unions in certain sectors. A scathing opinion article written from the newspaper in 1949 says, “Labor unions stand outside the anti-trust laws...until the imbalance is righted by making unions accountable to the laws which apply to everyone else, we Americans are not likely to solve our labor-management problems.” (Omaha World Herald, December 1949) However, dissenting sentiments persisted because of the steady increase of labor union involvement in Nebraska through the 1920s-1960s. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Similarly, as research on exposure to lead was published, so did the union’s tightening of employee rights. There was growing public knowledge that lead was harmful; however, workers were given ultimatums: say you’re sick because of something else, or lose your job. There was an organizational attempt to conceal lead’s hazardous effects on workers, as Markowitz and Ronson write in their book Deceit and Denial - “that the lead problem of the workers..were really the result of those workers’ affinity for Budweiser beer in cans rather than from exposure to lead in plants.” (121) This spawned labor unions to enact a lead-blood clause, which would allow workers to move to safer, less lead-ridden areas of the industry but not reduce their pay or seniority. (121) Labor unions were a public health initiative in their own right, as they regularly called into question the validity of OSHA and other governmental organizations. This was particularly beneficial to Omaha laborers, as the true danger of their work with lead was finally realized and protected.

The Durham Museum photo archives

The Durham Museum

1949

Rohit Akella
Betty Straub

English

Image