Workers for Delta Pride, a catfish processing company based in Indianola, Mississippi, United States, went on strike from mid-September to mid-December 1990. The strike ended when the labor union representing the workers signed a contract that provided for wage increases and improved working conditions.
By the 1980s, aquaculture of catfish in Mississippi had become a multi-million-dollar industry, centered primarily in the Mississippi Delta region of the state. Delta Pride, a cooperative operated by over a hundred catfish farmers in the region, was the largest processor of catfish. It operated its main facility in Indianola and employed over 1,000 people. While many of the company's supervisors were white Americans, the overwhelming majority of its workforce were African Americans, particularly black women. In the mid-1980s, these employees unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers. The primary motives behind unionizing were the low wages—typically less than a dollar above than the federal minimum wage—and the poor working conditions, with some employees comparing the work environment to that of the plantation complexes in the Southern United States. Of notable issue was the company's restroom policy, which limited workers to six restroom visits per week, with time limits of five minutes per visit. In mid-1990, the labor contract between the company and the union expired, and negotiations on a replacement contract were fruitless, with the union requesting higher wages and changes to company policies, including the restroom policy.
On either September 12 or 13, 1990, several hundred employees went on strike with a walkout. Picketing commenced and the union launched a nationwide boycott of Delta Pride products. Strike leaders attempted to frame the strike as a dispute over civil rights, and the strikers received considerable support from civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP, Operation PUSH, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Additionally, many notable activists visited Indianola during the strike, including Bill Clay, Dick Gregory, and Jesse Jackson. While the company was able to hire a large number of replacement workers and stayed in operation during the strike, it experienced a number of setbacks that eventually led it to resume negotiations with the union. These included a souring public reputation and an incident where two company shareholders had attempted to bribe a member of the union's bargaining committee. By mid-December, negotiations had resumed, and on December 14, a new contract was ratified, ending the strike.
The strike is considered the largest by African Americans in the state's history, and at least one historian—Marcia Walker-McWilliams—has called it the largest in Mississippi history. Per the terms of the contract, workers received wages in excess of those initially offered by the company. In addition, the previously striking employees were rehired. Concerning other agreements, the contract saw an increase in holidays, an end to the company's restrictions on restroom access, and the creation of a health and safety committee, among other things.
Background
Catfish industry in Mississippi
In the 1980s, the U.S. state of Mississippi was a center for the aquaculture of catfish. 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". This growth coincided with a growing culinary popularity of catfish in the United States. Between 1978 and 1987, the amount of farm-raised catfish meat processed in the United States rose from 22 million pounds ( million kilograms) to 280 million lb ( million kg), with a statistician for the United States Department of Agriculture saying that the amount was roughly doubling every three years. That year, sales of catfish exceeded $300 million (equivalent to $ million in ). By 1990, 37 plants had been built in the state to process the fish into meat, and approximately 6,000 Mississippians were employed in the industry. A majority of both these plants and the workers were located in the state's Mississippi Delta, a region in the western part of the state located between the Mississippi River to the west and the Yazoo River to the east. By 1990, this region had become the most productive in the United States for catfish production and processing.
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. While catfish farming operations in the Delta had begun in the 1960s, the industry experienced a boom in the 1980s. 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. Additionally, many farmers who traditionally grew either cotton or soybeans began raising catfish. Workers were also attracted to the industry due to the wages, which were considered higher on average than other industries in the region. In 1988, the average hourly wage for someone working in catfish processing was about $4 ($ in ). The workforce for the catfish industry, as well as the overall population of the Delta region during this time, was largely African American.
Delta Pride
In the late 1980s, the largest producer of processed catfish meat was Delta Pride. The company, which was founded by Samuel Hinote in 1981, was a cooperative owned by over a hundred catfish farmers in the region. Under the arrangement, the fish farmers would sell their fish to Delta Pride and share the profits received by the cooperative. Concerning the company's size and prominence, The New York Times called it the "industry wage leader" and the "General Motors" of catfish processing. In 1987, the company operated three plants, with its main facility in Indianola, a city in the Delta that had a population of around 8,000. In 1987, the company, which employed over 1,000 people, processed approximately 100 million lb ( million kg) of fish. By 1990, catfish production had become the largest industry in the city, and Delta Pride was the single largest employer in Sunflower County. The number of manufacturing jobs in the county had roughly doubled between 1980 and 1987, largely because of the catfish industry, and the county also had an unemployment rate of 11.9 percent, which was lower than the surrounding area.
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. 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. Union organizer Bobby Moses oversaw the drive, which was headquartered in Greenwood, Mississippi, and specifically targeted Delta Pride. 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. The union also worked with Black Workers for Justice, which supported the effort. In response, the company hired the New Orleans-based law firm of Kullman, Inman, Bee & Downing, to assist in advocating against unionization. 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.
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. 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". According to White, several workers were fired for being pregnant or sick. Workers could also be fired for being too slow, with supervisors often timing employees at their tasks with a stopwatch. Some workers at the plant complained of having to stand in fish entrails for several hours straight. 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. Repetitive strain injuries were also reported, with at least one employee having developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Due to the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the Delta, replacement workers for fired employees were often readily available.
One of the largest points of contention between the workers and company management concerned access to restrooms. 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. Per some employees, women workers needed to get permission before going to the restrooms and were often followed by their supervisors. Their visits were timed, with supervisors banging on the restroom door after five minutes. Additionally, the stalls lacked individual doors. 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. According to historians Angela Boswell and Judith N. McArthur, the restroom policy was the "tipping point" towards eventual labor action.
Numerous employees and commentators have compared the work environment at Delta Pride to those of the plantation complexes in the Southern United States. 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". This comparison was also highlighted by the fact that, while most of the employees were black women, most of the management was made up of white people. Additionally, some workers said that there were rumors that white male supervisors gave sexual favors of better wages or positions to female workers.
Wages