Fought to improve conditions and pay for Midwest workers (Eugene Cotton, 1914-2009)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obit-cottonnov15,0,1977604.story

By Trevor Jensen Tribune reporter

November 15, 2009

Eugene Cotton represented the meatpackers union during the heyday of the Chicago stockyards and tried to better the lot of workers at a time when labor disputes were bare-knuckle affairs.

Mr. Cotton, 95, died of natural causes on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at his home in New York, said his son Richard. He had lived in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood until 2003, when he moved to Manhattan.

Mr. Cotton arrived in Chicago in 1948 as the new general counsel for the United Packinghouse Workers of America under union President Ralph Helstein.

The battles for better hours, working conditions and pay were tough ones right from the start, as evidenced by an April 1948 Chicago Tribune story recounting how a striking worker was killed as he tried to stop a truck driver from crossing the picket line.

Mr. Cotton traveled to towns and cities where hogs and cows were gathered or processed throughout the Midwest to assist with organizing efforts or to negotiate labor disputes, his son said.

In 1960, he made a five-hour argument on behalf of workers from Wilson & Co. who wanted their jobs back after a bitter six-month strike marked by violence and vandalism. Most of the workers were rehired.

FULL story at link.