Considers legislation to transfer to FTC from USDA jurisdiction over unfair and monopolistic trade practices in the meatpacking industry.

Cattle pricing is part of the overall procurement process packers use to obtain the types of cattle that will produce beef to satisfy customers. pp. Meatpackers gather information from published price reports, internal operations, customers, other packers, and many other sources. The head buyer then sets an overall buy order from which field buyers negotiate with individual producers, taking account of cattle characteristics, ability of seller to negotiate, competition from other packers, transportation, and other factors.

"Here is a piece of history not found in conventional textbooks. If ever there were a book our young needed, it is Meatpackers-it reveals an epoch in which trade unions fought and won whatever rights working people possess today. With these rights constantly imperiled, this book is mandatory reading." --Studs Terkel "The stories are dramatically and richly told, and they offer insights no scholarly study can quite adequately provide." --Peter Rachleff, Journal of American History Available for the first time in paperback, Meatpackers provides an important window into race and racism in the American workplace. In their own words, male and female packinghouse workers in the Midwest-mostly African-American-talk of their experiences on the shop floor and picket lines. They tell of their fight between the 1930s and 1960s for economic advancement and racial equality. In cities like Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Fort Worth, and Waterloo, Iowa, meatpackers built a union that would defend their interests as workers-and fight for their civil rights.