Cudahy Packing Company (Kansas City)

Cudahy Packing Company operated one of the “Big Five” Kansas City meatpacking plants from 1895 until the 1951 flood. Established when Cudahy took over the fire-destroyed Kingman Packing site in Kansas City, Kansas, it became the setting for one of the most consequential labor actions in Kansas City history — the 1917 Cudahy strike led by 50 mostly African American women canners, which spread within a day to more than 2,000 workers across the city and forced federal arbitration. Cudahy did not reopen after the July 1951 flood.

Founding

Cudahy Packing Company entered the Kansas City market in 1895 by taking over the site of the Kingman Packing Company in Kansas City, Kansas, which had burned down that year. Cudahy reopened and expanded the plant through the early 1900s, joining Armour and Swift as the third major national packer in the Armourdale/West Bottoms district.¹ The plant sat at the west end of the Kansas Avenue Bridge, as captioned on a c.1930 aerial photograph in the Missouri Valley Special Collections;¹ the precise street address is.

Scale

By the early 1920s Cudahy Packing was the largest U.S. packer by corporate revenue, operating more than eight national plants; Kansas City was one of its principal operations.¹ KC-plant-specific employment and throughput figures are.

The 1917 Cudahy strike

On September 4, 1917, roughly 50 women canners at the Cudahy KC plant — nearly half of them African American — walked off the job demanding higher wages and an eight-hour day. Within a day the action had drawn in more than 2,000 workers across the packing district, and it spread beyond meatpacking to KC’s railroad and soap workers. The strike was resolved when a federal arbitrator forced Cudahy to raise wages and rehire the strikers.² A 1918 follow-up strike at Cudahy secured the eight-hour day and standardized overtime rules.²

The 1917 Cudahy strike is one of the most-cited examples of Black-women-led labor organizing in early-20th-century Kansas City industry, and it prefigured the durable packinghouse organizing of the 1930s and 1940s that eventually produced Armour’s 1938 sit-down strike and the recognition of the United Packinghouse Workers of America.³

Decline and closure

The Great Flood of July 1951 overtopped the Armourdale levees and inundated the packing district. Unlike Armour and Swift, Cudahy did not reopen its Kansas City plant — the flood was the decisive shutdown event for the KC operation.⁴¹

The site today lies within the Armourdale industrial district and the post-flood federal levee footprint; specific current use is.

Sources

Pendergast Kansas City — “Cudahy Packing Company,” subject page with aerial photographs and captions — Confirms: Cudahy takeover of the Kingman Packing site after the 1895 fire; “west end of the Kansas Avenue Bridge” location per the c.1930 aerial caption; Cudahy did not reopen after the 1951 flood. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Pendergast Kansas City — timeline entry, “Cudahy Meat Packers Strike (1917).” — Confirms: Sept. 4, 1917 start; ~50 women canners (nearly half African American); expansion to 2,000+ workers citywide within a day; spread to railroad and soap workers; federal arbitrator resolution requiring wage increases and rehires; 1918 follow-up strike winning the 8-hour day. ↩ ↩²
J. Herron / M. Cassity et al., “Making Meat: Race, Labor, and the Kansas City Stockyards,” Pendergast Kansas City Project — Confirms: place of the 1917 Cudahy action in the wider arc of KC packinghouse organizing. ↩
Livestock Exchange Building — “Expanded History.” — Confirms: Cudahy KC did not reopen after the 1951 flood; corroborates the plant’s status as one of the Big Five KC packers. ↩