Title: Rosemary Feurer Audio-visual materials on the Staley Lockout, 1992-1995
Collection identifier: 954
Primary Creator: Feurer, Rosemary
Extent: 2.3 cubic feet
Subjects: A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, Labor, Labor unions, Macon County--Decatur (Ill.)
Forms of Material: Documentaries
Rosemary Feurer received a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1997. Feurer began teaching at Northern Illinois University in 1995, and primarily researches United States history, labor movements, and social movements. Her documentary Deadly Corn: Workers at A.E. Staley, Decatur, Illinois Fight for a Just Workplace (1993) received the Missouri Video Festival Documentary Excellence Award in 1995.
In the early 1990s, Decatur, Illinois, became the epicenter of the labor movement in the United States. Following months of strikes in various production plants in central Illinois, the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company in Decatur extended the 8-hour workday to 12 and added stipulations to workers' contracts, which quickly stoked pushback from their staff. On June 27, 1993, Staley locked out approximately 760 workers from the plant and filled it with temporary replacements, an event known as the "Staley Lockout." The lockout stirred up a three-year legal and social battle throughout the state, and later the country, that thousands of United States workers participated in and that drew international attention. In December of 1995, union leaders in Decatur accepted the contract proposed by Staley in what was seen as a defeat.
Repository: Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
Acquisition Source: Rosemary Feurer donated this collection to the Library in 2007.
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/ihlcsfa/feurer.pdf
PDF finding aid for Rosemary Feurer Audio-visual materials on the Staley Lockout
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