Cannery Decline

Title

Cannery Decline

Description

At the height of the fruit season during WWII, canneries operated seven days a week with shifts as long as eleven or twelve hours per day. After World War II, demand for canned fruit rapidly declined, leaving owners holding large loans that had been taken out to expand productivity. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, orchards and fields were being replaced by business and research parks and housing developments, creating the emerging Silicon Valley. Changes occurred also when the Teamsters Union took cannery representation away from the AFL, and when Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1967) required that jobs could not be classified as “male” or “female” work. By 1976, because most cannery jobs were unionized, women were receiving wage, medical, holiday, and retirement benefits. Although their benefits were still lower than men’s, women found cannery work offered stability, allowing many to become homeowners.

When fruit processing operations began to decline in the 1970s, the growth of manufacturing in the electronics industry and new housing tracts provided opportunities for displaced workers in construction, railroads, warehouse, and assembly work. Unfortunately, these new jobs were not comparable to the higher-wage union jobs in the canning industry. For many workers, the cannery closures meant the end of secure jobs with benefits and the long-term working relationships they had created. By 1987, only eight canneries existed in the valley, the era ended when, in 1999, Del Monte closed its largest cannery, Plant #3, the site of the 1893 San Jose Fruit Packing Company.

Additional Online Information

Del Monte Cannery Last Day

Identifier

B4SV Exhibit Topic Three: Slide 021