Chicago Labor History Tour: Haymarket / Packingtown 8:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Haymarket / Packingtown

8:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

FEE: $30 per tour (covers lunch and docents)

Haymarket

Visit to two sites related to the two-year campaign for the eight-hour day, culminating in the general strike of 1886. When a bomb was thrown at a related rally, known as the Haymarket Incident, labor leaders involved in the campaign were framed, convicted and executed. The workers' holiday known as Mayday has its roots in these events. Learn about the political culture of the day and its impact on the local labor movement and across the country.

Sites: The Haymarket Incident site and the graves of executed labor leaders at Forest Home Cemetery

Packingtown

For over a century, Chicago was often referred to as the “Hog Butcher to the World.” Learn about the repeated struggles to organize the workforce in the stockyards and packing houses during the first half of the last century, the need for integrated industrial unions, and the leadership roles Black people, women, and Latinas/os played. Discover the role of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (now part of the United Food and Commercial Workers) in the civil rights movement.

Sites: The stockyards gate, the firefighters memorial, and the packinghouse workers mural at the former UPWA District 1 headquarters

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: September 11, 2025

Pick up and drop off location: McCormick Place – 2301 S. Prairie

Bus tour service provided by AFL-CIO

Event Venue

2301 S Prairie Ave, 2301 South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, United States