COMMERCIAL
FOODWAYS: HEINZ
The
H. J. Heinz Company was originally the Heinz & Noble Company
that started in the Pittsburgh area. In 1875 after the Bank
Scare, the Heinz family got back into the business and started
the company that we know today. Their first product was Horseradish
sauce served in a clear bottle to show to the customers that
they did not add any fillers to their sauce like their competitors
did. Since then, the Heinz company has grown into an international
market with all of their “57” products.
From
1920 to 1975, the Heinz Company made a huge impact on Wood
County when they operated a factory in the city of Bowling
Green. The factory was located between Ridge Street and Reed
Street. The factory was one block wide and two blocks long.
The Heinz plant chose this location due to a policy enacted
by the city of Bowling Green during the oil boom. This policy
provided free gas to any factory to promote economic growth.
During its time of operation, the plant employed one hundred
employees throughout the year and over one thousand seasonal
employees from August to around the beginning of October when
the first frost hit. The Heinz factory would get many of their
seasonal employees from Southeastern Ohio and West Virginia.
These workers were told to pack nothing because everything
that they would need would be supplied for them. The Heinz
Company did provide room and board, however the workers had
to pay for it. The male employees did all of the heavy manual
work such as carrying hundred pound bags of sugar, moving
heavy crates, and moving plants in and around the company
greenhouse. The female employees at Heinz did all of the low
impact work such as sterilizing and filling the ketchup bottles,
putting on the labels and screwing on the caps.
The employees worked eight hour days during the off season.
However, during the peak season, employees were forced to
work until the day’s work was done. This would mean
that workers would have to stay at work until at least midnight
or to one or two in the morning and then have to show up the
next day to start their shift at six o’clock am.
During
the Great Depression, the Heinz Company had to cut the employees’
wages to stay in business. This caused quite a stir in the
community and reeked havoc on the competition for the jobs.
There was so much commotion around the plant including an
arsine fire that destroyed three buildings and many supplies
and tools that the mayor of Bowling Green decided to move
the hiring of Heinz employees to the City Building. Additionally,
the mayor made three Heinz employees police officers to patrol
the factory and made it mandatory to only hire to Wood County
residents. All of these changes were made by the city to keep
the riots down and most importantly to keep Heinz happy and
in town.
In 1941, the Heinz factory became unionized. It all started
when ten girls were fired for no reason. The next day a man
walked around the factory casually asking the workers if they
wanted to meet in Waterville to discuss having a union. That
night everyone from the factory was there and they all agreed
that it was in their best interest. The workers’ lawyer
sent a return receipt letter to the Heinz management that
stated the workers want for a union. The response from Heinz
was that the only union that they would have was, “the
Heinz Union.” The workers ended up going on a three
day strike that ended on August 13, 1941 with Heinz giving
into a union. Much pressure was put on Heinz to quickly agree
with having a union because the tomato harvest was ready to
come in.
In the 1940’s during WWII, Heinz began to support the
war efforts at home. According to Bessie Roebke, a former
Heinz employee, “…1943 everything was cleaned
out of Heinz, the front part and we packed K-rations for the
soldier boys for nearly two years.” The Heinz factory
was also affected by the war since it lost most of its male
employees to fighting in the war. Heinz fixed this problem
by busing German and Italian POW’s daily from Camp Perry,
near Port Clinton in Ottawa County. In 1945 Heinz decided
to build a temporary POW camp on East Poe Road where the Sentinel
Tribune and the Ohio Employment Service Building is today.
The POW’s lived in 10 x 20 foot wooden buildings that
housed forty to fifty prisoners.
The
Heinz factory closed in 1957 and transferred to Fremont in
Sandusky County due to the extra cost incurred by the upgrade
in the Bowling Green’s city sewage infrastructure. Their
fees jumped from $55,000 a year to $390,000 a year.
There
were a series of fires that occurred after the old Heinz factory
closed. On December 11th, 1980 a great fire started that left
nothing of the buildings standing with the exception of the
cement foundation.
Submitted
by Melissa Hill
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