The Beich candy company started in 1911 when Paul Beich purchased his own factory and decided to make candy instead of selling it. What he couldn't know then was that the consumption of candy was going to explode between the years 1914 and 1919. A study on the women employees of candy companies in Chicago and St. Louis written after the 1920 census reveals that during that time, the consumption of candy increased by 155% and the price of candy increased by 600%. This was an incredible time to be a candy manufacturer in Illinois, which was the epicenter of candy making in the United States.
Both men and women were employed by candy makers, but women were employed only in the positions of finishing the candy. Only men actually made the candy and handled the recipes, according to the 1920 study. This may have been true in Bloomington as well. Women were employed to dip the candy in chocolate and package the candy. Dipping was a skilled job however, and workers took about 6 months to gain proficiency. Women were paid less than the men in the candy factories and it seems this inequity was accepted by all parties.
In April of 1937 something changed in Bloomington. The workers at a Beich Candy joined unions and presented demands to Paul Beich, which he refused to meet. The workers wanted to have increased pay and shorter hours of work. Some of the women were working 9 hour days, six days a week. Sometimes they worked even longer hours. They demanded over time pay and a 40 hour week. Some of the work was paid by the piece, and the census study pointed out that the work would sometimes be so fast and unrelenting that women were physically affected by the strain of the work.
The workers went out on strike and shut down the plant for over two weeks. Beich said in statements to the press that he always took care of aged and indigent employees and that he paid for life insurance for his employees. He also helped employees when they were sick. He offered a 10% raise. But the workers needed more.
The strike was finally settled and the women received a gradual raise that would bring them to a minimum wage of 40 cents and men had a minimum wage of 50 cents. They also began working a 40 hour work week. This agreement was to be in place until November of the same year.
In December, once again the candy workers went out on strike. This time the strike was more confrontational. Beich wanted to take away the raises that had been granted and increase work hours. The union was still fighting to have a closed shop. When the company tried to ship out three railroad cars of candy, the women strikers prevented the engines from entering the yard, interposing their bodies between the engine and the cars of candy. On another occasion the women strikers "persuaded" truckers to give up trying to enter the company property.
A Pantagraph reporter described the scene at the candy factory this way: "Chill rain and sleet glazed the trailer and tent used by the picketing unionists. Stoves glowed inside these shelters as the picket shifts and visiting sympathizers took turns warming themselves."
The attention of the public was diverted from the strike for a few weeks when a man entered the plant and threatened warehouse workers with an iron pipe. Russell Taylor was arrested and placed in jail. Although he was accompanied by two other men during the trespass, little effort seemed to be made to identify or locate those men. At his hearing it was revealed that Taylor had plead guilty to arson in a case in Springfield. He finally plead guilty to intimidation, and the remaining charges, including a perjury charge, were dismissed, with leave to reinstate them. He was released with a fine of $100.
In the meantime, the entire city of Bloomington was still very concerned about the strike. Beich Candy was one of the most important businesses in Bloomington and having the factory shut down was a black eye for Bloomington. Finally, the mayor suggested that the parties meet with him in an effort to end the strike. The first attempt ended in failure, but on February 3, 1938, after a 9 hour meeting between the union officials for the candy workers, the machinists and the teamsters, and Otto Beich and attorneys, an agreement was reached. (Paul Beich had died in 1937 of an undisclosed physical illness.) The workers would have an eight hour work day, with paid overtime. The women would have a minimum wage of 37 1/2 cents per hour and the men a minimum of 50 cents. The standard work week would be 44 hours long and at long last, the Beich candy factory would be a closed union shop.
Fifty years later the union was celebrating fifty years of harmony and good dealings with Beich Candy. The union never had a strike in those fifty years and felt that their relationship with management was excellent!