🧑🏭 This antique Union Workman tobacco label is a bold slice of early Detroit industry, printed for Scotten, Dillon Co. around the 1910s and designed to wrap a 2 oz plug of “Sweet Long Cut Smoke or Chew, Burley Tobacco.” Detroit Historical Society dates this exact wrapper style to about 1910, putting it squarely in the pre‑WWI era of plug and chewing tobacco. At roughly 12 1/4" x 4 1/4", it survives as crisp new old stock (NOS) that was never wrapped around a package.

🏭 Scotten, Dillon grew out of Daniel Scotten’s mid‑1800s tobacco business and became one of Detroit’s major manufacturers, turning out millions of pounds of plug, chewing, and smoking tobacco as the city’s factories and rail lines boomed. Brands like Union Workman were aimed squarely at the everyday laborer—factory hands, railroad men, and shop workers looking for a mild, sweet Burley they could either smoke in a pipe or chew on the job. The side panels spell it out in plain language: “Sweet Chew” on one edge, “Pleasant Smoke” on the other.

🎨 The design is pure early‑1900s advertising. A black ornamental frame surrounds the main panel, with UNION WORKMAN shouting from the top and Sweet Long Cut Smoke or Chew curled along the bottom. A green BURLEY TOBACCO box in the center pops against the bright yellow background. It is exactly the look meant to stand out in a dim general store or depot, when a strong color and a few hard‑working words were all the brand had to sell itself.

📜 Most wrappers like this were torn open and tossed once the tobacco was gone. Unused labels survived only as printer or warehouse over‑runs—extra stacks put aside when tax rules, weights, or designs changed, then forgotten in storage for decades. That is why NOS pieces feel so fresh today: they show you the Union Workman brand as it actually looked in the 1910s, not as a modern re‑creation.

🖼️ Framed, this Union Workman label acts like a small poster. The tall, narrow format and bright yellow field make it perfect for a bar, cigar room, office, or industrial‑style loft. The “UNION WORKMAN” name also makes it a natural fit alongside labor history, Detroit factory photos, tools, and railroad memorabilia.

📏 Approximate size 12 1/4" x 4 1/4". Original 1910s Union Workman Sweet Long Cut Smoke or Chew Burley Tobacco wrapper, printed by Scotten, Dillon Co., Detroit, Mich., unused NOS label—authentic century‑old tobacco advertising, not a modern reprint.