Meatpackers mobilize to save plant
1985Jake Cooper 1985-01Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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AUSTIN, Minn.—Meatpackers here have begun a drive to counter the attempt of the George A. Hormel company to cut their wages 23 percent. On Oct. 8, after workers refused to give in to proposed concessions, the company invoked a clause in the contract that it said allowed it to lower wages to the levels paid by competitors. Wages were reduced from $10.69 to $8.25 an hour.
Hormel had threatened to close down the Austin plant in 1980, charging that it was outmoded and inefficient. The workers, however, chipped in $20 million in wage concessions and cost-of-living bonuses in order to build the present ultra-modern plant—where productivity is among the highest in the country.
Officials of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCWU) charge that Hormel is making a hefty profit at its new "flagship" facility in Austin. The plant brought in $28 million in profits last year. The local leaders argue that the concession contract agreed to between the UFCWU international leadership and the Hormel chain does not apply to them because of the 1980 wage cuts that they had already granted to the company.
Union members believe that they have been doublecrossed after the sacrifices that they made to build the new More labor news. See pp. 4-5 plant. Their bitterness brought 3000 to a boisterous protest rally on Dec. 9, and could lead to a showdown with the company when the contract expires next fall. For the present, however, the meatpackers are working at lower wages while the case is brought to an arbiter.
(continued on page 5, in “FBI condones bombings at abortion clinics”)
Jake Cooper is a former meatpacker and was a leader of the Minneapolis Teamster strikes of 1934.