Mass picketing can win! All labor must beat back

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scabs, National Guard "All the people in the country have been sliding backwards. It's time labor takes a stand. The American people are done giving. They have to have a way to say 'This is enough' And that's what's happening here."—Richard Waller, a packinghouse worker for 19 years at Hormel's plant in Austin, Minn.

AUSTIN, Minn.—On Jan. 21, one day after the striking P-9 packinghouse workers had used their militant force to keep scabs from entering the Hormel plant here, Democratic Gov. Rudy Perpich called out the National Guard to allow the company to reopen its plant.

Striking workers had planned to use the same tactic of blocking all plant entrances with their cars the following day. But this time the 800 National Guardsmen sealed off all access gates to the plant and created a cordoned route through which the scabs could pass. Eight strikers, who were attempting to defend their jobs, were brutally dragged from their cars and beaten by the guardsmen when they failed to make way for the scabs.

Reflecting the outrage of the striking members of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Jim Guyette, the president of the union local, denounced the governor's decision "to run strikebreakers into the plant." Guyette draw the line against the concessions demanded by the companies and to beat back the wholesale attacks on the unions throughout the country.

Hormel reopens plant

Local P-9's five-month strike against the Geo. A. Hormel & Co. has national importance. The meatpacking industry has been able to gouge concessions from the UFCW which have lowered wages and resulted in massive layoffs and a grave deterioration of working conditions and safety for the workers. The P-9 members have stood firm against the employer attacks and have shown the labor movement that concessions can and must be resisted.

Since Aug. 17, the 1500 P-9 members have been on strike against Hormel's demands to cut wages, gut the seniority system, introduce a two-tier system for new hires, and increase speedup on the job with no concern for safety.

The Austin packinghouse workers have had experience with such concessions demands before. In 16 out of the last 23 years they have taken concessions. Not Jake Cooper is the chairman of the food committee of the Metro P-9 Strike Support Committee. A former packinghouse work -er, he is also a veteran of the Minneapolis 1934 Teamsters strike.

Homela FAST BANT long ago, there was a workforce of 7000 and a town of 32,000. Sixteen concessions later there are only 1540 workers left in a town of 22,000.

And although the Austin plant is barely three years old, it is also one of the most dangerous in the industry. The injury rate average for 1984 in the meatpacking industry was 33 injuries per hundred workers. In 1984, the injury in Austin was 202 injuries per 100 workers.

Soon after the strike began, Hormel was forced to close its Austin plant. It was able to shift most of its production, however, to its seven other plants. To do this, it! demanded overtime from workers in these plants.

But soon the company began to prepare for the day when it could reopen its Austin plant. A few months into the strike, supervisory employees began crossing the picket lines. With 200 such employees, How you The packinghouse workers at the Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in Austin, Minn., have given up concessions in 16 of the last 23 years. The workforce has dwindled from 7000 to 1540. The injury rate at the plant is six times the national average.

Because they have said "no" to Hormel's scheme to impose further cuts in their working and living conditions, the mem -bers of P-9 are facing the combined power of the government, courts, cops, and now, the National Guard P-9 mass picketing stopped the scabs. The determination of the striking union has already inspired an unprecedented out -pouring of labor and community support in the Twin Cities area. With the help of working people in the surrounding com -munities, they can overcome the scabherding National Guard too.

Everyone knows the stakes in this strike: A P-9 victory can start to turn back the concessions tide; a defeat would have the opposite effect. This emergency requires special efforts. Contingents from surround -ing cities must be organized to help build powerful picket lines.

Workers all over America can and will help. Our solidarity can produce political support and material aid more powerful than all the court injunctions and bayonets Hormel can buy.

What can be done to help:

1. Union members and other friends can organize to send teams of unemployed sisters and brothers, as well as those able to take off from work a day, to help picket or do whatever the striking union requires.

2. Resolutions should be passed in unions or community organizations demanding the withdrawal of the National Guard from Austin and expressing full support to the P-9 strikers. Send copies to Local P-9 in Austin, Minn., and to Gov. Rudy Perpich, State Capitol, St. Paul, Minn. 55155.

3. Money should be collected to help sustain P-9 members and their families. P9 members are currently receiving only $40 per week in strike benefits. Every local union should pledge regular weekly contributions. Start immediately with a collection for money and food and send it to United Support Group, P-9 Emergency Hardship Fund, 316 Fourth Ave., NE, Austin, Minn. 55912. Or better still, bring it in person!

Supplement February 1986

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explained to a union meeting that night that the P-9 strike was an opportunity to

UNFAIR 'UNION OLIDARITY 'USTIN, MN

HORMEL P-9 STRIKE Socialist Action/Mike Zukowski