P-9 president explains issues in Hormel strike

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P-9ers speak to Boston P-gers speak to Boston rally, 4000 G.E. strikers Socialist Action/May May Gong P-9 President Jim Guyette ... P-9 (continued from page 1: “Local P-9 strikers defy all odds; take on bosses, cops, bureaucrats”) take over Local P-9. Allen Zack, a UFCW spokesman, announced that a hearing would be held April 7 in Bloomington, Minn., on placing Local P-9 in trusteeship for "refusing to comply with the parent union's direction to end the strike."

Despite being attacked from without by the enemies of working people, and stabbed in the back from within by the top labor bureaucrats, P-9 strikers and their leaders have stood firm, displaying an amazing capacity to struggle. Moreover, the strikers' capability to shut down the plant—as they did on March 20—proves that they still have what it takes to win this strike.

The hesitation of the cops to carry out more arrests when the crowd of supporters moved in with locked arms points to their fear that they might not be able to maintain control of the situation. The cops and the bosses know that a confrontation, such as began to shape up, would inspire thousands more strikers and supporters to reinforce the pickets and keep the plant indefinitely shut down.

UFCW Local P-9, in collaboration with the National Rank and File Against Concessions, has scheduled a "2nd National March and Rally to Shut Down Hormel" for Saturday, April 12, 1986, in Austin, Minn. The leaflet issued under this sponsorship correctly states:

"The rights of American Labor are on trial today in Austin, Minn. Local P-9 has been on strike for over seven months. If the Hormel Co. and the National Guard succeed in breaking the union, a terrible precedent The following are excerpts from P-9 President Jim Guyette's speech to the San Francisco P-9 support rally.

The Hormel Company is the most profitable company in the meatpacking industry. Business Week calls the Hormel company "a healthy porkpacker—the envy of the industry because of its consistent profitability."

Eight years ago the company came to the union and said, "We want to build a new plant and we need concessions in order to get that plant built." We had to agree to help them build a new plant.

Each employee took between $12,000 and $14,000 out of their paychecks to help the company build a new plant. The company agreed that people would never make less money. But they now say that that was a long time ago.

When we went on strike, what were we asking for? We were simply asking for what we were making eight years ago. We were asking for the wage rate that the will have been set. We ask you not only on behalf of P-9 members, but for all those who cherish the rights of Organized Labor to be in Austin on April 12. Let us remember that date as one where labor turned the tide against givebacks."

In addition to this call, Local P-9 has sent out a letter to unionists across the country, urging them to come to Austin earlier that week. The letter states:

"We would further invite you to come to Austin on Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11, to show support for our members on the picketlines. Those needing overnight accommodations should call the P-9 union hall (507-433-9320), where arrangements to spend these nights at a striker's home will be made.

We welcome this call to action. We urge P-9 supporters to go to Austin to help shut down the Hormel plant, and if Local P-9 BOSTON-On March 9, 260 people turned out at the hall of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 to support the Hormel strike.

The meeting was sponsored by the Boston Hormel Workers P-9 Support Committee, which also organized a 10-day Boston tour for P-9 strikers.

The rally was chaired by Brian Lang, chief steward of UFCW Local 616, which represented 600 workers from the recently closed Colonial Provision Co. plant.

Paul Cannon, former president of company had promised us when we helped them build a new plant.

We were asking to have some dignity in the work place. We didn't want to have to raise our hand anymore to go to the bathroom. We didn't want to have to be subjected to lunch-box searches.

We wanted to address the grievance and arbitration procedure, which has been totally frustrated up to this point.

We also wanted a safe place to work. The Austin plant, the newest, most modern in the industry, also has the highest productivity in the industry.

Before we went out on strike, 38 percent to 40 percent of our people were off with a serious or major lost-time injury per year. In 1984, the total injury rate for the industrial sector of America was eight injuries per hundred workers. The average injury rate in meatpacking was 33 injuries per hundred workers.

But the total injury rate in the Austin plant in 1984 was 202 injuries per hundred workers. Something's wrong in our plant decides, to keep it shut until a contract acceptable to P-9 members is won.

Class-struggle methods

P-9's course is in sharp opposition to the strategy of the top leadership of the labor In a report adopted by the AFL-CIO in early 1985, "The Changing Situation of Workers and Their Unions," the top labor officials build a case for public-relations campaigns, as opposed to the class-struggle methods that built American unions into the most powerful in the world.

The AFL-CIO report blames the decline of union power and the wave of setbacks on objective changes-the growing proportion of harder-to-organize service workers, in -creasingly hostile government and labor legislation, etc.

All who argue the PATCO Local 2 of Nashua, N.H., was the guest of honor. Local P-9 was represented A big ovation met Mark Finnerty of the striking Independent Federation of Flight Attendants.

Others who addressed the meeting were Charles Ruitter, executive board member of the International Union of Electrical Workers, which recently struck General Electric; Domenic Bozzotto, president of Hotel and Restaurant Workers Local 26; and Jim Moar, executive board member of when management is allowed to use and exploit people in this way... We wanted to make this company deal with the injury rates in the Austin plant. Instead they came back with a contract that increased the safety problems in the plant and didn't do anything to address them.

One of the things that happened before we went out on strike concerned a young lady who was working a band-saw job. The whole department was telling the manager that she couldn't keep up with the job because she was six months' pregnant. "Let's trade with her," her coworkers said.

Management said she couldn't trade. She cut her finger off a few days later. Management said it was the lucrative workers' compensation system in Minn -esota that was the ultimate reason why people get injured so much in the Austin plant!

But when they came back with our contract proposal, it eliminated pregnancy leave. That was their idea of dealing with the problem that I just outlined for you.

Management wanted the right to assign overtime and to assign holiday pay. It wanted a two-tier wage system and all past practices eliminated. It wanted the right to dismiss people at any time for any reason....It wanted to hire temporary employees with no benefits and make workers pay back for insurance benefits that they had already used....

of the 1930s is outdated are making the same mistake. It is not the objective changes which have weakened the unions and led to wave after wave of concessions. The current labor retreat is the result of a union movement weakened by nearly 40 years of timid capitulation by the labor misleadership to injunctions and laws that violate the First Amendment constitutional rights of American workers.

The call to shut down the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn., restores the best traditions of the labor movement. This is the strategy that led to victory in the 1930s and that will lead to victory today.

We urge our readers and supporters to come to Austin and help P-9 members assert their First Amendment rights to carry out an effective picket line against the Hormel company.—The Editors Teamsters Local 25.

The rally was endorsed by 24 unions. Over $1600 was raised, and 26 union locals and community groups pledged monthly contributions to P-9 families. The Boston media covered the tour.

The Hormel strikers also addressed 4000 G.E. workers at the Riverworks plant in Lynn and held meetings at Harvard and Tufts universities and Cathedral High School.-DAVE WALSH strikers united NEW YORK-More than 1000 people rallied March 14 to support the Hormel strike at the headquarters of Local 65 of the United Auto Workers. P-9 President Jim