Slaughterhouses, Butchers Reach Tentative Accord

Union butchers reached a tentative three-year agreement Wednesday afternoon with five Vernon-area slaughterhouses in a strike that both sides agree had little effect on Southern California consumers.

Terms of the agreement, which was reached at 1:30 p.m. after a four-hour bargaining session, were not disclosed.

A ratification vote was scheduled for Friday morning. Union negotiators are recommending that the union approve the agreement.

If the rank-and-file concur, they could return to work as soon as Monday, said Dan Swinton, a spokesman for the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 274, which represents the workers.

About 260 butchers, who rejected a management proposal that would have cut their wages and benefits, went on strike April 7. None have crossed the picket lines, according to the union. Management confirms that slaughtering has been halted.

Before the strike, the packing companies together slaughtered 1,500 head of cattle a day, comprising 25% of Southern California’s meat consumption, according to Philip Bauer, president of Federal Meat Co., the largest of the five packing houses.

But both sides concede that no meat shortages have been caused by the strike, because stores have been able to bring in beef from other parts of the state or from outside California.

Moreover, some of the larger grocery chains--such as Safeway Stores and Ralphs--have their own slaughterhouses outside California and were not directly affected. Other supermarket firms--like Vons--receive their beef from independent packing houses in the Midwest.

Bauer blamed competition from such packing houses for putting Los Angeles butchers out of business. He said big-city labor costs keep his prices too high. Twenty years ago, he said, there were 35 slaughterhouses in the Vernon area. Now, he said, there are five.

“Both sides were in a desperate fix,” said Alan V. Friedman, attorney for the employers. “Management was hurting, the workers were on picket lines, and meat was still on the shelves in stores.”

Swinton, the union spokesman, said pressure was brought to end the strike when Teamsters Local 63, which trucks the meat from the slaughterhouses to stores, announced Tuesday that it would honor the picket lines beginning next Monday if the strike was not settled.

The last formal management offer, rejected by the workers April 5, would have cut their pay by 30 cents an hour and would have reduced medical coverage, pension benefits, holidays, vacations and sick pay. Friedman said that management “closed the gap,” but he declined to elaborate. Most workers earned between $6 and $9 an hour before the strike.

Workers for the slaughterhouses accepted a 63.5-cent-per-hour cut in pay to resolve a one-week strike in 1983.