The Nation - News from Aug. 18, 1986

Several hundred unemployed meatpackers brought their families to a picnic marking the anniversary of their strike against Geo. A. Hormel & Co. at Austin, Minn. Jan Butts, president of Austin Support Group, which organized the outing, said that “the struggle (against pay cuts) is not over.” About 500 of the 1,500 members of United Food and Commercial Workers’ Local P-9, which struck Hormel’s slaughterhouse a year ago, have returned to the reopened plant; hundreds of others have been replaced in their jobs. The parent union withdrew its support of the walkout in May, but has continued weekly contract meetings with Hormel.