Rehirings at Flagship Hormel Plant Seen

The tentative contract between meatpackers and Geo. A. Hormel & Co. would lead to the rehiring of most workers fired from the company’s flagship plant in a bitter, yearlong dispute, union leaders said Thursday.

The tentative master contract would raise wages by 70 cents an hour over three years for up to 4,000 Hormel workers at eight plants, including the Austin, Minn., flagship plant, union officials told a news conference in Bloomington.

Meanwhile, an arbitrator ordered Hormel to rehire 500 union meatpackers fired in January for refusing to cross picket lines at its Ottumwa, Iowa, plant in support of striking colleagues in Minnesota.

Des Moines Meeting

The ruling came less than 12 hours after the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Hormel agreed in Des Moines, Iowa, on the tentative master contract.

Union negotiator Joe Hansen predicted that all eight locals will approve the agreement, which did not include Ottumwa, and said he expects most of the 800 Austin, Minn., Local P-9 workers, who have been on strike since Aug. 17, 1985, to return to work.

Chicago attorney Burt Luskin, appointed by the union and Hormel to arbitrate the Ottumwa dispute, ruled that the company must rehire 507 meatpackers from Local 431 before Sept. 15. But he said the workers are not entitled to back pay because their action amounted to an illegal work stoppage.

Some May Not Be Rehired

Charles Nyberg, Hormel’s senior vice president, said some fired workers may not be recalled because the meatpacker has no plans to reopen its Ottumwa slaughtering facilities, which were shut in January, and no plans to increase production in the plant’s processing division.

“There are a number of options,” he said. “Layoff is one of them.”

Lewie Anderson, vice president of the UFCW, said a two-tier wage system at the Austin plant, begun when non-union workers were hired at lower wages to replace striking workers, would gradually be eliminated. He said he expects the eight locals to approve the agreement by Sept. 7.

In addition to workers in Austin, who will have a four-year contract, the pact also covers meatpackers at Hormel plants in Beloit, Wis.; Fremont, Neb.; Algona, Iowa; Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; and Charlotte, N.C., for three years.