Hormel Workers OK Pact, Ending Long Strike
Hormel meatpackers overwhelmingly approved a tentative contract to end a bitter, yearlong strike that fractured the union, labor leaders announced Friday night.
The contract was approved by a vote of 1,060 to 440, said Joseph T. Hansen, regional director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
‘One Giant Step’
“I believe it is one giant step to restore peace to Austin,” Hansen said in announcing the results after 6 1/2 hours of counting at the union’s regional office in Bloomington. “I think people can stop bickering down there.”
Workers who have not already returned to their jobs at the Geo. A. Hormel & Co.’s flagship plant in Austin will be allowed to return on the basis of seniority as they are needed.
Hansen said he does not know how many would be recalled or when they might return to work. The company has said it does not need more workers.
Struck Over Wages
About 1,400 Local P-9 members went on strike in August, 1985, against Hormel in a dispute over wages and benefits.
The settlement was reached last month, after a year that included a series of sometimes-violent demonstrations outside Hormel’s main plant in Austin and a feud between Local P-9 and its parent union that resulted in the dissident local’s being placed in trusteeship.
Local P-9 President Jim Guyette and other Local P-9 leaders were ousted after the local refused to obey an order by the parent union to end the strike.
The contract provides for a raise of 70 cents an hour during the next three years on a base salary of $10 an hour. In the agreement’s fourth year, wages and benefits for Austin will be tied to those at other Hormel plants.
Two-Tier System Ending
In addition, it phases out a two-tier wage system that pays new employees as much as $1.50 an hour less than senior workers doing the same job.
However, the contract does not include a return-to-work provision for up to 800 Hormel meatpackers who have not gone back to their jobs since the strike began.
The contract allows the union to establish common expiration dates in the next contract, a provision that allows union workers at eight plants to negotiate with Hormel simultaneously.
Firm Reopened Plant
Hormel reopened the plant in January with about 550 replacement workers, many of whom joined the union and were authorized to take part in the contract vote. Another 550 P-9 members crossed picket lines to reclaim their jobs.
Earlier Friday, U.S. District Judge Edward Devitt denied a motion by Guyette for a temporary restraining order to postpone the vote pending appointment of a neutral election overseer.
Guyette had argued that a neutral third party was needed to oversee the vote by the parent union. The judge disagreed.
