Strike by Local P-9 of their with the company clearly prepared to destroy the union, for support
P-9 is mushrooming daily.
Union locals, primarily in the stirs US labour mid west, and some union leaders have bucked the official line of the labor movement to offer substantial material support to the workers. Local P-9 is also holding firm, exhibiting willingness to compromise about wage rates but sticking to its
A MAJOR battle over the question of how trade-unions should respond to the capitalist offensive has been being fought out for the last eight months in Austin, Minnesota. Most of the American unions have followed a policy of "concessions" or "givebacks," that is, voluntarily surrendering gains made in the past by the workers in the name of preserving jobs.
A hard-driving management in the Geo. Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin finally forced the local union, Local P-9 of the United
Food and Commercial Workers Union to stand and fight by trying to continue to cut wages, gut the seniority system and introduce a two- tier system for new hires.
The prolonged strike has attracted national attention within the US, as well as international attention, from the British business magazine,
The Economist, for example.
Because of high unemployment in the area, scabs are a big problem, and the strike has been very hard fought. A national solidarity movement is growing up in the United States.
ROGER HOROWITZ
A seven-month strike by 1,500 packinghouse workers in the small town of Austin, Minnesota, has produced the biggest controversy in the
US labor movement today. Determined to resist concessions, members of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commerical Workers (UFCW)
have travelled across seeking support for their strike and have received a tremendous response from rank-and-file workers and union locals in a variety of industries. Yet, president Lane
AFL-CIO has called the strike "suicidal." And the president of UFCW has attacked
P-9 in the press, calling their main
"Ayatollah of strike
Austin."
At a national rally in Austin on
February 15, supporters of P-9 came from the auto plants of California, the iron range of Minnesota, the shops of Detroit and the machine communication industry of New York
City to support the P-9 strike. Instead of the mass-produced signs which predominate at "official" union rallies, these unionists carried a wealth of hand-lettered placards expressing support for P-9 and opposition to the
Hormel company. Many told stories of being pressured by their international union to stay away from Austin
International Viewpoint 7 April 1986 and the P-9 strike. Regardless, over 2,000 marched to support the Austin Hormel workers, including official representatives of dozens of local
At the rally in Austin's high-school auditorium, President Henry Nichols of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Workers spoke for the workers who support P-9 when he declared "we believe that this strike is not only important for your industry, but is important for rank and file throughout these United are looking with expectation for you to win because your struggle embodies their feelings, their thinking, and their commitment."
The strike began in August 1985, and the conflict escalated in January when the George A. Hormel Company tried to re-open their plant. For several days, massive picket lines prevented scabs from entering the facility; but when 800 National Guardsmen closed off the highway and created a safe corridor, the company was able to bring 1,000 workers back into the plant. The union has used other militant tactics to hinder the operation of the plant, but the presence of the military has tipped the balance of forces in favor of the primary contractual demand of retaining the seniority system.
The reason for the tenacity of this small local is that the Hormel workers are struggling to hold onto the basic benefits they won in the 1930s and mill prevent a retur to the conditions of the non-union era. In the opinion of union founder Casper Winkels, the most important issue "is their seniority. I know what it is like to not have seniority. The only time you get a decent job is if you take the boss out and buy him drinks. That's the way it used to be in the old days before we had our union."
P-9 has joined a long line of local unions which have resisted the retreat of the labor movement before the combined pressures of business and government. Unlike many of these unions, however, P-9 spent months planning its strike and has stuck to its decision with extraordinary tenacity. Thus, workers in other industries have rallied to its defense in hopes that a victory could start to turn the tide to the side of labor. The origins of Local P-9
Union-organizing efforts at Hormel in the early 1930s were prompted not only by low wages, but also by insecurity of employment and abusive treatment by foremen. Periodie layoffs made it impossible for workers to maintain a regular income, and of liquor or free labor to supervisors were necessary to could do little about continual sexual surfaced among workers in the hog kill, and crystallized when they established contact with Frank Ellis, a long-time member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Hundreds attended a series of mass meetings over the summer of 1933, and the union rapidly signed up virtually the entire workforce.
In November 1933 the union struck Hormel and shut it down for three days, removing all personnel from the plant and blockading the
11
with union pickets. Subsequent negotiations resulted in union recognition, a wage increase, and establishment of a seniority system in promotion and lay-offs.
departmental sit-downs closed shop in 1937, and in 1940 and Hormel signed an agreement providing for a guaranteed annual wage and a mandatory oneyear notice prior to layoffs.
Under Ellis' influence, the Hormel workers initially adopted the IWW
"one big union." packinghouse workers in Iowa, southern Minnesota, and South
Paul, as well as other workers in the towns of Austin and Albert Lee. After joining the future United (UPWA) in 1937, the local continued organizing in this area, funded by donations from the Austin workers and not the UPWA central office.
The rapid success of the union was due in part to its relationship with company president Jay Hormel, a lifelong resident of Austin. The company was founded in 1891 by his
George A. Hormel, who ruled it ruthlessly until retiring and passing the presidency to Jay in 1929. Thirtyseven years old at the time, Jay ran the company in the style of his father until the 1933 strike. Stunned by the
Jay decided reach an accomodation with the union soon after it was organized, rather than fight it.
The motor behind the amicable that developed between and union after 1940 was the combined guaranteed annual wage incentive system. P-9 demonstrators in Austin (DR)
basic hourly rate was automatically pegged at the level of the workers in
"Big Four" chains of Wilson and the guaranteed annual wage calculated on the basis of 52 weeks of 38 hours at that level. In addition to this wage, bonuses, if their gang produced above by negotiations union and company. many workers this meant earnings of 50 per cent over the guaranteed wage, making them among the highest workers in the meatpacking industry. Roots of the current conflict
The company-union relationship started to deteriorate after the death of Jay Hormel in 1956 when a new leadership took over the daily operation of the firm. Dubbed workers, these new company officials were hard-nosed managers from newer plants in the plains states who held particular loyalty They rapidly expanded the Hormel chain and started to tighten controls
Hormel local started giving concessions as far back as 1963, of higher production which reduced the incentive earnings of workers. This erothroughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978, in order to exact a company commitment to build a new plant in Austin, the local agreed to abandon the incentive system and signed an agreement not to strike for three WE
BACK
years after the completion of the new facility.
The pressures for concessions coincided with a vacuum of leadership within the local. Since the 1940s, the union had been led by local president Frank Schultz who recognized that bargaining with the company was a test of strength, and not a parties with the discussion between same interests. After a long illness, he was voted out of the presidency of Local 9 in 1969 and succeeded by a series of weak union leaders.
Accompanying these problems in Austin, turmoil in the meatpacking industry in the 1960s and 1970s transformed the structure of packinghouse unionism. In the early 1960s, new meatpacking Iowa Beef Processors built new plants in rural areas and effectively destroyed the hold of the Big Four on the industry. Devastated by plant closures in its urban strongholds, the UPWA merged with its old arch-rival, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Butcher Workmen, in 1968. Further consolidation in the meat industry prompted the Meat Cutters to merge with the retail clerks in 1978, forming the current United Food and Commercial Workers union. By this time, unionized packinghouses had been reduced to a shrinking minority in the industry.
These developments left the Austin unionists (as well as other packinghouse workers) with an international union overwhelmingly based in retail trade, not meatpacking, and hence less responsive to their concerns. Left without much assistance from their international, packinghouse unions have suffered one defeat
P-9
•LOUD
AND
MARTIAL
International Viewpoint 7 Apr
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p-9 LAN P-9 PROUT AUSTIN p-9 LOUD AND - PROU 12 A LOUD AND PROUD
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P
after another in the past five years.
In the early 1980s, the
Guyette leadership vacuum and tried to turn the Austin local against the concessions.
UNITED FOOD AND allies to move into leadership posts COMMERCIAL WORKERS UNION of Local P-9 in this crisis was due in part to a demographic transformaof the Hormel workforce. The company has hired in distinct waves, hired between 1945 and 1952, 300 between 1965 and 1970, and 1,000 hired after the new plant opened (on the grounds of the old
BETWEEN
A ROCK
HARD one) in 1982.
Guyette was hired in 1968, and HORMEL his leadership team is largely generation"
workers plus a few older associates
His main base, however, is generation." never experienced the collaborative relationship between the union and Jay Hormel.
Guyette reportedly began to make a name for himself in the 1970s by
1980, he was narrowly elected to the local's executive board in a three-way race. In late 1983, Guyette became the local's president by defeating pro-UFCW administration
In his 1984 "State of the Union" address, Guyette sounded the themes reflect the outlook of P-9 workers toward their struggle. Emphasizing the good treatment of the workers by Jay Hormel and how this benefitted the argued that in resisting the union was struggling members, their families and the future of their community. Union with one button reading "For Your
Mine, Support Local and another popular sign stating simply, "Jay Hormel Cared."
The local started on the path toward its current strike rank-and-file meeting rejected concessions accepted by other Hormel
September 1984, the Austin local out of the P-9 was unable to join in a company-wide strike at because it was still saddled with one year of its no-strike ment. As a result, Hormel unilaterally cut wages in Austin from 10.69 to prepared for the seemingly inevitable
Leafletting teams travelled Minnesota, parts of Wisconsin, spreading information on the impending conflict.
International Viewpoint 7 April 1986 and P-9 hired campaign strategist Ray Rogers to planning for the implementation of
P-9 rejected Hormel's final offer and struck in September 1985, more than 69 cents was at stake.
The proposal submitted by Hormel eliminated the main contractual provisions won by the union in the 1930s:
the one-year layoff notice and job placement in accordance with seni-
In addition, Hormel wanted to add a new clause prohibiting the duration of the agreement and allowing the company to discharge workers who engaged in job actions. The contract also provided for a two-tier wage system, a 30 per cent reduction in pensions and a common labor wage of 9.25 US dollars with no increases over three years. Maternity leave was also eliminated.
In effect, the company was trying the level of company control that had existed prior to 1933. In the opinion of Casper Win-
"They'd be worse off than they were when they organized in 1933 if they took what • [Hormel's] last contract offered them. They'd be in worse shape than before we had our union. A lot worse."
With strikebreakers in the plant, P-9 has sought to escalate its confrontation with Hormel rather than give in. It has called for a boycott of Hormel products and sent roving pickets to other company facilities to shut them down. The P-9 pickets closed the company's Ottumwa, Iowa, plant for several days, and interfered with production for briefer periods
Hormel responded by firing 500 workers in Ottumwa; the plant there is still shut down.
The ability of P-9 to avert a disastrous defeat is greatly hindered by the resistance of the AFL-CIO to the local union's aggressive stategy.
The UFCW has opposed the roving picket teams of P-9 and instructed local unions to ignore requests financial assistance. The AFL-CIO has fallen in line by refusing to sanction the Hormel boycott and attacking
P-9 in the press.
At this point, P-9's strategy is to company to rehire all the workers and seniority system. Hormel currently is
Austin plant at anywhere near full the hog-kill and cut gangs, skilled jobs which take six months to one year to learn. Without big production from these the company cannot make a profit hopes to make Hormel compromise through a combination of restricted production from Hormel plants and the boycott.
Win or lose, the P-9 strike is likely to be a watershed for the labor movement. It has inspired the unionized rank and file to buck their international union leaders and to use the resources of local unions in a variety of industries in order to support this
History may bear out the opinion
Paul packinghouse worker Bud Schulte, who said that the P.9 strike is "a turning point in the way labor views concessions. They no longer believe the corporate idea that workers must take concessions in order to see their plant survive They found out that that isn't true. Workers have taken concession after concession, yet plants have closed. They'd been lied to long enough and people just don't believe that anymore."
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INTERNATIONAL
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Owatonna People's Press