Hormel strike Aug. 1985-June 1986 The two-front labor war in Austin (Raygun years)

[Omaha Steve]

Hormel Co. - Strikes P-9 Picketer is Larry Clark

http://www.startribune.com/hormel-strike-aug-1985-june-1986the-two-front-labor-war-in-austin/313924351/

The foreshadowing, punctuated with the crash of shattered glass, came 52 years earlier. Frustrated workers in the hog kill department at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn., went on strike in 1933.

When the company hired replacement workers to start up a sheep kill line, 400 strikers with clubs and rocks shattered glass doors and chased out the so-called scabs. Some of the militant strikers burst into a meeting and told Jay Hormel, “We’re taking possession. So move out.” Four days later, the plant was back in operation and the meatpackers’ union was stronger than ever.

The more famous strike in Austin — 30 years ago this summer — was neither that quick nor effective for organized workers. Local P-9, a fiercely independent, 1,500-member pocket of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, clashed with company honchos and its own international leaders. The beyond-bitter clash tore apart families in the southern Minnesota town of 22,000. The National Guard and local police came in with dogs, Mace and tear gas.

But union leaders were more than the heads of a local: They were local. P-9 President Jim Guyette was born and raised in Austin and began working for Hormel in 1968 — 17 years before he led the strike.

FULL story at link.

[B Calm]

1. Thanks, I remember that strike on the national news.

[marym625]

2. K&R!

[tammywammy]

3. There's a great documentary, American Dream, about the strike.

Highly recommend it.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. I worked as union labor in the meat packing industries in the 1970s. Good wages.

That was the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers of America.

I worked at IBP in Dakota City, Nebraska. (Right next to Sioux City, Iowa; North Sioux City, South Dakota; and South Sioux City, Nebraska.)

That's when I first met Mexicans, too. The white guys were complaining about how hard the work was, and the Mexican guys were grinning and saying "facil dinero."

My son worked in the industry in the 1990s, after they broke the unions. His real wages were about half of what mine were.

[jwirr]

7. My brother was the last white laborer in the pack at Heartley Iowa. Taught his replacements the

job because he was the only one there who knew every machine. Was let go because he did not speak Spanish. He was not happy but in hindsight he was ready to retire. I suspect that the workers there now are not making anywhere near to what he was making.

[BainsBane]

5. As a Minnesotan, I remember this well

It seemed to be a turning point in anti-union sentiment, at least here in MN.

[jwirr]

6. Really powerful pic. One lone man standing up to TPB. And he won.