Strikers ‘Totally Take Over’ Hormel Gates

AUSTIN, Minn. —  Striking meatpackers who have twice blocked roads leading to the Geo. A. Hormel & Co.’s main plant “totally took over” when the plant opened Saturday, and one person was arrested, authorities said.

Meanwhile, the union’s leaders planned to meet and discuss a fact-finder’s report on a contract proposal for ending the 5 1/2-month-old walkout.

Cars parked in a no-parking area near the plant were ticketed after about 60 strikers and supporters gathered on the road outside the plant’s north gate and yelled “Scab!” at workers who drove past the picket lines to enter.

Authorities said that tires were slashed, a tail light was kicked in and the demonstrators jumped on or rocked some of the cars entering the gate, but no injuries were reported.

“They (strikers) totally took over this morning,” Mower County Sheriff Wayne Goodnature said. “We’re just not going to put up with it.”

A group of about 30 strikers and supporters also demonstrated at the plant’s south gate, and company officials opened other entrances to arriving workers.

Goodnature said that one person was arrested, booked on a misdemeanor complaint of blocking the road to the plant and released. Nine persons were arrested a week earlier when they tried to use their cars to block a highway leading to the plant.

Goodnature, Police Chief Donald Hoffman and Austin Mayor Tom Kough asked that National Guard troops stationed at the Austin Armory, about two miles away, be returned to the plant Saturday, but Hoffman said that the troops were not moved in because the protest had already broken up when guard leaders evaluated the situation. Mayor Kough is a striking member of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

About 500 guardsmen were moved from the plant to the armory Wednesday.

Jim Guyette, leader of hundreds of union members whose blockade forced the plant to close its gates Friday morning, was pessimistic about the meeting on the analysis of the latest contract offer.

“I don’t think this proposal addresses anything,” he said. “I certainly could not agree that it would serve the needs of our members, but the rank and file determines what happens.”

The report of a neutral fact-finder, Arnold Zack, clarified a mediator’s proposal that was twice rejected by Local P-9 members. Zack also recommended that the union vote on the mediator’s proposal again.

Strike leaders, however, have said that Zack’s report offers no real changes from the rejected mediator’s proposal.

About 1,500 Hormel workers have been on strike since Aug. 17. The dispute began after the company cut wages 23% in October, 1984, so that its base wage fell from $10.69 an hour to $8.25. An arbitrator’s ruling raised the base wage to $9.25 an hour shortly before the strike began.

Workers at other Hormel plants have accepted a new contract with a base wage of $10 an hour.