Despite company efforts to intimidate the meat packers, they held firm in their refusal to work or to submit to management demands to leave the premises. Flowing from the success of their action, they are now working together with organizers of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789 to get signed cards of support for the union from every eligible worker, a necessary initial step in the fight for union recognition.

By June 6 an estimated two-thirds of the production workers at the plant had turned in cards.

The speed of the processing line has been the main issue, workers at the plant told the Militant. The company has been on a drive to increase profits without regard for the health and safety of the meat packers. Over the last six months the line speed has increased by 40 percent. This has caused a big increase in the rate of injuries. Many of the injured are forced by the company to continue working.

Concessions won by the workers dealt with line speed and getting paid for time worked, as well as training.

Dakota Premium Foods, popularly referred to as Dakota Beef, was previously organized by the UFCW, but the company was successful in getting the union decertified there in the early 1990s.

About 175 meat packers work in the slaughterhouse, in both the cut and the kill departments. The big majority are Spanish-speaking immigrants from Latin American countries, especially Mexico. There are also a number of U.S.-born Black, Chicano, and white workers. Meat packers at the plant slaughter the cattle and cut the meat into 40- to 60-pound cuts of beef.  
 
Slow the line
According to workers the Militant spoke with, the strike was prepared by a meeting in the men's locker room of the boning department the previous day. Fifty people crowded into the room at the end of the shift, as workers rounded up everyone they could push through the door. A worker from the cut climbed up on a bench and led the discussion. The workers decided to take a stand, and agreed that the following day they would come in, refuse to start work, and demand that the company slow down the speed of the line.

That night and in the morning, news of the call for the work stoppage was spread among the workers. Thursday morning they gathered in the company cafeteria.

"It was not hard to get co-workers to come," reported Amy Roberts, a worker in the packaging department. The mood was calm and patient. One striker described it saying, "You could hear a pin drop."

At the 6:30 a.m. starting time, some supervisors stormed in yelling, "You have to get to work. Don't you know what time it is? If you want to have a meeting, do it after work. Get to work now."

No one replied, and no one moved.

One supervisor informed everyone, "All those who want to work should feel free to do so."

No one moved.

Then the supervisor went with a notepad and pen in hand to each worker in the lunch room asking, "Are you ready to go to work?" Person after person said no.

One worker was sitting with his head drooping. When the supervisor poked him on the shoulder, he responded, "Don't bother me, I don't want to be woken up."  
 
'We won't talk to this mob'
The head of personnel rushed into the room. "Do you realize you are late for work?" she yelled in Spanish. Workers said she was sweating heavily.

"Anything that you want to talk about can be taken up after work," she said. "But we will only talk to one or two workers at a time, not to this mob. We will talk like human beings."

At this point Miguel Olvera, one of the experienced cut workers got up and started to lay out the issues. He explained that the company had to turn down the line speed, that workers are getting injured. Others spoke, confirming the problem of the line speed and the injuries and giving examples.

"We are being torn apart by the line speed," Samuel Farley told the personnel director. "And we are not a mob. We are workers who want to be treated like human beings.

"It is important that we stick together," he said to his fellow workers, "and that no one go back until we talk to management and present our demands."

The personnel director threatened everyone again. "If you do not go to work it poses a serious problem."

No one left the room. No one moved. After half an hour she left.

Next the plant manager stormed in. Miguel Olvera gave an account of what happened then:

"He was out of breath, very agitated. He asked how we could do this. He said that normally people come to him when they had some need, but nobody had come to him this time. No one said anything. I stood up. The manager said, 'Do you have a problem?' I said, 'No, not me, everybody here has a problem.'

"He said he would talk to two or three people in his office," Olvera continued. "We told him we would talk to him right then and there. He left and then came back a half hour later, and said the same thing again. I told him, 'If you didn't come to negotiate, what did you come here for? Don't play dumb.'"

Between visits from management, a petition with the main demands was drawn up and handed around. Everyone who was part of the lunchroom sit-down signed it.

The petition demanded: 1) decrease the line speed; 2) stop forcing meat packers to work their line jobs when they are injured; 3) treat workers fairly; and 4) eliminate "gang-time."

In meatpacking plants "gang-time" refers to a practice instituted by the bosses to avoid overtime pay. All workers on the line are paid by getting clocked in and out as a "gang" by the hours worked by one designated worker at the beginning of the production line. Because of this, any time worked by those further down the line, including waiting time during breakdowns, is not paid by the bosses. If workers were paid according to "straight time," as in many work situations, all the time spent at the work station after eight hours would be paid as overtime.  
 
'Orders to fill; commitments to meet'
The personnel director reappeared. She read a statement from the company:

"It is simply not practical for us to meet with every employee to discuss issues that concern you. While we understand your concerns about hours of work and other issues, there are no easy solutions. We will talk about ways to address your concerns but we can't give you any guarantees with regard to the line speed and gang time....

"We have orders to fill and commitments to meet. If we feel we need to hire permanent replacements to meet these commitments, we will do so. If we have hired a permanent replacement to fill your position and he is still working at the end of this work stoppage, you will not be entitled to return to work....

"One last item: if you continue to refuse to work, you are not entitled to remain on the premises. Therefore, you must either immediately return to work or leave the building."

A discussion among the workers ensued. Some workers pointed out that they had to see the fight all the way through or they would be in a worse situation. A few began preparing to leave, picking up their tools.

Another worker proposed that no one should work until a committee selected by the workers talked to management. This was agreed to and every one remained in the room.

The company had earlier invited the workers to select one or two representatives to speak to them after work. The workers decided to accept this offer but in an altered form. Their representatives would meet with management--but there would be a number of them, and no one would go to work until the meeting had finished.

The gathering selected 14 workers, representing the different production lines in the fabrication department where the fight was concentrated.

However, the threats of the company were beginning to have a little impact. Some of the cut workers began drifting away from the cafeteria. Others organized to talk to them and they returned. There were reports that 10 or 12 workers from the kill department were working.  
 
Written concessions
The committee of 14 workers began to meet with the company at 10:30 a.m. The meeting lasted several hours. By 1:30 p.m. management had agreed to a number of concessions. The committee insisted that the company put them in writing.

The statement signed by management said:

"To All Employees

"In accordance with the meeting held between the 12 [sic] fabrication employees representatives and company representatives the following items were agreed upon:

"1) Gang-time issues: the employees will designate an employee who will be responsible to punch a gang card. He will punch the card at an agreed upon point to begin time and also punch it at the same point to end the day. That will become the agreed upon gang time for the day.

"2) Chain speed. The same designated employee will accompany the Fabrication Superintendent to observe the changing of the line speed. It is understood that speed is dependent upon type of cattle being run and number of employees.

"3) Time cards will be figured out daily and time shown on cards, so that if any discrepancies occur, they will be addressed immediately.

"4) Previously issued 'Buddy Training System' will be reissued to everyone so they are fully aware of the way it works. [This refers to the pairing of experienced workers with new workers and the compensation they receive for training them.]

"5) Meeting with supervisors will be held today to explain issues and concerns."  
 
Significant concessions
The concessions have real significance.

In this and other meatpacking plants, the company managers try to keep the speed of the line secret from the workers and to prevent them from having any say at all over the matter. The bosses hold as sacred their right to deepen the exploitation of the workers through the intensification of labor.

All kinds of measures like "gang-time" are used to cut into the pay of the workers as well. At Dakota Beef, for example, if workers are late for work one day, they lose their benefits for the entire week.

There was a feeling of accomplishment as the word spread about the concessions the company had made. Despite the numerous threats of the company, the workers had carried out a seven-hour strike successfully.

Based on the statement by management, the committee of 14 workers urged that everyone return to work. Confidence was high. Some, especially among the women in the packaging department, were at first reluctant to go back.  
 
Sign union cards
By the end of the three hours of negotiations, many workers had gathered outside the plant where representatives of UFCW Local 789 were passing out union authorization cards. Workers were confidently and enthusiastically grabbing the cards to sign.

Howard Kern, who is union representative of the manufacturing division of Local 789, described to the Militant what had happened.

"A worker came to the union hall that Thursday morning," Kern said, "and I spoke with him in my broken Spanish. In his limited English, he got across that we should come to the plant.

"I went over there and, in the best Spanish I could, spoke with three workers. Very soon it became 10, then 25. Moments later it grew to 50, and then I found myself surrounded by 100 workers. I got a sense we have the strength to stand up for ourselves."

Some of the workers were talking about going outside to stand along Concord St., a main thoroughfare in South St. Paul that runs alongside the plant, in order to make clear to everyone passing by that a plantón, or sit-down strike, was taking place.

Others raised calling the press. These were tactics that had been employed to appeal for support from other working people during the recent fight--which ended in victory--to prevent the Immigration and Naturalization Service from deporting eight Mexican hotel workers who had participated in a successful union organizing drive at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Minneapolis.

With a victory under their belts, the workers who had carried out the disciplined action returned to work in disciplined formation, too.  
 
Get the cards
The two days following the work stoppage, many workers in the plant were discussing the need for a union, getting more union authorization cards signed, and contacting Local 789 organizers about moving ahead with an organizing drive. At the same time, the company was working up a counterattack.

On Monday, June 5, the company called each department of the plant to the cafeteria for a separate meeting. They announced that over the next few days they would be meeting with each meat packer individually to talk to them about their work and pay.

Management stepped up their propaganda attack on the union. They told workers they would have to pay $300 a month in union dues and that the names of every worker who signed union authorization cards would be turned over to the federal government. They threatened to eliminate the medical and other benefits of the workers if they organized a union.

That same afternoon, UFCW Local 789 invited workers at Dakota Beef to attend an open house at the union hall, located a few blocks from the factory. A number of workers in the plant, their confidence newly boosted by the strike action, began organizing other workers to go together to the hall to discuss why they needed to join together and form a union.

Once again the intimidation tactics of the company were unsuccessful. Workers at Dakota Beef told the Militant that almost 60 of them from the cut and packaging areas attended one meeting at the union hall, and 15 workers from the kill floor attended another.

Not surprisingly, company action to extend the hours of work prevented both cut and kill workers from getting to the union hall at the same time. But a rich discussion unfolded about why they needed a union, and a plan was adopted to rapidly gain the signatures of as many workers as possible on union authorization cards. Local 789 organizers appealed for an in-plant organizing committee, and a number of workers signed up.

Both Local 789 and workers in the fight are eager to reach out for broader community support. The UFCW local has already contacted other unions, churches with predominantly Latino congregations, immigration rights groups, and legal aid organizations in the area. Mark Anderson, a member of the staff of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, speaking in both English and Spanish, brought a statement of support to the workers in their fight.

According to Miguel Olvera, a number of workers have volunteered to help get community support from churches, immigrant rights organizations, farm groups, unions, and individual unionists.

In the Twin Cities area, one particularly important fight is being waged right now by workers in the hotel industry who are members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Local 17. They are fighting for a new contract.

The hotel bosses are not budging beyond a stingy offer of a 26-cents-an-hour raise. A contract vote is being conducted June 7 and 8, and the fight appears headed for a strike. Many of these workers are immigrants as well, and Dakota Beef workers are discussing how to use their struggles to reinforce each other.

Many workers at Dakota Beef rightly feel that they are in a strong position to press their fight. A big banner in front of the plant says: NOW HIRING. There is a high turnover in the plant, and unemployment in Minnesota is relatively low.

As the company statement issued during the strike bluntly pleaded, "We hope you will respect our right to run the plant. We have orders to fill and commitments to meet." In fact, the company has more orders than it can fill.

This fight is only beginning, however. The company will likely begin its meetings with individual workers, where the managers can be expected to use threats and intimidation. In addition, in the meatpacking industry the packing bosses work closely with the police and the INS to victimize workers involved in organizing drives, as happened in Tama, Iowa, two years ago.

Workers involved in the organizing drive at Dakota Beef, however, like many thousands of others, are gaining confidence in their ability to fight off these threats.

Local 789 president William Pearson noted the significance of the strike action at Dakota Beef when he told the Militant, "In my 23 years in the labor movement, I have never seen anything like this.

"They went all out, conscious of the fact that they did not know whether they would have a job or not. In my opinion we can win, and we'll be getting a union contract in there."

Francisco Pérez is a union meat packer who lives in southern Minnesota. Tom Fisher is a textile worker in Minnesota.  
 
 
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