BY NORTON SANDLER
DES MOINES, Iowa - Packinghouse workers at IBP's largest
plant in Dakota City, Nebraska, ratified a new contract
August 6. The ratification vote took place after an intense
propaganda barrage by the big-business press in Iowa and
Nebraska designed to prevent a strike by pitting cattle
farmers against the more than 2,700 members of United Food
and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 222.
A few days earlier union members voted unanimously to strike if IBP, the world's largest packing company, held firm on refusing to grant wage increases to workers with more than a few years in at the plant. IBP is raking in record profits this year.
Some 4,000 head of cattle are slaughtered and processed each workday at the Dakota City facility. In addition, carcasses from other IBP cattle plants are sent to Dakota City for processing. Cattle raisers have been facing depressed prices for their livestock for more than a year and many of these producers had cattle die that were near market weight as a result of the July heat wave.
IBP pits farmers against union
The threat of a strike posed much longer and more
expensive hauls for farmers to get their livestock to
market. "It's going to matter big-time if they go out on
strike," Bernie Punt, manager of Co-op Confinement Feedlot
in Sioux County, Iowa, told the Des Moines Register. A
strike, said Punt, could add $2 to $3 per head for
transportation to other markets.
"If it spread beyond the Dakota City plant, with IBP controlling more than 40 percent of the market, it would be an absolute disaster," said Chuck Kolbe, president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association. For several days report after report in this vein dominated media coverage. Little coverage was given to the what the unionists were demanding. On August 4, IBP upped the ante by halting the purchase of cattle.
Contract provisions
The new four-year contract ratified on August 6 by a
vote of 1,064 to 64 contains pay raises of 50 cents an hour
for new hires, bringing their base pay to $7.00 an hour.
Wages for workers hired since December 1986 will increase 75
cents over the next four years. These workers will receive a
$650 bonus in December. For production workers already at
the top of the pay scale, wages will increase from 15 cents
to 27 cents an hour over the four years with workers in this
category receiving a total of $3,100 in three bonus
payments. Maintenance workers pay will rise 90 cents an hour
over the life of the contract.
"A strike is never easy," UFCW Local 222 president Frank Cassady told the media, "but we were in a position where we would have had to take that avenue. It was important for us to show the company that we have solidarity," he said.
In a related development, responding to an outcry from cattle and hog farmers over depressed livestock prices, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a complaint on August 1 against IBP. The USDA complaint accuses the company of playing favorites with big feedlots in Kansas, giving them higher prices over others who bring cattle to market. The company denied any wrongdoing. The complaint will take six to eight months to resolve.
Reporter's Note A number of contracts are coming due in packinghouses across the country.
On July 30, union members at Excel's Ottumwa, Iowa, plant rejected a contract that had no provisions for pay raises over the next four years. The local has authorized its officials to call a strike if progress is not made in negotiations.
Contracts expire at Hormel meat-packing plants in Austin, Minnesota; Fremont, Nebraska; Atlanta; and other cities in September.
On July 27, FDL announced that it will close its Dubuque, Iowa, plant eliminating more than 900 jobs. This announcement comes in the midst of negotiations for a new contract, which are continuing. -N.S.