The chief issue in the strike was medical insurance costs. Before the strike the company proposed increasing insurance premiums paid by workers far beyond projected pay raises of 12 percent over three years. After workers rejected the initial contract offer, the bosses offered a revised proposal with slower movement toward higher wages and a cap on health-care costs.

The original contract that workers rejected by a 3-1 margin on October 28 would have pushed up the employee share of family medical premiums by 35 percent in the first year, with unspecified increases for the following two years. The revised contract limits workers' cost increases for family coverage to $20 a month in both the second and third years.

Workers were also seeking to improve working conditions, including some control of production rate increases. According to one worker, the line speed had increased from 550 units per shift to 1,300 units per shift over a three-year period. The new contract calls for two full-time union officers in the plant, one to handle safety concerns and another to deal with issues such as production speed. The contract allows the union to call in a "consultant" to review production speed.

Some workers spoke out against the new settlement. "I'm not very happy at all," Ken Nordman told the St. Cloud Times. He has worked at the freezer factory since 1988. "We got a raw deal. I was planning on sticking it out another month, two months."  
 
 
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