Some 480 members of UFCW Local 538 have been on strike for four months in defense of their wages, benefits, and conditions against Tyson Foods in Jefferson, Wisconsin (see article linked below). The strikers had previously sent out Truth Squads in mid-March to meatpacking plants in Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, carrying donation cans and information about their struggle.

Squad member Mike French, a worker for 28 years at Tyson and vice-president of Local 538, spoke about the four-month strike as part of a panel of speakers at a June 26 public meeting at Local 271’s union hall.

The event was held to discuss the lessons of the successful fight against the deportation of Róger Calero.

French said that he never thought he would be out on strike against Tyson. “When you got a job at that plant, you thought you had a job for life. It is not uncommon to have 40 years of seniority in the plant,” he said.

The union leader asked participants at the meeting to think about Tyson’s slogan, “What your family deserves,” while he read a list of company demands on the workers and their families. The concession demands include a four-year wage freeze; a wage cut for new hires of $2.10 per hour; the elimination of “profit sharing” payments; reductions in disability pay by 50 percent and cuts in vacation time; a freeze on pensions; and the abolition of severance pay.  
 
The cure for corporate greed
“We voted 400-9 that we weren’t going to take that,” said French. “ We have been on the picket line 24/7 since then and are proud to take a stand.

“The cure for corporate greed is solidarity. And if corporate greed ever comes a knockin’ on your door, Local 538 will come here and say ‘it ain’t gonna happen here either.’”

French had been especially keen to come to Omaha, he said, after Swift workers and UFCW staffers from Local 271 had made the eight-hour journey three times to Jefferson to attend rallies in solidarity with the Tyson strike.

Earlier that day the two strikers had been joined by Local 271 officials and members outside the Swift plant entrance to greet workers leaving the plant. The workers were very receptive to their fight, French said, and contributed $207 to strike funds.

News about the strike had already gotten around inside the Swift plant thanks to efforts by union activists to build support and bring workers to the solidarity rallies. One kill floor worker, who asked that his name not be used, told the Militant that Swift workers are “in solidarity with their fight, and know well that a victory for them will be a victory for us, and that if they lose, we lose.” He and other workers had hung fliers about the Jefferson rallies in the lunch room and locker room and had organized to notify every worker possible that the Truth Squad was going to visit the plant that day.

Workers at the Swift plant won a UFCW organizing drive last year by voting for union representation by a two-to-one margin after a hard-fought battle that took several years.
 
 
Related articles:
Cops step up harassment of Tyson strikers  
 
 
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