Pickets march in Knoxville with Hormel and union at odds over wage offer
Workers prepare for strike at one of city’s largest employers
Hormel workers in Knoxville displayed their frustration with ongoing contract talks by picketing the plant there Thursday, carrying signs with slogans such as “We Keep Hormel Running.”
Negotiations between United Food and Commercial Workers Local 431 and the company will resume next week, said Mark McRoberts, a business agent with the union. If a deal isn't reached then, McRoberts said, the union is prepared for a strike at the Marion County facility, one of Knoxville's largest employers.
The bargaining unit's roughly 200 members unanimously voted against the company's initial offer, made on March 1. When a deal wasn't reached, the two sides agreed on a contract extension through April 5.
Wages are the primary stumbling block, said McRoberts, but workers also want to reach agreements regarding bereavement leave and scheduling.
“The employees have been working six to seven days a week for a very long time,” he said.
Hormel was able to reach agreement on four-year pacts with the union at its plants in Algona; Austin, Minnesota; Beloit, Wisconsin; and Atlanta. Those deals called for workers to get a wage hike of $4.75 an hour spread out over four years. The offer to workers in Knoxville was to increase wages by $2.05 over four years, McRoberts said.
He said the Algona facility is “a sister plant” processing the same products as Knoxville: dry sausage.
Hormel told the union its “business had changed” but did not explain how, he said.
The company in a statement
Thursday said only that it remains in talks with union leadership.
“Negotiations are a longstanding part of collective bargaining and we have the highest of confidence that we will reach an agreement that continues our tradition of being a world-class employer," the company said. "As always, our representatives are negotiating in good faith and are working closely with union representatives toward a new collective bargaining agreement that continues our leading total rewards program, including competitive wages and benefits. We are confident that we will come to a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to union leadership, our team members and to Hormel Foods, and our customers.”
The potential job actiion comes as another meatpacker, Tyson Foods, prepares to shutter its 61year-old plant in Perry amid a harsh market for pork producers.