Austin at a Crossroads, 25 years after the Hormel strike

History of the Hormel meatpackers strike

by Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio

The Hormel strike that began 25 years ago, devastated Austin and transformed the workforce of the small city.

The recession of the early 1980's increased competition among meatpackers around the country. Many smaller companies went under, others instituted wage cuts.

By 1985, Hormel felt pressure to remain competitive. When the company demanded a 23 percent wage cut, about 1,500 workers with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local P-9, in Austin walked off the job in August.

The strike made national headlines and became one of the longest in an industry that was rife with them in the 1980s. After 6 months, the local union was ordered to call of the strike by the national leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers. When the union members in Austin refused, local P-9 was placed in receivership and taken over by the national union.

The 10-month strike devastated the city. Families stopped talking. National Guard soldiers patrolled the streets to keep the peace. And in this quiet community, red-faced screaming matches happened almost daily on the picket line.

After the strike, Hormel hired new workers at lower wages. And a few years later, in 1989, the company leased part of its Austin plant to a newly created company called Quality Pork Processors, or QPP.

QPP took over the more dangerous cut and slaughter part of the business. Today, it processes 19,000 hogs a day, according to the company's website. All of the fresh meat from QPP goes on for processing at Hormel.

By the mid-1990s, QPP ushered in a new workforce of mostly single Mexican men.