HARD-PRESSED IN THE HEARTLAND

from pages 82 & 83 of the text

Over the first half of the 1980s, no local had been able to stand up to the corporate pressure for concessions or the international union's acquiescence. Local P-9's willingness to take a stand thus threatened the international union nearly as much as it threatened the Hormel corporation. Both the UFCW and the AFL-CIO knew that Local P-9 represented a dangerous example for other labor activists and rank-and-file unionists. P-9 quickly came to symbolize democracy and membership participation, a willingness to oppose corporate demands for concessions, regardless of international union agendas or strategies, and a form of "horizontal" solidarity that threatened the vertical, bureaucratic hold that international unions exercised over their locals. As thousands of workers poured into Austin to express their support, we likened their experience to "catching a virus" from P-9. But the UFCW and the AFL-CIO were determined to prevent the spread of this virus.

How far were they willing to go? As far as they had to, it seems. As the chapter on the revitalization of P-9 showed, UFCW president William Wynn and National Packinghouse Division Director Lewie Anderson openly opposed the campaign against Hormel from the very start. They tried to isolate Jim Guyette and depicted P-9 as a "go-it alone" rebel local. Yet, when P-9ers voted by more than 90 percent to strike in August 1985, the international had little choice but to grant official sanction and approve strike benefits of $45 a week. The UFCW leadership continued behind the scenes, however, to undermine the strike, with the frequent collusion of other labor leaders. The strike's character as "rank-and-file" vs. "leadership" was clear. And the willingness of the leadership to let P-9 lose (perhaps even their desire to let P-9 lose) was equally clear.

Twice in the fall of 1986, the Minnesota AFL-CIO leadership and UFCW Region 13 sought to undermine food caravans being organized by the Twin Cities P-9 Support Committee. They contacted local unions and discouraged them from contributing, urging instead that they send cash to Region 13's office in the Twin Cities. As we have seen, Wynn also sent telegrams to international union presidents around the country, urging them to discourage their locals from participating in other support programs, claiming that the money would go to Ray Rogers.

The UFCW went further. Lewie Anderson and Region 13 Director Joe Hansen met secretly with retired P-9 business agent (and Guyette opponent) Dick Schaefer and leaders of the "P-10" dissident faction, even while the strike still had the official sanction of the international union. Such meetings went on both before and after the "P-lOers" chose to cross their own picket lines. In fact, the very week that the National Guard took up its positions, Lewie Anderson appeared on Ted Koppel's "Nightline" television show to undermine Jim Guyette and support the minority anti-strike faction in P-9.

The UFCW also sought to limit the effectiveness of the campaign against Hormel. When P-9ers visited other plants, UFCW officials and local officers frequently intervened and tried to prevent communications. President Wynn had explicitly ruled out a boycott of Hormel products or extending the strike to other plants when he had granted strike sanction in August 1985, and he continued to hold firm to these positions. When P-9 sent roving pickets on its own to Ottumwa and Fremont, and hundreds of workers were fired for honoring these lines, Wynn offered no resistance to Hormel, saying that they were within their contract rights. Instead, he heaped blame on Rogers and Guyette.

Ironically, one of the tools in the UFCW's efforts to crush P-9 was the Communist Party (CP). Hormel vice president and chief henchman, Charles Nyberg claims to this day that he and CEO Richard Knowlton saved Austin from "communism" by defeating P-9. Yet, the best known "left" organization in the United States helped defeat P-9! The Communist Party sided with the UFCW and opposed P-9 as soon as the split between the local and the international became apparent. In particular, they were instrumental in developing a cover story for the UFCW attack against P-9 that could be sold to progressive elements in the labor movement who did not have firsthand contact with P-9. The CP argued that P-9 had "broken solidarity" with the Hormel chain, that they had opted to "go it alone" when they thought they had the upper hand, and now they wanted other workers to risk all for the preservation of P-9's privileges. These arguments all forms of the "big lie" for those who had been to Austin—were circulated in the pages of the Daily World and picked up by the UFCW and used extensively to their advantage

Last updated 2/3/97