November 10th, The Hormel Meatpackers' Strike of 1933

I apologize for the untimely post. There was conflicting information about this strike, as it lasted for three days, from November 10th, 1933 to November 13th, and some listings suggested it started on the 13th. I wasn't able to resolve the discrepancy until I found the following fantastic passage in this indispensable book. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds this entry interesting.

From Negro and White, Unite and Fight!
By Roger Horowitz:

The IUAW's demand that it receive a formal role in the determination of wages and working conditions through union recognition and a seniority system, however, precipitated a showdown with the company. Workers grew impatient as Jay Hormel responded to the union's demands with evasive promises to "consider" the request; on the evening of September 22 the IUAW voted to go on strike the next morning to force the company's hand. When Hormel learned of the union's plans, he quickly telephoned local politicians, businessmen, and IUAW officials and summoned them to a conference in the Hormel offices adjacent to the plant.

The extraordinary all-night, face-to-face debate illuminated both Hormel's strategy and the cohesiveness of the working-class challenge to his power. He tried to curry favor with the conservative wing of the IUAW by bitterly attacking Frank Ellis as "a professional agitator, an inciter to riot, untruthful and a red" and praising O.J. Fosso as a "college graduate" who was "an intelligent, fair and upright fellow." Despite the real differences between the two union leaders, the IUAW delegation leapt to Ellis' defense and forced Hormel to discuss the issues that had produced the meeting in the first place. As the plant owner and union representatives arguied past dawn on the twenty-third, workers slowly gathered around the meeting room to see if they should report for work. At 7 A.M., "The whistle that should have sounded at this time was silent. Out in the yards men and women by the hundreds were standing." At this point Jay Hormel conceded and signed an agreement recognizing the union and the seniority system. In return, the elated IUAW delegation accepted the principle of arbitration of disputes and directed union members to report for work.

As unions discovered so often in the 1930s, recognition did not necessarily result in actual collective bargaining. Five weeks later, when the IUAW again approached Hormel and asked that their wage requests be submitted to arbitration as provided for in the September agreement, the plant owner refused. "He suggested that we go out and organize the other packing plants first, and then come back and he might consider our request," Frank Ellis recalled. "We told Mr. Hormel that we would organize the other plants, but we needed more money now; higher wages was our problem and competition was his." Angry with the company's refusal to honor its promise, a November 10 IUAW meeting voted to strike at a future but undetermined date. Immediately after the vote, hundreds of impatient workers marched over to the plant. "We told the sheep kill gang to clean the sheep," participant John Winkels recalled, "and then get the hell out of there because the strike was on." From a makeshift speakers' stand at the main plant gate, Franke Ellis told the workers, "Permit supervisors to take care of the sheep. ...Give them until tomorrow morning and then let no one in." Workers followed Ellis' advice and took control of the plant in the morning.

The strike stunned Jay Hormel and Austin's elite. They pleaded for Governor Olson to use the National Guard to evict the workers; to their dismay, the FLP governor instead came to Austin himself to mediate. Unable to open his blockaded plant, Jay Hormel admitted defeat. He brought the strike to an end by accepting binding arbitration of the wage dispute by the Minnesota Industrial Commission. The commission granted a 10 percent wage increase to the Hormel workers a month later, less than hoped for but, as Ellis reflected, "Pennies looked big in those days, plus the fact that we got a million dollars of publicity which proved very valuable, not only to our Independent Union of All Workers, but to the entire labor movement."