WHEREAS:

More than 1,500 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union struck the George A. Hormel & Co. Plant in Austin, Minnesota, last fall in an effort to preserve their wages and working conditions and win better job security; and

WHEREAS:

In an effort to destroy the union, the employer recruited strikebreakers and scabs and determined that it would operate the plant rather than participate in meaningful bargaining and honest efforts to settle the dispute; and

WHEREAS:

Despite differences between the local and the International, more than $2.5 million has been expended on behalf of strikers and their families; and

WHEREAS:

In accordance with their constitutional procedures, UFCW has assumed jurisdiction over the local and has been upheld by the court and is now attempting to negotiate a new contract. Meanwhile UFCW is assuring that strikers and their families will be assisted in every possible way.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That this 27th Inter-national Convention place AFSCME firmly in support of workers struggling against concession bargaining and union busting, that it condemns the union busting tactics of the Hormel Company, and it demands the dropping of all charges against any of the strikers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME pledge solidarity with the Austin strikers and with other UFCW workers in Ottumwa and elsewhere who have felt effects of the Hormel strike; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That this Convention endorse the action of AFSCME International in sending $10,000 to the Region XIII Strike Fund for the benefit of workers and their families in need in Austin and Ottumwa, and call on councils and locals to send to the Region XIII Strike Fund all possible assistance for the strikers and their families as a demonstration of trade union solidarity; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That the Convention request the newly created special committee of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, which was established to strengthen labor unity and tactics in the face of employer hostility and opposition, to examine methods of assisting unions in resisting and overcoming employers who are determined on a course of dividing the workers and breaking down hard-won wages and working conditions.

SUBMITTED BY:

International Executive Board