Original subtitles

[ Pigs squealing ]

MAN: As President Reagan was preparing to deliver

his weekly radio address from Camp David,

he ad-libbed thoughts on the economy

during a microphone check,

not intended to be part of his speech.

PRESIDENT REAGAN: My fellow Americans,

I've talked to you about the economic problems

and opportunities our nation faces.

I'm prepared to tell you it's a hell of mess.

The hard line being taken by the Reagan administration

concerning the air controllers strike...

The Supreme Court delivered a potentially staggering setback

to labor unions.

It comes at a time when union officials

are charging there is a growing campaign to break unions.

MAN: The operation will be nonunion.

Salaries will be cut in half.

MAN #2: Wilson Foods declared bankruptcy.

With the stroke of a pen, it could stay in business

but void its labor contract

and slash workers' salaries by 40% to 50%.

WOMAN: These are hard times for the meatpacking industry.

MAN: Union labor has taken almost 50% wage-and-benefit cuts

to keep their jobs and their companies afloat.

At least I'm taking some money home instead of nothing.

WOMAN: In Waterloo, Iowa, a shutdown.

At Iowa Beef, a violent strike...

MAN: Striking meatpackers facing 40% pay cuts

go packing bricks against a truck at a Wilson Foods plant.

RATHER: Crossed picket lines in spite of an automobile barricade

as Hormel's flagship plant, open for a second week...

WOMAN: ...send in the guards was reached after city officials

said the situation at Hormel was beyond their control.

This is not Austin anymore!

It's Hormel, Minnesota!

You guys are helping them!

[ Cheers and applause ]

Austin, Minnesota, is not just about Austin, Minnesota.

Austin is the cavalry. The workers in this nation.

Workers somewhere, sometime, someplace,

must stand up and say, "Enough is enough!"

We want jobs and justice.

Someday.

Can I give you a pamphlet here?

So you can see what's going on in the Austin plant. Thank you.

Can I give you one of these about the Hormel injury rate?

- Okay, thank you. - Thank you.

Aren't you Mr. Anderson?

Hi. I don't know if you remember me.

- We had the good years. - You did.

And this, I sure hope it comes, gets straightened out.

I'd like to see something settled.

And I understand your side of it.

I really do. I wouldn't like to take a cut either.

I wish everybody good luck.

I hope they don't have trouble with the company.

I'm retired, and if I were still working, if I lost my job,

that would be terrible.

MAN: Could I talk to your husband?

WOMAN: No, but there's something I would love to say to you.

Aren't you guys happy working at the Hormel plant?

Under the current conditions, no.

We were happy making $10.69 and when Hormel treated us decent.

Why do you stay at a place you're not happy?

We don't have all the money in the world like the Knowltons.

There are so many people that would love to have your job

at $8.75 an hour and all those nice benefits.

When we were your age, we weren't making what you were.

Then give us a fair shake like you got a fair shake.

[ Door closes ]

Hmm.

If we gotta give up 23% wages and 30% cut in benefits,

when the company's making $30 million,

what are we gonna have to give when they show a loss?

Two years ago under the incentive program,

my last incentive check in the hog cut in the new plant,

I grossed $637 for 47 hours' work.

After the incentive program was taken away,

I went down to $409 a week.

Today I'm making $312.

Working twice as hard for the same amount of hours.

It's ridiculous.

My father worked for George A. Hormel plant

for many years.

He was also a very proud man. He was a hard worker.

He was proud of his products.

He was in the days of heavy production.

He went out on a stretcher one day from the plant.

My husband now, I'm proud to be a wife of a hog cutter.

I'm proud of the products.

But I don't like the way they're treating my family

or my husband or anyone else who ever worked for that plant.

[ Cheers and applause ]

JIM: It's a real quagmire of a situation,

and people are really getting hurt.

Their pride is hurt

because they can't fulfill the needs of their family,

and they've somehow got to go on welfare programs,

and people are very angry, hurt, upset, frustrated.

And it's difficult to vent your frustrations

in the proper direction.

WOMAN: Utility workers make more.

Meter readers make more.

The garbage collectors make more.

A guy that works with Wes, or did work with my husband quit.

He got hired at the city.

He's starting at $11-something an hour.

But I don't begrudge anybody

that's making $30,000, $40,000, $50,000.

But let us live in our house.

Let us live in our $32,000 house.

And that we all may walk in faith

In your community

NYBERG: In Austin, 22,000 people.

We're in a little world by ourselves down here.

These are the people we go to church with.

These are the people we go to grocery stores with.

We meet on the street.

We meet in various forms of recreation.

We rub shoulders with them. Do we care about our employees?

Yes, we do.

But in the long term,

we don't want to go the way of many other packers

who realized too late that their costs were out of line

and then tried to recover and couldn't.

FILM NARRATOR: It's been written that Jay

was a born innovator

and remembered for his social conscience.

His thoughtful understanding of

and concern for the welfare of the working man

was surely what gave rise to the benefits

that have been made available to Hormel personnel.

He initiated the first guaranteed annual wage.

There was also a first-of-its-kind

profit-sharing plan for the workers

that paid a share of the profits to each of them.

Perhaps that explains why everyone at Hormel

strives for quality and efficiency.

WOMAN: I've worked for Hormel, it'll be 43 years this year.

And if it were necessary as a survival,

I would be all for it.

We've done it before over the many, many times.

But this, I think, is just the mood of the industry,

and they're jumping on the bandwagon

to be one of them to say, "We were able to do it, too."

Where, I think, if they would have left our wages

at their present standard,

people would have really used them as a shining example

that in hard times, if you really have good productivity,

good relationship with your employees,

that you're able to handle the bad times.

I hope that they have enough of the vision

that I think I must have for the welfare

of the long-term future of the company,

that would say, "We can do no more."

If Jay Hormel were here today, if George A. Hormel were here,

they probably would be doing exactly the same thing

that we are.

I think unions are getting their teeth kicked in.

I think if you're into a situation

of where you're getting beat up,

you better try something different.

MAN: Corporate campaigns initiated by Ray Rogers...

MAN #2: Rogers has been used to targeting

one enemy, the employer.

MAN #3: Rogers brought his Corporate Campaign here...

JIM: We were very ineffective in communicating our message.

MAN #4: He managed to attract reporters

from the "New York Times," the "Chicago Tribune"...

JIM: I ran across an article on Ray Rogers and gave him a call.

MAN #5: Tough-talking labor consultant...

JIM: He said he needed to do a little research

because he was a vegetarian,

didn't know anything about meatpacking.

Ray came and made a presentation to our membership.

RAY: We will run a multimillion dollar campaign

even though you don't have millions of dollars.

The greatest resource, the greatest strength you have

is the people themselves.

And that's why we feel so confident

that we can pull off a major victory,

not just for Local P-9 in Austin,

but for labor throughout this entire country.

- Congratulations, partner. - Yeah.

The price of poker just went up.

In this game, because that's the way the company views it.

It's a game the way they want to treat people,

hold their whole lives in jeopardy.

And to them, it might be a game.

And to us, it's a war.

Things can really start moving now.

Super. That's just really nice.

And we hope that the corporate executives from Hormel come.

We hope the executives from the bank come.

We want everybody to see the type of program

that we plan on running

and then let them begin to lose the night's sleep

like they've caused this community to lose sleep.

[ Chanting ] We're gonna win!

We're gonna win! We're gonna win!

We're gonna win! We're gonna win!

RAY: On our staff, we have experts in all facets

of research and analysis, communications experts,

and experts in all facets

of political and community organization.

We looked out there in society and saw poor and working people

getting the daylights kicked out of them.

We felt there had to be a mechanism that they and unions

and community groups could turn to

that had a lot of expertise in how to challenge

powerful adversaries that were irresponsible

in the policies directed at workers.

So we developed Corporate Campaign programs.

And our campaign is one of taking the offense,

showing that workers can fight back.

That they don't have to keep taking one loss after another.

You know what we need to do.

JIM: Ray told me you're never going to outspend a company,

public-relations-wise.

My name is Ray Rogers. I'm with Corporate Campaign.

JIM: That what you needed to do

was look at creating a situation

that became a newsworthy situation.

The company spent millions in many years to build an image.

That's being destroyed overnight.

JIM: The strategy was to go after the money

behind the corporation.

There's a lot of labor money in First Bank's system.

MAN: Ray Rogers and his Corporate Campaign

mailed this letter to over 5,000 union members in the Midwest

that says in part the First Bank system

is a principal stockholder in the Hormel company

and thus can influence policy.

This institution is directly involved

in the policymaking process of Hormel.

JIM: Ray knows how to put labor's best foot forward

so that John Q. Public would sympathize with our cause.

There's some guy I'd never seen.

They started talking to me about that Hormel situation.

The guy says, "Are you the guy that's been brought in?

Man, I'm telling you,

you can't imagine how many of my friends are watching this.

We're 100% behind you.

You're teaching this country something.

And, by God, you gotta win."

This is what I'm getting everywhere.

You are a symbol of something that goes beyond Austin.

Don't you forget it.

Local P-9 engaged the services of a labor consultant

from New York City.

Mr. Ray Rogers and Corporate Campaign.

And Mr. Rogers has a different philosophy

about how to deal with companies.

Traditional collective bargaining

is not the preferred method that he would use.

His traditional approaches are harassment, intimidation,

and threats.

And his rationale for that mode of approaching an employer

is that if you can embarrass a company

hard enough and long enough,

you'll bring that company to its knees.

And they will agree to the terms and conditions

of his client unions, the ones that he represents.

So he came to us with that approach.

There's supposed to be some other pigs here today.

CROWD: We don't need First Bank's greed!

If anybody doesn't have a sign, just grab a sign here.

CROWD: We don't need First Bank's greed!

From day to day, you get to be

on a high like today with everybody here.

But when you go home and nobody's around you,

you tend to get down.

But then you get back up when you go back

to the union hall and start helping.

Then you get up again.

We're on the right side of things.

People are realizing we're willing to fight that fight.

People recognize that the labor movement

being a key factor if we're gonna have

any real meaningful social -- economic -- Cut.

NARRATOR: Are you afraid of Corporate Campaign?

We're not.

What happens if they persist?

Well, I don't know.

With our position, I don't know what they can do.

I realize that they can say a lot of things,

but they can't do a lot of things.

And I think it's tragic, because the only thing they end up doing

is destroying their jobs and their company.

MAN: Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

NARRATOR: The United Food and Commercial Workers

is the parent union of Austin's local union P-9.

The Local 9 will suffer as a result of it.

They can't negotiate by themselves.

Lewie Anderson is the director of the meatpacking division.

And they say, "This company is a profitable company,

and nothing else in the universe matters.

We have a right to our $10.69.

We have a right to those benefits."

That's their thinking.

To go even beyond that there, they are convinced by Ray Rogers

that the Corporate Campaign will achieve that goal for them.

He shot them a line of shit, is all he did.

The plain fact of the matter is

there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever

they are not going to win through a corporate campaign.

They are not gonna win.

If they continue, they're gonna become bigger losers

than what they are now.

It is gonna cost them their jobs.

Instead of making $8.25 an hour, or $9.25 an hour...

MAN ON RADIO: Good one by Glen Campbell.

It's time for the song of inspiration

brought to you by your friends

at Omaha Auto and Truck Recyclers Association.

It used to be you always had problems.

You always had one or two local unions

that were going through real serious problems,

but you had some time to think about it and to work with them

and stay with them and help them work through those problems.

But what you've had in the last five years

is everybody's had problems.

They've had them all at the same time.

You're just running all over the country in all directions,

trying to patch things up

and get things going in the right direction.

Then you don't get to stay.

You have to go deal with another crisis.

The companies in this industry are embarked on a program

to tear the wages up, to tear the fringe benefits up,

to return us to the days of "The Jungle" 60 years ago.

Do the unions have any clout?

Does the public care about the unions anymore?

Can the unions sell this message?

CROWD: Go!

Go! Go!

Go! Go!

Local unions like P-9

have complete autonomy to carry on all union business

as long as they don't violate

their international constitution.

The International Union can only give strategic advice.

MAN: What can you do that we can't do?

- So far, I haven't seen much. - Really?

- [ Crowd groans ] - There's your answer.

No, I want you to answer that.

I want you to answer that.

You're reading too many things

about what Lewie Anderson and other people are saying.

- You're dodging the question. - I'm not dodging the question.

That's a question that was asked.

I'm not gonna answer it.

What you do not have,

what the International has not furnished,

what you have not furnished is the analysis

upon which you build a program of real, impenetrable economic

and political pressure, harassing the company.

We have developed some damn good campaign literature.

I haven't seen anybody from the International

come and give you that kind of direction

or campaign literature.

One thing I'll credit you. You're a hell of a motivator.

Millions of dollars worth of free and positive publicity

for your campaign, national press coverage.

Yes, you have!

And that's your answer.

All right.

Hi.

Hi. Are you with P-9?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Is what Local 9 proposing up there

with the Corporate Campaign the answer to the problems

we have seen in the meatpacking industry in the past

and the challenges that we're faced for the future?

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, too.

Are you saying that regardless of what is decided

by this organization, you're going to go ahead

with that campaign as you've outlined it?

If the rank and file dictates they're gonna resist pay cuts,

we're gonna resist the pay cuts.

And I guess we would like to see you on our side in this fight.

The Austin program, it occurs to us,

is symptomatic of Reagan's philosophy.

"I'll get mine, and the hell with everybody else."

RAY: Maybe we shouldn't expect every meatpacker

to receive the same wage.

Maybe we need to look at each company and say,

"What is the profitability of the company?"

Then base the wages that we expect on its profitability.

God damn it, the guy working at Armour, $6 bucks an hour,

doing the same work they're doing in Austin

deserves the $10.69, too,

as well as every other packinghouse worker!

That is what we stand for. That is what we gotta do.

We cannot have one group hanging way up here

and everybody else down below.

It's the wrong kind of unionism.

We're here saying, you know, we've got a program.

We're representing a client and a large group of people.

We're gonna continue to represent them

as long as they want us to.

MAN: Why won't the International support the Hormel workers?

Is $10.69 an hour too much?

Look, I worked in those packinghouses.

I worked for a very antiunion employer as a beef skinner,

so I know what that work is.

And they deserve $10.69-plus, believe me.

One of the things that Local 9 has said

to the Packing Committee

is, "Well, if we can get $10.69 there,

that's the shining star, and everybody will go to that."

But I gotta tell you,

in some 10 or 15 years of our experience,

that's not the case.

One of two things happens.

Those operators on the low end of the scale get bigger,

or those on the high end of that wage scale

say, "The hell with it," and they go out of business,

or they close this plant and go down the road

and open up a plant at $5.00 or $6.00 an hour.

That would be great if we could do that.

I'd be the first to say, "Let's do it."

But it don't work that way.

We came into this thing alone, and we'll go out alone.

I want to tell you, I am disgusted

to be even associated with this organization.

You've got to.

John, take your pen if you're disgusted.

Yeah. You've got a lot of gutless people here.

JIM: We pleaded with the National Union

that if they couldn't support us, get out of the way.

If you're gonna get in the way and run interference for Hormel,

then we're gonna go right through you if we have to.

So you've got the International Union looking at it and saying,

"If these people are successful,

they may find that an International Union

isn't necessary,

and all they need is a labor consultant from time to time.

LEWIE: Now we have a situation

where some of the people from Local 9 and Ray Rogers

have a caravan roaming across the country,

spieling out some of the most antiunion venom.

JIM: Our caravan was designed to tell people what was going on

from workers just like themselves.

We had the facts.

We had the information to back it up.

We were gonna tell it to them, give it to them,

read it to them, sing it, whatever it took.

RAY: $100,000 expense account,

and Lewie Anderson was making his $70,000-plus salary

and his lavish expense account.

If you think when the public sees that

that they understand the complexities

of what's going on in Austin, Minnesota.

All they see is 200 or 300 people

screaming how the union is no good.

We're not like some other locals.

Our membership told us they didn't want that agreement

by a 76% vote.

Get the Hormel chain settlement.

Do you think the vice-president

of an international union ought tell you

you ought to take a concession

with by far the most profitable company in an industry?

LEWIE: Antiunionism is oozing out of our own ranks.

That'll destroy us quicker than anything will.

I know this is definitely a union-made tent.

JIM: People who believe in what they're doing

are the most dangerous kind of folks in the world.

The union there. 52 in Monroe and this one.

We'll go hit the banks, and then we'll go on to Ottumwa.

MAN: I want to thank all you guys from P-9

because you have performed a miracle

for the Hormel employees of Ottumwa.

I can look out in this crowd

and see at least 40 guys and girls

that down at work for the past seven years

have looked like they were dead.

And you have resurrected them to life.

Hey, listen, thanks a lot.

Good talking to you.

JIM: We're creating a situation where the membership

is starting to dictate to the leadership,

"Support these guys because we believe in what they're doing."

If making less money is so good,

but people don't want to do it, why should they have to do it?

[ Horn honking ]

WOMAN: Hormel hot dogs

We don't like Hormel and their hot dogs

P-9 thanks you.

We'll be back!

Yeah!

LEWIE: They have a machine in place to make you

look like you don't know what you're talking about

or carrying the company message.

Rogers and Guyette, with their machine,

have a firm grip on that situation.

If you want to gain your union back,

you're gonna have to recognize what you're up against.

This meeting is somewhat clandestine in that

if you're going to put together a committee,

then you need time to get it off the ground

without them branding you at this moment

that the International is behind it.

It started with four of us that met two weeks ago with Lewie.

It started off with that group. We expanded to 16.

Now we're going to go in a meeting here.

All of us are gonna try to sing off the same sheet of music.

Hopefully, you'll be able to go back to Austin.

Once we get the ball rolling,

we'll all be provided with information.

RAY: So when anybody is attacking

what this campaign is doing,

attacking anybody working in this group

and has done anything for this campaign,

they're attacking every one of us.

WOMAN: What are we doing that's so antiunion?

I see more union people here and more support than I do anywhere.

That's not antiunion. That's going forward.

I want to be a union of the '80s.

I want to welcome all our guests,

visitors, friends, and everyone that is here today.

We have representatives from the Hormel locals

in Fremont, Beloit, Ottumwa.

We've got our friends from Farmstead Foods and Albert Lea,

steelworkers from the Iron Range,

representatives from the Teamsters.

Through good organization, good communications,

we're able to wage a campaign

that even the biggest unions in the country

have not been able to wage.

Are you willing to stand up and fight?

CROWD: Yeah!

Let's stand up!

Give me a "W"!

- "Give me an "I"! - "I"!

- Give me an "N"! - "N"!

- What do you got? - Win!

We're gonna win it!

- Yeah! - We're gonna win it!

MAN: To some, he is a prophet.

A messiah who has assembled the tools

that can bring corporate giants to their knees.

MAN: This man is a organizational genius.

There's no getting around that. He's got all the bases covered.

People are playing pool, they're getting together.

There's a lot of things that are going on

in that union hall that should have gone on years ago.

He's kept the hands and minds busy of the people.

MAN: Lewie Anderson is the Austin union's

international vice-president in Washington.

Our research has shown

that Hormel could do more damage to First Bank

by taking their money out

than what First Bank could ever do to Hormel.

Well, Lewie's lying.

Okay, I want to say this very clear.

Lewie is lying.

I believe he looked at Hormel's history.

He talked to some people,

and he thought once he put a public campaign

with the news media, they were gonna crumble.

The strategy or the research, I should say,

had about as much depth as piss on a flat rock.

How much more damage has to be done before you figure out

that that strategy is not working?

Bull!

I don't take anything away from Local 9

in terms of rallying people.

They've done a good job with it.

But it's a doomed strategy.

It was doomed from the beginning,

and we tried to impress that on them.

Being militant and standing up if you're on the wrong strategy

doesn't make it right.

People still end up getting hurt.

Rates still continue to tumble.

You don't have the luxury of saying,

"At least we're fighting."

Because when you fight and it's over and you've lost everything,

that's a terrible price to pay just to say that you were tough.

What we're doing makes sense, and we believe in it.

Belief is something that will carry you a long ways.

NARRATOR: Hormel's proposal

keeps a base wage frozen for three years

at $10 per hour.

And any new employees would be paid $2 less for the same work.

Hormel's final offer is rejected

by both the local union and the International.

NYBERG: If we're faced with a situation

where there is a withholding of labor on one side,

we could shut the plant down completely.

We could try to run the plant

with management employees on a reduced basis.

We could hire temporary replacements

for strikers who elect to stay out.

We could hire permanent replacements

for strikers who elect to stay out.

Any combination of those things.

We'll send the letter tonight, then. Right, Case?

When we hand-deliver the letter, we're gonna be on strike,

as of midnight on Friday.

MAN: We'll tell them that.

You want to get that set up in the main hall?

RAY: You get your story here

and make sure everybody hears about it. Really.

Just go ahead.

Aw, come on.

Aw, this is your show.

[ Cheering ]

JIM: The Hormel company put us into a corner,

and we were gonna come after them,

like a fighter going into a fight.

When you know you've trained about as well as you can,

it's time to get the gloves on or take them off

and do what you got to do.

By over a 93% margin,

the contract proposal termed by the company

to be their last and final offer was rejected.

So the Executive Board has met, and we intend

to give the company a 48-hour-working-day notice

tonight before midnight.

[ Cheers and applause ]

For the first time in 52 years,

Hormel's Austin plant was about to be shut down by a strike.

You're looking pretty chipper today.

- Hi, Bill. - Hiya, Jim.

Too bad we can't meet under better circumstances.

I need you to sign.

In fact, if you want to sign a couple of them, you can.

We got new pencils for everyone, just like the President.

No, we don't.

That's mine.

- Okay, there you go, Jim. - Okay. Thanks.

What may result from the Hormel workers' action

is a test of just how much muscle

organized labor can or cannot flex.

Kevin Berger, Channel 5 Eyewitness News, St. Paul.

NYBERG: I think it is tragic.

We were hoping that some resolve would be reached,

so that this community and certainly our employees

wouldn't have to go through what we're facing.

We've done everything humanly possible

to resolve this thing on reasonable terms.

But we aren't going to resolve this dispute

on unreasonable terms.

JIM: The company's strategy is a clear one.

They want to freeze us out.

They want to starve us out.

And I think the motto that we at Local 9 have is best exemplified

in one of Bruce Springsteen's latest songs.

"We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.

No retreat and no surrender."

And I think that the fact that these people are here today

helping us so that the company can't starve us out

is certainly a giant push well on the way

to let this company know that we are not about to surrender.

- Hi. - Hi.

Hi.

What we started is something

that's gonna be more than maybe what we thought.

I see people working together, people willing to share,

people borrowing clothes.

I see people opening up. I see people crying.

It's just a whole new part of people,

and we're pulling together.

You know, we're a big family.

Just so it doesn't.

If it takes too long, people are gonna get short on cash.

Then they're gonna feel the squeeze really bad.

My kid five weeks ago got his finger in the door at home.

Just one of those freak accidents.

Went in and had three stitches. 120 bucks.

There went half of my paycheck.

This money is to be used for food

for the people of Local P-9.

I can't even add.

I can't even add.

One thousand...

One hundred...

Forty-nine dollars!

Almost $1,050.

And they're not done yet.

Take it in brotherhood. Spirit.

JIM: This money will be very much needed by our membership.

And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Hey, Joe. They lost their power over there.

JIM: Our union hall became a fun place to be at.

There was a lot of things going on.

It became a place where families could come.

We had a lot of folks who liked to work on cars.

Instead of pulling picket duty, they fixed our cars.

We had carpenters who fixed people's homes.

They did what they liked to do. They did their hobbies.

I asked Guyette,

"Tell me where Corporate Campaign is today,

where it's going next week and the following weeks

and relate that to how we're getting back

into the packinghouse."

All they did is the same old gibberish.

"We've got a group. We're gaining support.

We got money coming in."

They start with this gibberish, and you say,

"l didn't ask you that."

"Let him speak!"

Then Rogers gets into his filibuster.

Then all of a sudden, it's, "boom." "Next question."

"I was in Ottumwa,

and the guys there were patting me on the back."

This guy gets it, and he talks for 10 or 15 minutes.

LEWIE: When he gets up to start his filibuster,

you got to have 7, 8, 9, 10 people say,

"Tell me how you're gonna get the jobs back.

Tell me how you're gonna get a contract."

You got to keep pounding into him,

"Where are you as far as settling this thing?"

You got some maniacs up there

in the leadership position and a maniac in Rogers,

who has yet to do one positive thing.

who has yet to do one positive thing.

We can't be jacking around here forever.

This is a mess. That's what I'm saying.

Employees shall receive as normal 40 hours' pay.

Vacation pay shall consist

of an employee's normal 40-hour weekly check.

- Yeah. That's good enough. - Good.

JIM: Normally, the National Union managed negotiations.

However, in this particular situation, our national union

was spearheading a concessionary drive,

and we didn't want a concessionary contract.

Therefore, our national union was told, "Get out of the way.

We'll deal with our own negotiations."

It don't mean anything.

NYBERG: When the union made a proposal

that we thought was outrageous,

what we had to do is come back with a proposal of our own.

Instead of just basing it blindly on the old contract,

we looked at every provision of that agreement and said,

"What would make sense here?"

WOMAN: Who's gonna pay for that?

MAN: The company.

What is it?

Joint Management Labor.

LEWIE: Any seasoned, experienced negotiator

knows you don't rewrite your whole contract.

You don't throw your whole contract up for grabs.

You don't give the company the opportunity

to dismantle your contract because you rewrote it.

But that's exactly what the P-9 leadership did.

They rewrote a whole contract.

Language it has taken 40 years to negotiate,

language that provides the local union to have a say

in how the goddamn plant is run.

When management got done with that contract,

those things didn't exist.

And I'm speaking to 40 years of bargaining gone as a result

of these assholes rewriting that whole contract

and submitting it to the company.

Being a negotiator requires a lot of different skills,

especially in an industry that's in turmoil, like this one.

Nobody likes to have their wages and benefits rolled back.

And it's unconscionable to put out this proposal

after all the concessions these workers made.

What's your reaction?

- What's next? - No further comments on that.

LEWIE: All I can do is take a peek at their vaults

and see if there's any money.

If there is, we all run in there,

we grab as much of it as we can, and we get the hell out.

Negotiations have broke off.

There are no further meetings scheduled.

LEWIE: That's pure, unadulterated bullshit!

What's holding up a contract settlement

is that these bastards won't give you a decent wage!

That's what holding up the settlement!

Send your bargaining committee to Chicago

with a vote of confidence that supports them

and tells the company to stick their proposal

where the sun don't shine and give us a decent contract!

Thank you very much.

JIM: Sometimes you have to fire the people up

to send a clear message to management

that the workers are really ticked off.

That they not only want what's right,

they want more than what's right.

You better be prepared to give a lot back that was taken away!

Or you four can start looking for another job!

You want to come back to these meetings?

I worked out in that plant, and I busted my ass for you

for over 18 years on production.

All of a sudden, you put the hammer down,

and we go from our $10.69

down to $6.50 to walk back in that plant on a Monday.

You want to come back? You keep your mouth shut, okay?

You don't know what you're talking about!

I won't take it anymore!

I won't have the courtesy of letting you ask questions.

I'll walk out the next time you open your mouth.

LEWIE: The more that the membership seems unreasonable,

the more the bargaining committee seems unreasonable,

the tougher they are...

Hello.

LEWIE: The more the employer has to rely on you

as the negotiator, because you're the one, supposedly,

that has to make common sense prevail.

I'd like to carve out numbers one and two

and continue to talk with you

to see if there's something we can do,

but I haven't come up with anything.

LEWIE: You only do that once you have extracted the maximum

from that employer.

And then you let the membership decide.

[ Crowd booing ]

They stole my check!

LEWIE: That's a danger when you fire the troops up,

is that you get their expectations so high

and they believe those expectations can be met.

If you don't meet them,

they believe you haven't done your job

and may believe you sold them out.

We can't afford to go backwards anymore.

We've went back far enough.

We work too goddamn hard down there

to have to go backwards anymore.

I say, "Fuck them."

If they want to close it down, let them close it.

We can all find something else.

We're decent human beings,

and we deserve every damn thing we get.

LEWIE: If you take workers who feel

that they're been mistreated or misused,

they want to get at the heart of the matter.

They want to get to that employer.

It's their obligation to give it to us.

If they don't want to, then piss on them. Let them go.

Look, between both of you, you want a strike.

You keep snapping at everything for one.

- lf you want one. - MAN: Some results, Lewie.

You think it's us?

I can't deliver, and I don't intend to carry this on.

I can't deliver something that's not there at this time.

I've been banging around.

Quit looking for somebody to run in with a fucking white horse!

You don't even know what negotiations is all about,

and you act like you know everything!

I did not come here and act like I know everything, Lewie!

Our members are asking for some answers, Lewie!

Give your members some answers!

Don't lay the shit on me!

The easiest goddamn thing to do is blame somebody

for the problem you're in!

We didn't blame you for the problem we're in.

LEWIE: The biggest and most powerful threat that you have

is the threat of a strike.

When you actually have to use the strike,

then you are going into an all-out war.

And you have to pick your fights.

If I get emotional. I seem tired about this.

This is not jerk-off time. This is serious business.

You better be able to inflict some economic damage

on that employer.

If you cannot get into his pockets

and take a lot of money out and make the employer understand

that it's better to settle than it is to fight,

then the employer will crush you.

Hormel's production has not been stopped.

The company shifted production to their other plants

that are still in operation.

In Austin, they are using their own management personnel

to turn out thousands of cans of Spam a day.

MAN: It's got to be blatantly obvious to everyone

that this company doesn't want a contract.

MAN #2: We're at the crossroads.

JIM: I want to win.

MAN: I don't think there's a guy who don't want to win.

That's no excuse for doing something you shouldn't.

All I'm saying is,

whatever it takes to win, I want to do it.

LEWIE: That, potentially, is a time bomb

that can blow up in all of our faces.

The company is gonna end up forcing a settlement

on those people out there.

That is gonna be way under the Hormel chain settlement

and under the Oscar Mayer settlement.

Here you're gonna have this big company, very profitable,

that has got a substandard agreement

that's gonna tear the shit out of our rates in the industry.

We are gonna negotiate shit

if they get stuck with a bad settlement up there.

MAN: You people are believing

that we've got the power to get them to the table.

It is my assessment

that the reason that we have been unsuccessful,

the reason that our strategy hasn't worked,

the reason that we've gone to a 4-1/2-month strike,

is simply that very issue.

We don't have the strength to get them there.

The division that some have tried to create here

has been to our downfall.

And I just wish that we could act concerted.

The fact is, I think we all realize right now

the company is in a very solid and very legal position

to start that packinghouse up without us

if we don't go back to work.

Now, I think that the rank and file here has been misled

in understanding this company's position.

The problem is, Jim, the company isn't gonna talk to you, period.

They've got a grudge against you.

You probably got a grudge against them.

And I don't care if we offer to go back for 5 bucks an hour.

The company ain't gonna talk to you.

Why don't you talk to them?

Because I'm not part of the negotiating board. That's why.

WOMAN: You're out of order!

Hey, you can rule me out of order all you want.

I'm gonna tell you one thing.

Rule me out of order all you want.

JIM: Security?

Did you call 911?

Get them in here. Get them in here.

MAN: Will you sit down?

What the hell is the matter with you?

Back off, you guys!

I relent!

If you have come to fight

and not get any damn answers, continue!

Otherwise, sit down!

It's a union meeting!

We have said until we're blue in the face.

I don't know how we say it again.

We have gone as far as we're going to go.

If you want to go into negotiations

and that means you're going to get more and more, no.

We're not going to give any more.

10 bucks.

They don't even want to talk about it anymore?

- Nope. - Other than asking questions.

Yep.

There's no bargaining whatsoever?

You think you're winning. I don't think you're winning.

The company, I don't think, thinks you're winning.

You're at war, they're at war, and they're not giving in.

The contract that you work under is your decision alone.

The Executive Board has recommended rejection.

I have a family like you have.

And I want to be able to say to them,

as Hubert Humphrey said,

"I'd rather live 50 years like a tiger

than 100 years like a chicken. "

NYBERG: We've got a $100 million plant that needs to be run.

We're taking applications tomorrow

from people that want to work in that plant.

And if Local P-9 says,

"We are going to continue to withhold our labor,"

now the process is underway.

The union will have rights to their jobs

until they've been permanently replaced.

No bills today.

When you got a place like this, we got 4-3/4 acres and house

and lived here seven years.

And payments are, you know, a couple hundred dollars a month.

I got a wife and three kids, and I love them.

They'll understand later.

If it comes down to losing this place, we'll survive,

just like a lot of people.

I got to give R.J. credit.

At least he made a stand, you know.

He put himself on one side or the other.

I'm on the side that's commonly referred to as the P-10ers.

That was my choice.

R.J. decided he wanted to follow Ray Rogers and Jim Guyette.

It's a hard decision to make for some people,

but it wasn't for me when we took that strike vote.

Go out there and be willing to give up things

and make things better for us workers

and workers around the United States, union people.

We're tired of going backwards.

But then you have to look at the rest of the economy.

Throughout the nation, that's what's happening.

And I guess maybe you have to swallow hard,

but if you want a job...

You're gonna have to take it, I guess, a little bit.

NARRATOR: So, are you having problems with your brother?

Oh, I won't have any problems, really,

until he crosses that line, to scab.

There's nothing worse than a scab,

so how can you have anything to do with a scab?

You guys have been giving in and giving in for 23 years.

And we got unions all over the country watching us,

counting on us.

People are counting on us.

RON: To hell with them.

You know, we got 1,400 workers here.

We got thousands of people counting on us

And sending in money, you know.

But it's our job. It's not theirs.

We knew this strike was coming.

We should've avoided it.

They didn't want to talk.

The International said, "It's ill-advised.

You're on a suicide mission."

They told us that.

MAN: So far, I think I've seen about five.

Let's see one, two...

Three, four...

Five, six...

I think I've seen seven.

I had to come today.

I had to know what it'd be like to see people

coming into the place that I spent my whole life in,

going in and doing my job.

It's really, really hard to watch this happen.

I'm never gonna let myself get in a position like this again,

where a group of a minority of assholes

dictate how I handle the rest of my life.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I'll tell you there will be no blocking

of the ingress and egress of that plant.

That plant will operate.

The state police will come down on them and crush them.

You can't win that fight there.

If the police can't do it,

then they'll bring the National Guard in.

That will demoralize the piss out of them.

They'll be standing there,

3 people every 50 feet with their dick in their hands,

watching people take their jobs.

Now, that is very demoralizing.

[ Laughter ]

All right!

Look, you got to do it and be effective.

MAN: I'd like to know how many people

think they could get up at 3:30, 4:00,

whenever the traffic comes in, and do it.

I'm ready right now.

All right, then let's do it Friday morning!

Let's do it!

Then we'll see you at 4:00 in the morning!

[ Cheers and applause ]

[ Car horns honking ]

MAN ON RADIO: We might mention, if you are driving in the area,

you will be diverted away from the plant, westbound.

If you're moving up the east side of the Hormel plant,

you will be asked to turn your car around and go back.

MAN #2: We just heard from the Austin Law Enforcement Center

that all the roads surrounding the Hormel company itself

have been blocked off.

MAN #3: We'll get further reports, Dan-o. Thank you.

One thing we should probably tell everybody.

If the police ask who's in charge, nobody's in charge.

Nobody's in charge.

No one's in charge!

It's cold out today. God!

There's gonna be a lot of cars that's gonna freeze up.

If anybody comes, the police come and ask who's in charge,

there's no one in charge!

There just happens to be a breakdown and a traffic jam.

So there's nobody in charge here!

MAN: If there's any interference with our police duties,

we do not want to make arrests.

WOMAN: I lost eight hours' pay today because of that.

[ Crowd groaning ]

And while that might not seem like a lot

to the P-9 members who have been on strike for 5 months,

it wasn't a thing I chose to do without.

I have every right to go in and do my job,

just as they have every right to picket.

Mr. Mayor, this isn't a hostage situation.

This isn't Tehran, Iran. This is Austin, Minnesota.

They told us that they would not let us in.

That is a lockout!

Don't be mad at us.

Blame it on the people causing the problem.

That's across the tracks.

It's them that put you in this position,

because they put us in this position.

We don't know who's going in there to do what, so to stop it,

we had to stop everybody that goes in that plant.

We had to close it down.

I don't want to merit right or wrong.

I'm not gonna pick sides.

But I got a question.

Is what the company's doing...

I don't want to discuss moralities.

Is what the company doing legal?

They're not out there because they like to holler

and fight and they want to kill somebody.

They're out 'cause they want a contract

where they can go to work.

We want to work.

This is a tragedy for all of us.

I was born and raised here.

Members of my family that are buried here.

These people are my friends on all sides of this issue.

I've graduated from high school with them.

I went to college with some of these people.

This isn't some impersonal thing.

We're personally involved whether we want to be or not.

We would do anything in our power to try to resolve this.

It's a difficult situation

for both Chief Hoffman and I to deal with.

I can't tell you what it's like. It's tearing us up.

MAN: Left! Left!

Left, right, left!

Left! Left!

Left, right, left!

Minnesota governor Rudy Perpich

called the National Guard, trying to help maintain order,

as striking union meatpackers and their supporters

blockaded the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota.

- Hey, your clubs are cracked! - Holy shit! Look at them go!

Behind the barricades.

MAN: I don't know if you know, but this is your community,

not two or three of them greedy executives!

What the hell's the matter with you? Shut it down!

Shut her down!

I want, no matter what happens,

if anybody gets hit, if anybody gets hit,

you simply try to identify who it is,

but get back to that hall!

Wait a minute. You see what they got here?

There ain't no way you got a chance

on dealing with those clubs!

So you better think rationally!

I don't want to see you in a fight with the National Guard!

Okay, remember, if anybody moves on you,

just go back to the office.

There's varying opinions from everyone here

as to how many people are gonna cross the line.

But it sounds as though

you're gonna have a stampede situation.

If what everybody is reflecting is accurate.

MAN: Let's get our people

and tell 'em the straight shot, like they deserve.

We got lots of folks that are gonna go in there tomorrow

because the Guard's gonna let everybody in.

So let's all go back in tomorrow.

I don't think there's gonna be that many going in tomorrow.

I don't think we've shown our last shot.

I'm not ready to give up.

- No. - Shit, not me.

I got some real problems

because I can see tomorrow and you guys can't.

But, boy, that's what makes me sick.

Go home and take a couple aspirin.

You'll feel better in the morning.

Jesus Christ, I won't feel a bit better.

Left, left, right, left.

I've been out of work for six years. I need a job.

NARRATOR: How have you been getting by?

Just doing odd jobs.

Must be hard. You ever worked in a packinghouse?

No.

- Where are you from? - McIntyre.

- How'd you hear about it? - Been on the news.

I got neighbors that work here.

Does it feel hard to go across the picket line?

No.

- Scab! - Hey, you lowlife!

When you go across that line, that's your decision.

You just don't let it bother you.

You'd better be able to stand it,

or you should have never went across.

NARRATOR: Why are you doing this?

Because I need a job.

When was the last time you worked?

Oh, last spring.

- Where are you from? - Austin.

Okay.

You're crossing a picket line!

You're a scab!

Hey, scab, go home!

Go home, scab!

JIM: Some people may be looking for excuses to cross.

But remember that your self-respect will be left behind

if anyone decides to cross the picket line.

You know, my family is starving.

I'm not getting a thing from anybody other than $40 a week,

just like everybody else in here.

I want my job,

just like everybody in here wants their job.

I'm seriously considering crossing.

I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't.

Don't do it!

I didn't say I was.

I said I was considering.

What I'm saying is, a lot of you people,

and you'd be liars if you say you didn't,

haven't considered crossing.

Because we all need jobs.

What plan of action is everybody here looking for?

I think we're all looking for some plan of action.

Either we gotta shut down every plant

that Hormel owns Monday morning.

Or Tuesday or Wednesday we might as well all go back

if we don't shut down their goddamn plants

and shut 'em down fast.

I think that you guys can't keep going and saying, "l agree."

The company says they're not gonna meet.

The company says they're not gonna give.

They're not gonna give Monday, not Tuesday, not Wednesday.

And all that time, you got some more guys going in,

and so what we're all saying is

you gotta either shut down the other plants

or, like you said, all go in en masse

and work without a contract.

But it's gotta be one or the other.

It can't be dragged out

and waiting for the company to give you something.

They told you they ain't gonna give you anything else.

Now we're looking at shutting the other operations down.

Don't you feel

that that's a much more pressurizing strategy

on this company at this time?

Especially in light of the fact that those people know

that whatever happens here is gonna happen to them.

We need to communicate that.

Mm-hmm.

Don't you think that that's a better position to be into?

If you can't shut them down completely,

you've accomplished nothing,

other than getting a whole lot of people fired and out of work.

What I'm saying to you is, at what cost are you prepared

to take roving pickets to that plant?

What are you gonna do when they say,

"You screwed me out of a job. Now what are you gonna do?"

I'll say it. Hell, there's nothing we can do for them.

That's the risk we take.

Not we take. They take.

Okay. It's the risk they take.

We all take.

Yeah, we took it willingly, and we took it to start with.

Now for our fight, we're dragging them in.

JIM: When does the realization come to those folks

that our fight is indeed their fight?

When are we gonna do it if we don't do it now?

Mr. Nyberg, what will Hormel do

if P-9 sets up picket lines at your other plants?

Our employees know that it is our position

that they'd be in violation of the contracts

if they voluntarily stay out

and honor the picket line of Local P-9

or however many pickets there might be.

We know that if they do stay out

that they will be subject to replacement

just as employees in Austin are subject to replacement.

The Executive Board of Local P-9

decided to recommend that the picket line be extended

to all other Hormel plants in an attempt to shut them down.

With that came the promise that if anyone at the other plants

got fired for honoring P-9's picket line,

no P-9ers would return to their jobs

until the company agreed to rehire everyone.

You know, when you talk about being illegal,

at one time, it was illegal to go out on strike.

At one time, it was illegal to join a union.

I guess at one time,

it was illegal for America to even exist.

The Executive Board has passed a motion.

Roving pickets will be sent to other plants.

If this is approved, it'll send a message to the company,

to everyone else.

We made a promise.

We swore we'd always remember. No retreat, no surrender.

Speaking on the motion...

It's a unanimous Executive Board recommendation.

All those in favor signify by saying "aye."

CROWD: Aye!

Those opposed.

Ayes have it.

I repeat. This is a union picket line.

We ask that you do not cross it.

Take the day off. One damn day is all we ask.

All Hormel plants will be shut up tight as a drum by Friday.

There will be none running, to our knowledge.

We'd appreciate your support.

Go home and have a cup of coffee.

Go talk to Ma and the kids before they go to school.

MAN: There's no way on God's creation

that I'm gonna cross their picket line!

When I looked at a guy I worked with for seven years.

I live in the same town he does, 22 miles up the road.

And I said to him, "How do you feel?"

He said, "My heart's pumping."

I looked at another guy I worked with for seven years.

I said, "How do you feel?" He said, "My heart's pumping."

I said, "Guess what? You're union people."

We ain't crossing no picket lines!

We ain't crossing them!

What miracle do we expect to happen in the next three days?

That's the question.

What miracle? How or why?

We have tremendous spirit, we've got a wonderful program.

And we seem to think that if we just go one day at a time,

like an alcoholic.

Just keep the strike going one more day,

and after today's over, it'll keep going tomorrow.

What do we expect is gonna happen?

I'm mystified.

Scabs!

Go back to your own town, scabs!

Asshole! Go to hell! I hope you rot in hell!

You're the one that really hurts, Steve.

All these other guys are dicks.

When you went across there, you really hurt.

What the hell's the matter with you?

How can you work with those scabs?

Doesn't it bother you to go in there with guys like that?

Then you got no class.

I don't know you.

Who's your smiley partner?

I've known that guy since we were in grade school.

It's killing him inside. He's told me that.

I tried to talk him out of it.

He said no. It's what he had to do.

My wife and children have been my backbone.

They've just. "No way."

They knew in their minds that if I did,

I couldn't live with myself.

RON: If things haven't changed substantially

in two or three days,

I will base my decision on the fact

that my family is number one in my life, not my union.

NARRATOR: Are you gonna go across the picket line?

So it appears it.

At this stage of the game, well, it would be tough,

but I can't see any alternative.

Now that we've been working on this for a year and a half

trying to figure out the difference

between right and wrong,

I believe that I was a dupe, I was lied to originally.

And now he's got control of my whole life.

On the other hand, it's a question of morality,

because I was brought up

that you do not cross a picket line, no matter what.

It's something that you do not do.

Because you don't belong to a union all these years

and develop all these principles.

It isn't like a dollar bill.

You can't throw it on the ground and be rid of it.

As much as I want my job back,

I've still been a good union member for many years.

But I don't know.

My family comes first.

My daughter goes to work. She's got a part-time job.

My boy, he works at McDonald's, part-time job.

My wife goes to work. She's got a job.

And what do I do? I sit home, and I play with the cat.

What kind of provider is that?

It may sound corny,

but a person takes pride in being a breadwinner

and providing for your family.

When you can't do that,

when you say to them, "All I want to do is work,"

and they...

It's tough.

But I spent more than we should have.

But I want to go back to work.

And the hell with P-9.

I'm ready.

NARRATOR: Is that hard for you?

You bet.

Why?

Not being able to -- excuse me.

[ Voice breaking ] Provide for my family.

[ Crying ]

I just can't talk no more.

You're scared to see all them people you've worked with.

All these people are standing there hollering at you.

Yet, you know you have to go across.

there's some in there, you think,

"I don't care if you ever come back."

You see people you talk to every day,

and it almost makes you cry.

There are some good friends of mine.

That's the ones you feel like you're betraying.

- Where you guys going? - To work.

- You got a pass for that? - You want to see our cards?

Just Hormel cards? You want to see them?

Yeah. You new employees?

No, no. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

WOMAN: To some, staying out no longer makes sense.

There is more here than a town divided,

as brother watches brother cross the line

in a place not big enough for anyone to hide for very long.

He won't be my brother if he crosses the line.

For me, it wasn't tough to get to the point of the gate.

I was ready.

But the minute we crossed that line,

part of me just stayed back there.

Well, unionism, to me, is watching out

not only for your own job, but you're an organization

for the welfare and benefit of all the workers.

And now, you know, for this moment, we aren't.

Because we left them.

You know, I wasn't always International president.

I used to work in the grocery stores, you know.

And I know what it is to work for peanuts.

And you think I like the fact

that our people got to roll their wages back a bit?

I don't.

But I tell you what.

I don't take people over a cliff.

There's an old rule in the labor movement.

Anybody can put people on the street.

It takes a man to put them back to work. I'm sorry.

It takes a man or a woman to put them back to work.

Now is the time to settle it.

Hopefully, we can work it out

through the course of our local union.

If we don't, then in a short period of time, I'll settle it.

- Question. - I'll settle it.

- How will you settle it? - I told you I'll settle it.

I have a meeting. Thank you.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union

ordered 1,000 members of its meatpackers local

to end their bitter seven-month strike

against Hormel in Austin, Minnesota.

The International Union said it had lifted its sanction

of the walkout

and cut off $40-a-week benefits to strikers.

But pickets remained in place through the day.

WOMAN: It is a strike, those on the line say,

is becoming symbolic of the struggle

to keep trade unions alive.

If they end up operating that plant nonunion

and your guys never get back in there,

will you consider that a big defeat for you?

Or not?

Number one,

if I say there's no way I could look at this as a defeat,

then you're gonna say, "How can you say that?

Now, you either win or you're gonna lose."

And let's talk about what has happened here

and about the types of victory and defeat you can have.

If all the workers lose their job here,

okay, if that's a scenario that you're playing,

yeah, that is certainly a defeat that way.

But when you consider the fight these people have fought.

Are you saying that 1,000 guys lose their jobs,

and because they've got intense national attention

on these important problems that confront labor,

that could still be a victory?

No, what I am saying,

there's been a set of dynamics that has occurred

both with all the people in this area, within this community,

and within the labor movement.

That cannot be considered anything but positive.

JIM: I think that we at P-9

started this small labor dispute.

It quickly escalated into a labor dispute

that represented a lot of things.

Taking on one of the corporate giants in an industry.

Taking on one of the largest international unions

in the country.

And really recognizing the forces

that working people have to deal with.

If a small union in the middle of a cornfield in Minnesota

can do the kinds of things we do...

We just need to get about the business of doing it.

LEWIE: I don't believe the membership elects leaders

to be heroes at their expense.

Talks about dignity and everybody going back together.

What dignity is there when you don't have a job?

There's no dignity at all.

In June of 1986,

the International took over the local union

and threw out the elected leadership of Local P-9.

The main things that the order covers is

if anybody physically confronts the UFCW, if they remove assets,

or if they hold themselves out to be representing Local P-9

rather than just saying they're a member of P-9.

Do I have to say I'm suspended?

The order's pretty clear on that.

I got to say I'm suspended?

The International Union

negotiated a settlement with Hormel,

whereby the people who crossed the picket line

would receive the same wages and benefits as workers

at the other Hormel plants.

$10.25 per hour.

We didn't stand by the company.

We stood by the International Union.

Kiss my ass! Kiss my ass!

You're full of shit.

You went back to save your ass and save your job.

By God, we needed our jobs.

We took our chances with Hormel with the hope

that unionism would somehow survive.

We left the union and we went back to our jobs.

That's where it was.

[ Booing and jeering ]

Go ahead. You can scream and holler.

Get that out of your system. Then we can proceed.

There's one part in the contract that I must have missed.

It's the part that says they have to take me

and the rest of all these guys back.

This is the way I feel.

Hormel's will never take me back unless I put it in the contract

or you put it in the contract.

And if that's not in the contract,

all this bullshit of a contract don't mean nothing to me.

Because how many days' vacation or how much of this they get.

I don't get none of it, because I didn't get back in the plant.

The contract did not contain any provisions

for the people who honored the picket line.

These people were placed on a waiting list.

It's time, and I think you people have realized, too.

Had we pulled together two years ago,

I don't think you or us would be faced with this.

But I think it's the thing that's going on in America,

and I think we as men and women have to realize

we better start pulling together,

or, by God, they're gonna bury us.

Part of why it's gonna be so hard to leave

is because I'm gonna have to leave my mom and dad.

My dad's still out on strike,

and I feel like I'm abandoning him, almost.

But we feel like we have to get on with our lives for the kids.

They need a normal atmosphere they can grow up in.

I know my dad will be okay, 'cause he's a survivor.

And he knows that we're still behind him 100%.

We're not abandoning him.

We're just taking our fight somewhere else.

As far as the strike goes, it was time.

It was past time.

Mike took a stand and refused to go across the picket line.

I'm glad he wouldn't, because I wouldn't have wanted him to.

LEWIE: You hear this business of "Old Jay Hormel,

if he was around, things wouldn't run this way,"

or "We got this new crop of executives,

and they've changed the direction."

They didn't change nothing.

Hormel changed because it was to their advantage to change.

They realized there was profits and growth

by pursuing this strategy.

And they did it.

All of a sudden, they're not benevolent anymore

and they're not so paternalistic.

They become barracudas, just like everybody else.

We can't look to unions and say, "You gotta stop this."

It's gonna take a combination of outrage from people.

Whether you support a union or you don't,

is it right for these companies to do this?

It can't be dealt with just on the picket line

and just at the bargaining table.

You're not looking at short-term fixes here.

When the union's inspiration

Through the workers' blood shall run

There will be no power greater

Anywhere beneath the sun

Yet, what force on Earth is weaker

Than the feeble strength of one

And the union makes us strong

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

And the union makes us strong

In our arms is placed a power

Greater than their hoarded gold

Greater than the might of armies

Magnified a thousand fold

We can bring together the new world

From the ashes of the old

And the union makes us strong

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

And the union makes us strong

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever