With a strike that wore on, the company reopened the plant Jan. 13 with workers who had abandoned the strike and with newly hired people. He survived the beatings and jailing and ignored the persistent threats and continued the struggle to organize common working people. In northern Minnesota he was beaten and left for dead by vigilantes. In that way he was able to place potential organizers throughout the plant between 1929 and 1933. If any attempt was made to break the strike, Syck and his deputies could be expected to be in the vanguard protecting the replacement workers, Ellis believed, and Marcusen and other town officials would surely add moral and legal support for Syck’s actions. His tactful approach and calm demeanor n the midst of the crisis that could have exploded in an instant, enhanced his image throughout the state. In 1930 Olson was elected governor and carried 82 of 87 Minnesota counties and 59 percent of the popular vote. The pipes of the refrigeration system would freeze solid and burst within twenty-four hours unless the dynamos were turned back on. Organize all of the producing classes. If a trusteeship is imposed, Mr. Hansen, the regional director, said, the parent union will attempt to negotiate a contract and assure that the plant remains unionized. 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. On Strike at Hormel: The Struggle for a Democratic Labor Movement, by Hardy S. Green. MNHS call number: Reading Room HD 5325 .P152 1985 .A873 1990. The Farm Holiday Association sided with the IUAW strikers who had recently backed their efforts to withhold perishable agricultural commodities from the market in order to raise prices. Then he said that what was needed was not simply a union of the workers in the Hormel Company but a union of all of the workers in Austin. Unable to open his blockaded plant, Jay Hormel admitted defeat. There he met and courted Germaine Dubois of La Vernelle, an auburn-haired daughter of a miller. 'A … After speaking with Hormel, Olson dispatched Starkey to Austin and then secretly mobilized three hundred national guardsmen and stationed them in Owatonna, thirty miles from Austin, in preparation for their rapid deployment in Austin should there be a further breakdown of order in the community. With the doors held firmly shut, strikers told Syck to “get the hell out of here.” He made the wise choice to return to his office with his deputies and to consider an alternative strategy for protecting the plant. His passion for perfection inclined him towards the use of instructional meaty maxims for his employees whenever he observed them wasting time or materials. Hormel Strike SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 2010. He asked them to send someone into the plant in order to turn on the refrigeration system and keep in running. Only in this way, he said, could negotiations with Hormel move forward. The official history of the Austin union (Frank W. Schultz, “Historical Sketches of the Packinghouse Union in Austin, Minnesota, 1933-1939,” unpublished MS in the possession of the United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 9, Austin, Minnesota) states that the union was born in the hog kill as a result of those meetings. Ellis had been a staunch and outspoken supporter of Olson and he was aware that Olson himself was a former IWW member and had legitimate radical credentials in politics. George Hormel attributed his success to his personal surveillance over every phase of the slaughtering process and to his intimate knowledge of every aspect of marketing his products. Following the approval of the agreement by both parties, Olson met reporters in the dining room of the Fox Hotel and discussed with them the details of the strike settlement. He then explained how the act of destroying money symbolized what workers did when they dropped meat on the floor. Some of you know it was worth the whole thing to say to Jay Hormel, ‘Get the hell out of here.’ It doesn’t do anyone any harm to get down to earth once in a while to let them know they are not up in the clouds with the Blue Eagle [symbol of the New Deal’s NRA program]. At an early age he was sent away to a Shattuck School for Boys, a private military academy in nearby Faribault, Minnesota, rather than to the local public schools where he might have gotten to know the children and families of workers in the Hormel company. I want to keep the peace. Hormel and the other men were told, “We’re taking possession here. Reporters watched Olson leave the Hormel home at 4:45 AM. Jesse Jackson visits Austin as a mediator. On December 4, 1933, in accordance with a ruling by the State Industrial Commission, the following wage increases went into effect at the Hormel Company in Austin: workers earning 40 cent to 49 cents per hour received a pay increase of four cents per hour; workers earning 50 cents to 54 ½ cents received increases of three cents per hour; workers earning more than 54 ½ cents per hour were given increases of two cents per hour; a 10 percent increase in piecework earnings was granted and straight time men received a 10 percent cut back in pay. Shoemaker found Ellis and other union officials at the union hall and succeeded in drawing them into a corner for a private discussion. In April 1986 the UFCW terminated its support fo… Members of Local P-9 were protesting shrinking wages and plant safety problems. He attended a national IWW General Council in Chicago as an Omaha delegate. The specific incident that transformed the informal discussion groups into a union organization was Hormel’s proposal of a new insurance program. Once inside the plant, the strikes ran through every department and floor to hunt down and chase out non-union workers. It may not be the last change of seasons before this struggle ends. Many of Hormel’s thoughts concerning company management came directly from his father, George Albert Hormel, who founded the meat packing enterprise in Austin in 1891. The plant managerial staff, not unlike some packinghouse Pinkerton organization, was given broad powers in hiring and firing workers as well as determining the conditions of work in each department of the plant. Frustrated workers in the hog kill department at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn., went on strike in 1933. Starting in the late 1970's with de-industrialization, the Chrysler bailout and the continuous string of concessionary bargaining (rather begging), the attacks on the working class went unabated. His success in settling the dispute peacefully contributed both to his continued popularity as well as to his reelection as governor in 1934. In Austin, Olson uncompromisingly asserted his intention to uphold his oath of office as governor and to enforce all of the laws of the state of Minnesota. An agreement whereby either company or union may present each other with formal requests in writing, the receiving party acknowledging receipt of the request and arranging provisions for a conference within 24 hours of receiving it. He had been run out of towns by vigilantes, sheriff’s deputies and company thugs. In fact, not until after the 100,000th hog had been slaughtered in the plant, in 1901, did he trust anyone else with the difficult task of splitting carcasses. Hormel told his employees he wanted to see Herbert Hoover reelected president but far more important for the company in Austin was the election of Republican Earle Brown as governor of Minnesota. Hormel telephoned the plant and spoke with the engineers who were supervising and tending the refrigeration system. I would have given you the raise before if I could afford it…. Jay was musically talented and was known locally as a virtual one-man band. Little did Jay suspect upon inheriting the presidency of the company in 1929 that within four years his little benevolent dictatorship would come crashing down in a sudden and frightening manner. In the months following the stock market crash in October 1929, and with the decline in consumer demand, manufacturers throughout the country started to cut back production and lay off workers, initiating what appeared to many as a grim spiral of declining prices, declining wages and rising unemployment. On November 8, IUAW president O. J. Fosso, presented Hormel with five union demands that would “help achieve the goals set by the NRA in bringing wage scales up to a point where they would equal the wage scales of a normal year. The recession of the early 1980's … Critics of Mr. Rogers say his career as a consultant is at stake and that he has placed his career above the welfare of the Hormel workers. The measure passed and a strike was set for 8:30AM the following morning. Hormel absolutely refused to meet with Ellis or to consider a 10 cent wage increase. Jay Catherwood Hormel boasted brazenly in early 1933 that his unchallenged and unchecked power over the policies and personnel of George A. Hormel & Company packinghouse in Austin, Minnesota, was a “benevolent dictatorship.” Laborers for the Hormel Company conceded that Hormel’s rule was dictatorial, but they disagreed with his use of the adjective “benevolent.” More often the term “sheer tyranny” was used often by workers to describe their take on Hormel’s labor policies within the giant meatpacking plant. Most of the men working inside the plant at the time did not resist the strikers. He became a member and organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an organization that recruited both skilled and unskilled laborers, and he was instrumental in establishing a “Wobbly” branch in Omaha, Nebraska. With or without hard times, several unwise company decisions were almost guaranteed to provoke the ire of Hormel workers. If there were no volunteers from among the workers, he cautioned, it was uncertain what kind of men might be selected for the important guard duties. By William Serrin, Special To the New York Times. But Ellis was quick to reject the offer and told Hormel that the union would get its meeting hall somewhere else in Austin. Ellis began pulling workers aside in the plant and questioned them about their grievances and about their attitudes toward organization. The call immediately went out for a meeting of all Hormel workers that evening in Sutton Park. Hormel was helped onto the table and from that platform he addressed the strikers. All spoke with optimism, unchanged by time or, critics say, reality. If you have an ebook reader or a Kindle, check out our guide to using ebook readers with libcom.org. “I don’t want to b put on the spot because if I ha ve to choose between my proper duty and my sympathy I will be obliged to choose duty.”, Following his statements, Olson invited questions from the audience. The strike stunned Jay Hormel and Austin's elite. He explains how Hormel influenced numerous community institutions, including the local mental health clinic, newspaper and even schools, against the strikers. In a subdued and almost conversational tone of voice – surprising, given the excitement and the jeopardy of the moment – Hormel concealed his anger and pointed out that although the union had violated its agreement his company by striking before serving official notice of the action, he would nonetheless make no attempt to break the picket lines with other workers.