5 October 2023
AUSTIN, Minn. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 announced Thursday afternoon that a tentative contract agreement has been reached with Hormel Foods Corp.
The union local, which represents about 1,700 meatpacking workers in Austin, released a statement about the positive movement toward a new contract. The tentative deal was agreed upon during a Wednesday night negotiation session.
“We unanimously recommend this tentative agreement to our fellow union members at Hormel. We are grateful for the strength our coworkers showed throughout this bargaining process to keep our voices heard,” the union’s bargaining committee stated.
Hormel Foods said the company was “pleased” to have reached a new, four-year tentative agreement with unions representing workers in multiple locations.
“We are proud to continuously invest in our people in recognition of the work they do to put the safe, quality food that consumers trust and need on tables across the globe,” the company statement said. “We appreciate the negotiators on both sides of the table who bargained in good faith to reach this tentative agreement, and we are hopeful the contract will be ratified in the upcoming vote next week.”
Union members are expected to vote on this latest proposal on Monday, Oct. 9, with the results to be announced in the evening. The current four-year contract approved in 2019 was set to expire on Sunday, Oct. 8.
UFCW Local 663 previously rejected an earlier contract proposal from Hormel in September.
Local UFCW units in Beloit, Wisconsin; Algona, Iowa; and Atlanta, Georgia, bargained together with Hormel. Each location has a Hormel plant. Austin is the largest, with more than 1,700 employees.
The Hormel plant in Austin was the site of a lengthy and heated strike in 1985-86 that drew national attention.
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