Tiny Town Fights Tyson Foods

Yard signs urge people to boycott Tyson Foods. The town's two grocery stories no longer sell Tyson chicken and meat and signs taped in restaurant windows advertise Tyson-free meals.

A strike by 470 workers at Tyson's Jefferson plant has turned into a fight between this town of 7,300 and the world's largest meat company. The walkout is also the first under Tyson by one of the former IBP meatpacking plants bought in a 2001 deal that moved the Arkansas poultry company into beef and pork.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union contends the company is using the Jefferson plant to send a message to other former IBP meat plants to expect lower wages and benefits in the future. But Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson says the company wants to bring the Jefferson workers' benefits in line with what its other 110,000 workers receive and its wages in line with what comparable workers earn in the region.

People in this working-class community 30 miles east of Madison are supporting the striking employees, who have been off the job since Feb. 28.

"I don't know if this small town can make a difference, but we're doing as much as we can," said Chad Stelse, who manages Frank's County Market.

That's why Ken's Towne Inn no longer uses Tyson pepperoni on its pizza, even though "Hormel's is only half as good," manager Butch Janke said. It's also why other businesses are offering discounts, collecting food and finding other ways to help the workers who produce pepperoni, hams, bologna and hot dogs at the plant.

Tyson, which posted $23.4 billion in sales in 2002, got the Jefferson plant and about 60 others when it bought IBP two years ago. One of those plants, a pork facility in Waterloo, Iowa, reached a contract deal with the company last year that raised wages and improved some benefits but also increased insurance premiums.

The company's offer would freeze wages for four years and cut new hires' hourly wages from about $11 to $9, both sides say. Tyson would give workers bonuses when they ratify the contract and at the end of each year but wants workers to pay more for health care coverage, Nicholson said.

The plant's average hourly wage is nearly $14, among Tyson's highest, Nicholson said. Last year, the average meat processing wage was $12 an hour and the average poultry processing wage was $10.13 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There have been no negotiations since the strike started. Tyson has hired replacement workers and has no plans to resume negotiations. Nicholson said the company stands by its latest offer.

Spokeswoman Jill Cashen said the union sees the Jefferson situation as the first move by Tyson to lower compensation at the old IBP plants.

"Clearly Tyson is trying to set some kind of agenda to rachet down wages and benefits in the red meat industry down to the level of their poultry plants, where workers earn lower wages and have fewer benefits," Cashen said.

Industry watchers, however, aren't so sure the strike signals future labor battles within Tyson and don't believe the issue has much significance outside Jefferson.

"To the people involved, I'm sure it's a gigantic issue. But for the industry at large ... there are a lot bigger issues," said Keith Nunes, senior editor at the industry magazine Meat and Poultry.

Donald Stull, a professor at the University of Kansas who studies the industry, sees the strike as part of the industry's longtime effort to cut labor costs.

Nicholson said Tyson has shown it can work with the unions in place at a quarter of its 300 facilities. "We feel the contract we are offering is competitive based on what's currently being offered in the area," he said.

For Jefferson, the strike isn't just about 470 workers and their families — it also could hurt the town's economy. About 1,500 people in the area work in manufacturing, and Tyson accounts for a third of those jobs, said Terry Ludeman, a state labor economist.

At Knutson Jewelers, owner Dave Knutson felt the pinch of slowing sales soon after the strike started.

"This is the last thing they think about buying," he said.

Sue Garity, who has worked at the plant for 27 years, already has limited her spending. She thinks her family may consider moving if Tyson closes the plant or wins out in negotiations.

The strikers are getting increasingly frustrated, but Mayor Arnold Brawders said the town seems to be standing firm behind them.

"Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an end in sight," he said.