Source:
The Business Journal of MilwaukeeA contract between Hormel Foods Corp. and a union representing four thousand workers, including workers in Beloit, was ratified Wednesday.
Workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) ratified the contract which included wage increases, health care improvements and a pension plan increase for Austin, Minn.-based Hormel (NYSE: HRL) employees.
Union members in five states, including Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Georgia, voted to ratify the contract, which establishes wage increases of $1.40 per hour over four years for production workers. Maintenance workers will see an increase of $1.80 per hour. The union added in a press release that the increases bring the average wage for production workers to the top of the industry, at $16.75 an hour.
The new contract also provided for significant improvements in preventive health care with no increase in deductible, and minimal increases in co-premiums. It also provides for a 10 percent increase in pension checks.
Read more:
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2007/09/10/daily29.html
Nearly 20 years later, the Hormel strike lives on
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/01/29_galballye_hormelstrike/