George A Hormel Co

With the end of the Reagan era approaching, America's workers are "on the road again to a resurgent labor movement, with growing numbers, stronger organizations, deeper solidarity and a voice that will be heard," AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland asserted here Monday. In his keynote address on the opening day of the 12.

Geo. A. Hormel & Co. built its reputation on Spam and the slaughterhouse. But the company is now setting its sights on the supermarket. With a growing, diverse array of more than 1,600 products, Hormel is moving away from the fresh, unbranded meat business and the accompanying risks of unstable pork prices, and into the broader market for processed foods. Hormel now sells chicken, turkey and catfish, has expanded its Latino food lines and is preparing to enter the Asian foods market.

A dogged group of Minnesota meatpackers came to this sunny resort city Sunday to remind the leaders of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, that their highly publicized struggle against Geo. A. Hormel & Co. is not over. The three dozen Austin, Minn., packers who came here are among the 850 members of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers who have not gotten their jobs back since a bitter, occasionally violent strike formally ended last March.

Geo. A. Hormel Co. views all of its customers in the same light: They're busy people, on the go; they need good food fast and don't have time to cook. Hormel Top Shelf meals, the company says, are a perfect solution--whether you're a working mother or a soldier stationed in Saudi Arabia. So when Uncle Sam called in November, Hormel answered--with 23 million entrees ranging from beef Oriental to glazed breast of chicken, all for $44.6 million.

Geo. A. Hormel & Co. built its reputation on Spam and the slaughterhouse. But the company is now setting its sights on the supermarket. With a growing, diverse array of more than 1,600 products, Hormel is moving away from the fresh, unbranded meat business and the accompanying risks of unstable pork prices, and into the broader market for processed foods. Hormel now sells chicken, turkey and catfish, has expanded its Latino food lines and is preparing to enter the Asian foods market.

Geo. A. Hormel Co. views all of its customers in the same light: They're busy people, on the go; they need good food fast and don't have time to cook. Hormel Top Shelf meals, the company says, are a perfect solution--whether you're a working mother or a soldier stationed in Saudi Arabia. So when Uncle Sam called in November, Hormel answered--with 23 million entrees ranging from beef Oriental to glazed breast of chicken, all for $44.6 million.

Just minutes before Jerry Dahlback won Friday's Spam-o-Rama Cook-Off with his Spam Mexican Bake casserole of chili, Bisquick, cheese and, of course, Spam, protesters salted heavily among the spectators in front of the J. C. Penney store at OakPark Mall began hooting. "Cram your Spam," they shouted with distaste. Some wore T-shirts with the same motto. It was not a criticism of the microwaved Spambinos, Spamuffins and Spam eggs au gratin that were among the losing recipes.

Presidents of union locals from around the country called for solidarity with meatpackers who lost jobs during a strike and accused top labor leadership of cooperating with management to force concessions. About 250 workers at a rally in Boston's Faneuil Hall cheered speakers who called for action against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union leadership, which they said permitted deteriorating wages and benefits.

Union meatpackers at the George A. Hormel Co. plant in Austin, Minn., said they would stage the first strike in 52 years at the plant at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The vote against the company's offer was 1,261 to 96, said Jim Guyette, president of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. "We intend to go after Hormel and its other customers to tell the consumers just how much pain and suffering goes into that pound of bacon they buy," Guyette said in announcing the strike.

With the end of the Reagan era approaching, America's workers are "on the road again to a resurgent labor movement, with growing numbers, stronger organizations, deeper solidarity and a voice that will be heard," AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland asserted here Monday. In his keynote address on the opening day of the 12.

Just minutes before Jerry Dahlback won Friday's Spam-o-Rama Cook-Off with his Spam Mexican Bake casserole of chili, Bisquick, cheese and, of course, Spam, protesters salted heavily among the spectators in front of the J. C. Penney store at OakPark Mall began hooting. "Cram your Spam," they shouted with distaste. Some wore T-shirts with the same motto. It was not a criticism of the microwaved Spambinos, Spamuffins and Spam eggs au gratin that were among the losing recipes.

A dogged group of Minnesota meatpackers came to this sunny resort city Sunday to remind the leaders of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, that their highly publicized struggle against Geo. A. Hormel & Co. is not over. The three dozen Austin, Minn., packers who came here are among the 850 members of Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers who have not gotten their jobs back since a bitter, occasionally violent strike formally ended last March.

One of the most bitter intraunion feuds in recent American labor history erupted Wednesday at the normally fraternal winter meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council here. The combatants were the leaders of the long strike at the George A. Hormel & Co. pork-processing plant in Austin, Minn., and officials of their international union--the United Food and Commercial Workers--who have been severely critical of the local's tactics.