Stopping the Chain

More than 500 workers in the country’s most dangerous occupation are walking out on their jobs — and their union.

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


For years, workers at the massive IBP meatpacking plant in Amarillo, Texas, have complained about low wages, unsafe working conditions, and unfair union representation. Now many of them fear that they may no longer have jobs at all: In response to a wildcat strike, the company has dismissed hundreds of workers and filed suit against others, claiming that they violated their contract by striking without the support of their union.

The workers hope that recent publicity about the safety hazards of meatpacking will help bolster their case. Meatpacking is considered one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations, with employees suffering a higher rate of serious injury than workers in any other industry, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See “Fast Food Nation” author Eric Schlosser’s account of the meatpacking industry in the July/August edition of Mother Jones.)

In the 1970s, IBP led the way in an industrywide restructuring of slaughterhouse work that eliminated the need for skilled labor. Once one of the nation’s better-paid industrial jobs, meatpacking now has some of the country’s lowest wages and highest turnover rates. Workers at the Amarillo plant are demanding a wage increase, improved safety on the job, and a rehiring of all the strikers fired after the walkout. “The wage increase is so that we don’t lose more employees. But the demands from the beginning were always about security and safety,” says Jose Vazquez, an eight-year veteran of the plant and a spokesman for the strikers.

But the plant’s union, Teamsters Local 577, has not supported the walkout. Workers say they set up meetings with management twice in September to discuss their grievances, but that union local president Rusty Stepp refused to attend. Stepp did not return phone calls for this article.

IBP says that by walking out without union sanction the workers violated their contract, giving the company grounds to terminate them. “There’s nothing to negotiate since the contract, which the employees agreed to, was not up for negotiations until 2002,” says spokesman Gary Mickelson.

But Vazquez says the issues required immediate attention, and on Sept. 18 the workers decided to take action without the union. Forty-seven IBP employees left their work stations that day, demanding a meeting with supervisors to discuss their grievances; instead they were ordered to leave the plant. Hundreds of additional workers have walked out in solidarity since. A group of striking workers and supporters, now numbering nearly 500, has set up camp in front of the plant. IBP has filed a temporary restraining order against 67 of the strikers and is suing for damages due to lost production.

IBP spokesman Mickelson says the plant has hired 300 replacement workers; meanwhile, more than 500 of the strikers are trying to get their jobs back by bypassing the union and local management and appealing directly to IBP’s headquarters in South Dakota. Attorneys representing the workers are organizing meetings with corporate officials, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the US Department of Justice serving as mediators. They hope to resolve the issues by working out amendments to the contract rather than turning to the courts.

The workers, meanwhile, remain firm. “We will stay on strike as long as it takes,” Vazquez says.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate