Research Paper on:
1985 Minnesota Hormel Plant Strike

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
protest wage cuts in the face of company profits, and to protest poor working conditions. While the sentiments of the union members were noble, a militant union leadership, combined with  management that was unwilling to negotiate and an international union that simply wanted things to settle down meant that the strike was a messy one. During the 25 weeks the  strike spanned, messy confrontations, pickets, arrests and loss of jobs for thousands of workers occurred. As a result, no one truly won in this situation - Hormel received a black  eye as the strike drew nationwide attention. P-9, in its militant position and through crass methods of negotiation, ended up costing workers jobs and any future with Hormel. Meanwhile, the  UFCW came across as a weak union that was tied to the strings of corporate management, rather than one that represented the best interests of its rank and file. And  filmmaker Barbara Kopple got it all on film. She released her documentary of the event, The American Dream, in 1991, and the movie won an Academy Award.  However, the questions remain. Could the messy strike been avoided? What, exactly, were the workers protesting against? What was the role of UFCW in this?  And what was Hormels perspective toward negotiations and why was the company so insistent on mistreating its workers? There is no doubt  that the Austin plant teemed with discontented workers almost from the very beginning of its existence. Opened in 1982, the Austin plant, from the first, was considered to be a  "hell-hole" by all of its workers, who were primarily meat packers for the canned meat company (Rachleff, 2002). The builders of the plant had sacrificed worker ergonomics and comfort for