I just saw a commercial for Tyson Foods on television. It had something to do with family values, showcasing happy, smiling faces and delicious-looking meat products.
As a matter of fact, Tyson’s slogan is “It’s what your family deserves.” Tyson’s website explains that the company chose this slogan as “part of our comprehensive, integrated communications program focused on Tyson’s commitment to families and communities.” That’s beautiful.
It is also the epitome of hypocrisy, however, as Tyson’s love of families stops with its marketing department.
Just ask residents of Jefferson, Wis., a small working-class town about 30 miles east of Madison. As you may or may not know, 470 of Jefferson’s 7,300 residents are on strike, protesting a proposed freeze in wages, as well as a 32 percent cut in employee wages and benefits that many see as a potentially trend-setting act.
Some feel Tyson, which acquired the Jefferson plant in 2001, is attempting to begin the process that will match the wages and benefits of those in the red-meat industry with those in the poultry industry, specifically in the South, where workers’ wages start at only $7 an hour. Base pay at the Jefferson plant used to be $11.10 an hour. An additional slap in the face is that these cuts are proposed in a time of record profits.
Other features of the proposed contract include differences in wage and vacation time between old and new hires, a classic union-busting tactic; large cuts in sick-leave benefits and vacation time; a freeze on pension benefits; the removal of severance pay, which would allow Tyson to shut the plant down and not pay anything to the workers; and an increase in the cost of health care (from $10 a week to $40).
The workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538, have been on strike since February, picketing the plant, spreading the word and trying to get by on the $100 a week strikes pay and donations from local unions and food pantries. In the meantime, scab workers have filled in for the strikers. The scabs are being paid $10 an hour, a full dollar more than the proposed contract would pay new hires.
All of these problems are compounded when you think of the strikers as not simply 470 workers, but 470 workers and their families. At any time, but particularly in the current economic climate of the United States, the loss of a job can be a devastating blow to a family.
A school-supplies drive was held Aug. 17 so that the children of the strikers can attend classes with the necessary equipment. Donations from the community have helped, but if the situation does not improve soon, 470 families will be facing some difficult times. Apparently, that’s what Tyson thinks its employees’ families “deserve.”
The media, whether consciously or subconsciously, often portray unions as greedy, lazy organizations, always wanting more money for less work. But let’s put this whole situation into perspective: The striking workers are upset about, among other things, a four-year wage freeze that will provide, instead of raises, a 2 percent lump-sum payment per year based on gross pay. For most workers, this will amount to a few hundred dollars. John Tyson, on the other hand, who is the CEO of Tyson Foods, just received a million-dollar salary and a $3.48 million bonus for 2002.
This sad trend is by no means limited to Tyson; across the country, CEOs of major corporations make, on average, 400 times more than their workers, and this number is growing. The money exists; it’s just not in the hands of the people who do the work.
It really boils down to class warfare: profits go up when workers get stepped on. Workers for Tyson, Verizon, General Electric, the State of New York and others all are facing, or have faced recently, concession battles.
Tyson’s position is that the concessions are simply an attempt to get the newly acquired Jefferson plant in line with the rest of the plants across the country. This ignores the fact that Wisconsin residents pay higher taxes and have higher heating bills than most other Americans.
Many were just getting by already and would be forced to find a second job. And the cuts to pay and benefits of new hires would affect future employees, as well as the town itself. Jefferson’s tiny economy is already feeling the pressure. If the strike fails, it will be a great loss to the town.
We can all help by boycotting businesses that use Tyson products, particularly the pizza of these companies: Pizza Hut, Jack’s and Tony’s.
But if anything positive can be pulled from this situation, it is the support the striking workers continue to get from the town of Jefferson and elsewhere. Grocery stores and restaurants advertise “Tyson-free” inventories, citizens donate time and money to help the strikers, students and activists from Madison have given their time and efforts to the struggle, and the Jefferson County Board, the Dane County Board, the Madison School Board and UW have all agreed to boycott the industry giant. The men, women, and children of Jefferson deserve better.
Kyle Myhre ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in English and is involved with Stop the War, the ISO, the International Students Campaign and the Madison Observer.