August 17 - Hormel P-9 On Strike

Labor History in 2:00 · Aug 17, 2026 · 1m

On this day in Labor History the year was 1985. That was the day that workers at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota went out on strike.

They were members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local P-9. Hormel had slashed workers’ wages by twenty-three percent during the early 1980s. Benefits were also diminished and incentive programs rolled back.

These changes cut deeply into the Hormel workers’ earnings. What had been considered a good job was changing drastically. This was the story for many workers in Reagan-Era America.

The 3,500 Hormel workers voted overwhelmingly to…