Vol.64/No.47 July 10, 2000
Workers at Iowa IBP plant stage sit-in
BY EDWIN FRUIT
PERRY, Iowa--Sanitation workers at the IBP packinghouse here staged a two-hour sit-down strike in the company cafeteria June 20 to demand a $1-an-hour wage increase. Some 50 to 60 cleaners, employed by what union activists believe is an IBP-owned company called DCS, work at the plant. The IBP plant is organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers union; DCS is not organized.
Sanitation workers start their shift at 6:00 p.m. and use heavy hot water hoses to clean the plant during the night. When the workers came in for their shift they gathered in the cafeteria, refused to go to work, and placed their demand for a wage increase on the company. A plant manager eventually convinced workers to return to their jobs with a promise that the company would respond to their demand by the following Monday. As of June 28 the sanitation workers had not yet received a response. There are about 800 workers at the IBP plant.
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