Striker Joanne DeLuca, who has worked as a packer for eight years, voted for the contract. "I hope that we are as strong inside as we have been outside," on the picket line, she said. "We have to deal with the line speed." For many of the workers company speedup of the production line and resulting injuries, and the degrading attitude of management, were major issues in the strike.

In the end the company granted a four-year contract with modest wage increases totaling $1.80. Many workers considered the yearly increases in the pension plan a significant victory. "The younger members would have preferred a large wage increase," said Steve Pitsadiotis, a steam room operator with eight years seniority. "But it's really good for the older workers. They deserve it. The main thing is we all stuck together, including the mechanics who didn't cross the line."

"I didn't vote for it," said Joe Zubac, a shipper and receiver who has worked in the plant for 16 years, He said the union could have won more, but the strike was worth it. "We hit rock bottom as a union, and now we won some respect back. They couldn't destroy the plant-wide seniority system."

The attempt by the company to change plant-wide seniority to only cover individual job classifications was seen by the unionists as a threat to job security, especially for more senior workers. This attempt to win a major concession was stopped in its tracks by the strike.

Many workers were pleased that a new "relocation" clause has been added to the contract. It commits the company to hiring the present workforce at any new facility within a 60-mile radius of the present plant in the event the plant closes in its current location.

John Steele is a meat packer and a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Toronto.  
 
 
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