UFCW Local 663, Hormel Foods agree to tentative contract agreement

Union workers with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663 have reached a tentative contract agreement with Hormel Foods.

The UFCW Local 663 union bargaining committee stated that the deal was reached late Wednesday and further details are being withheld until union members can be fully informed during membership-only meetings over the weekend.  The union said in a statement about the agreement…

 “We unanimously recommend this tentative agreement to our fellow union members at Hormel. We are grateful for the strength our coworkers showed throughout this bargaining process to keep our voices heard,”

Workers are expected to vote on ratifying the contract on Monday.  In a statement from Hormel Foods…

“We are pleased that we have reached a new, four-year tentative agreement with the unions representing our team members in Atlanta, GA, Austin, MN, Algona, IA and Beloit, WI. We are proud to continuously invest in our people in recognition of the work they do to put the safe, quality food that consumers trust and need on tables across the globe. We appreciate the negotiators on both sides of the table who bargained in good faith to reach this tentative agreement, and we are hopeful the contract will be ratified in the upcoming vote next week.”

UFCW Locals 663 in Austin, 1996 in Atlanta, GA, 1473 in Beloit, WI, and 1155 in Algona, IA, bargained together with Hormel.  Each location has a Hormel plant and Austin’s is the largest with approximately 1,700 employees.

Union members voted in September to reject what was termed Hormel’s final offer, as the current four-year contract approved in 2019 first expired on September 10th.  The two sides agreed to a contract extension until October 8th, and bargaining resumed the first week of this month.