010371 Hormel Unit Operating During Strike

Chicago - Rochelle Foods, Inc., a wholly owned unit of meat company Hormel Foods Corp. was processing pork this week, but was not slaughtering hogs after about 840 union meat cutters went on strike, said company and union officials.

The Rochelle, Ill., plant, which can slaughter about 7,000 hogs a day, is about 70 miles west of Chicago.

Supervisory and non-striking workers were processing a backlog of meat at the plant, said Calvin Jacobs, plant manager, Tuesday.

The strike began about 11 a.m. CST Friday after negotiations on wages and employee benefits broke down the day before, said T.J. Lauritsen, a representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1540.

The meat cutters had been working under the terms of a previous labor contract, which had expired in February, said Lauritsen.

Neither the company or union could say when talks would resume.

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