DAKOTA CITY, Neb. - Two things hang heavily in the warm spring air here: the smell of cattle and a word that brings a chill to almost everyone who hears it - "strike."
Negotiations on a new labor contract between Tyson Foods Inc. and the United Food and Commercial Workers union, whose current contract expires in August, will begin in a few weeks.
A strike, if it comes, would be the largest in a series of recent confrontations between Tyson and its unions, including a strike in Wisconsin last year and a rejected contract in Iowa in May that still hasn't been resolved.
The impact would be most severely felt in the area of Sioux City, Iowa, especially in South Sioux City, Neb., and Dakota City, where most workers live.
The Dakota City beef plant has about 3,800 employees, 3,000 of whom are represented by the union. The plant, owned by IBP Inc. before Tyson bought the company in 2001, is the Sioux City area's largest employer and Tyson's largest plant. The plant employs more people than live in Dakota City.
"Everybody is worried about a strike," said Magdaleno Loza, who works in Tyson's packaging department. "No one wants a strike," he said, but "everybody says we're going to strike."
"A lot of people are going to take other jobs" if there is a strike, added Jose Buenrostro, who works in the plant's rendering department. He said he is not looking for another job yet.
The two had just finished a soccer game at the IBP Field of Champions in South Sioux City, one of a number of places bearing the company's name in the Sioux City area. As members of the UFCW, both will have a chance to vote on the contract Tyson offers. A strike, too, must be approved by a vote of union members.
A Tyson spokesman said he doesn't understand the strike talk, since the company hasn't even presented a contract to the union. He said workers' fears of wage cuts are unfounded, and the company probably will propose a wage increase. Workers now get $9 an hour to start, rising to top production pay of $12.20.
"We intend to bargain in good faith in an effort to reach a fair and competitive contract without any labor disruption," said Gary Mickelson.
But Marvin Harrington, president of UFCW local 222 in Sioux City, dismissed talk of a wage increase.
"If you get a dime but they take away a dollar in benefits, you don't gain," he said.
Loza, who has worked at the plant since the 1980s, said he remembers the hardships caused by past strikes. Workers have struck the plant five times since it opened in 1966, though labor relations were smooth in the 1990s.
Violence, ill will and economic hardship have characterized past strikes at company plants.
For example, at the 1977 Dakota City strike, Dakota County Sheriff Allan "Machine Gun" Bligh ordered police to fire tear gas at workers. He got his nickname from the type of weapon he carried while keeping order during the strike. Police armed with riot gear also fought workers who threw rocks.
Later on, relations improved between IBP and the union, and they avoided strikes during the past three contract negotiations in 1991, 1995 and 1999.
Of the 30 or so Tyson workers interviewed last week, all said they are expecting or preparing for a strike. Some are saving money or getting second jobs. Some are just worrying.
The reasons for their prediction varied. Some said the union had told them; some said they heard it from co-workers; some predicted a strike based on what's happened at other Tyson plants.
Juan Lopez, who works as a deboner in Dakota City, said he has been looking for another job, either to supplement his income or as a replacement during a strike.
"Everybody wants to go on strike. I'm not willing to work for $6" an hour, he said, exaggerating for effect.
Some employees who came to the Sioux City area only for the work are preparing to leave town if there is a strike. Most of the workers are immigrants from Latin America.
Abril Garcia, editor of South Sioux City's Spanish-language newspaper, Mundo Latino, said she has seen an increase in classified advertising offering homes for sale. She said those advertising their homes are Tyson employees anticipating a strike.
When employees at BeefAmerica Operating Co. went on strike in Norfolk, Neb., in 1998, a lot of the workers came here, she said. "Now people are turning around and going to Norfolk."
Other possible destinations mentioned by workers: Columbus, Neb.; Worthington, Minn.; and Omaha. All have meatpacking plants.
Along Dakota Avenue in South Sioux City's main business district, dozens of signs in Spanish cater to Tyson's workers.
"Everybody's worried," said Miguel Ramirez, owner of La Guadalupana, a store that sells spices, fruit juices and other groceries imported from Latin America. "The company has us dependent on them."
Ramirez estimates that more than two-thirds of his customers work for Tyson, and he already is considering cutting the store's hours and laying off some employees if there is a strike.
Talk of a strike follows an announcement that computer maker Gateway will close its North Sioux City, S.D., plant this year, eliminating 300 jobs. The Sioux City metro area has a 4.9 percent unemployment rate, compared to 3.9 percent for all of Iowa.
Tyson declined to discuss in detail the terms it will offer workers at its Dakota City plant. In Jefferson, Wis., and Cherokee, Iowa, Tyson proposed wage cuts, fewer vacation days, increased employee contributions to health plans and one-time bonuses for workers.
In Jefferson, workers struck for more than a year but in Februaray accepted a contract similar to the one initially rejected, including wage cuts, higher health care premiums and fewer vacation days. The strike was peaceful.
In May, a federal court ruled that the replacement workers Tyson hired during the strike should be treated as permanent workers and should be included in any vote to decertify the union.
Last week, the 600 workers in the Cherokee plant's union rejected the contract the company offered. The company called the contract its "best and final offer." Employees are currently working without a contract.
At the Dakota City plant, the union said it will ask for a pay raise and no changes in workers' holidays and health plans. Asked about the possibility of a strike in Dakota City, union President Harrington said: "The way things went with Cherokee and Wisconsin, it looks like things are headed that way."
The Cherokee contract Tyson offered included a 16 percent cut, to $9, in starting hourly wages and a 9 percent cut, to $11, in the maximum hourly wage.
Tyson's proposal also included increasing employee health insurance payments from nothing to 25 percent of the plan's costs, reduction in annual holidays from nine to eight for new employees, reduction in maximum vacation from five weeks to four per year and replacing the company's pension plan with 401(k) accounts. The changes would affect new hires, and current workers could avoid some of the cuts.
In exchange for accepting the cuts, Tyson offered workers a bonus of $1,500 if the new contract is signed.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly wage for meatpacking workers was $11.86 last year. Among all blue collar occupations, 73 percent of employers require contributions to individual health plans, and 87 percent require contribution to family plans, according to the agency.
Tyson's Mickelson said Dakota City's workers should not see the Cherokee contract offer as a precursor to their own negotiations. Dakota City workers already receive wages and benefits similar to those that Tyson proposed for Cherokee, he said.
This year's contract negotiation does not come at a good time for the union. Although Tyson's earnings have been strong over the past year, and its stock price more than doubled, beef has been a weak spot. In its most recent earnings release, in April, the company reported a 3 percent decline in beef revenue and a 12 percent drop in beef production volume.
Though American beef sales are up, foreign sales fell 40 percent because of trade restrictions related to the December discovery of mad cow disease in the United States.
With less demand for beef across the industry, Tyson is in a better position to withstand a strike. And workers might find it more difficult to find replacement meatpacking jobs, increasing the temptation to cross picket lines.
"In a sense, it would be the worst possible time for a strike," from the union's perspective, said Steve Kay, publisher of Cattlebuyers Weekly, an industry newsletter. Meatpackers across the country have been reducing plant hours of operation since the mad cow discovery, he said.
"I think the union would be misreading Tyson's profits if they thought they could ask for a whole lot. Tyson's going to hold firm," Kay said.
At the Dakota City plant on a recent night, workers trickled out to their cars or waiting rides after the 11 p.m. shift change. Steam rose from the massive plant as the night cleaning crew entered, and empty cattle trucks rattled out of the parking lot.
None of the workers interviewed was optimistic about the contract negotiations.
"It's a perfect situation for this company to get what they want," said Mike Pedersen, a maintenance worker whose time at the plant spans several past strikes. "The job climate is so tight - with Gateway - there wouldn't be anything to do on strike.
"I'd just picket."