ConAgra Teamsters Expected to OK Pact

Teamster members working at a ConAgra vegetable dehydration plant in King City, Calif., are expected to approve a contract Thursday, officially ending a two-year strike that divided the Central California town.

The first group of returning strikers is set to march back to the plant on Labor Day, Sept. 3. The strike was noteworthy for the determination of the employees. About 750 held the strike, out of a work force of 800. Many were related by blood or marriage, and picket lines often included family members of two or three generations.

Teamsters officials estimated the strike and boycott cost the company at least $20 million.

Strikers organized a boycott that led schools, county hospitals and jails throughout the state to change their source of dried beans, mashed potatoes and other products from family-owned Basic American Foods, parent company of plant operator Basic Vegetable Products, which sold the factory to ConAgra in November.

Union and ConAgra negotiators agreed last week to a five-year contract, which includes an immediate 3% wage increase and modest increases for the next two years. Health and pension benefits continue unchanged.