Union strikers voted 293-70 Wednesday to accept Tyson's contract offer after more than 11 months of debate.
According to Mike Rice, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538, the contract is only slightly better than what was originally proposed.
\I believe it is better but not much better,"" he said. ""It extends the time for health insurance and pension, improves the new hire rate, and reduces the eligibility for normal pension.""
Since Feb. 28, 470 Tyson workers have been on strike. Union workers went on strike after Tyson, the world's largest producer of pork, beef and chicken, revealed a plan to freeze wages for four years, end profit sharing, increase the cost of health coverage and reduce vacation time, sick leave and pensions.
If the union had not accepted the contract and continued to strike for more than one year, the workers Tyson hired to replace strikers could have voted to dissolve the union, a decision that Rice says he is certain they would have made.
""We ran into a corporate conglomerate that has deep pockets, can sustain losses, withstand a strike and the law does not provide us to go more than 12 months before somebody else decides whether or not we want union representation,"" he said.
UW-Madison freshman Nathan Fuller, a member of the International Socialist Organization, which actively supports the strikers, said Tyson has been unwilling to negotiate in the 11 months since the strike began.
""[Dec. 19] was the only time that Tyson was willing to come back to talk to the employees, to the workers, but it wasn't anything different,"" he said. ""In fact, it was basically the same contract but it would impose more limitations on the workers ... and there was no guarantee that they would get their jobs back. Basically it was a slap in the face for the workers. Tyson was saying we're really not going to negotiate.""
According to Tyson spokesperson Ed Nicholson, Tyson's goals have remained the same over the course of the strike.
""We had one objective and that was to reach a contract that allowed the plant to remain competitive. Unless a contract could be reached that would allow the plant to remain competitive, nobody could win,"" Nicholson said.
Rice said although the contract may fall short of union expectations, it was to the strikers' advantage to sign the contract and maintain the union.
""Their only chance for recovery in the future would be to continue to be unionized,"" Rice said.
