Hold the Pepperoni

Striking meatpackers at Tyson Foods have called for a national boycott of Tyson-made pizza toppings – particularly at Tyson’s biggest pepperoni customers, Pizza Hut and KRAFT FOODS, makers of DiGiorno.
Tyson, best known for its chicken processing, is muscling into beef and pork, which led it to purchase IBP Fresh Meats (formerly Iowa Beef Processors) in 2001. The pepperoni plant that’s on strike, in Jefferson, WI, was an IBP plant, and its labor contract is the first out of the twenty or so former IBP plants to run out since then.
In negotiations, Tyson demanded a 32 percent cut in pay and benefits, among other things, to try to lower the workers’ living standards to that of Tyson’s chicken plants, mostly in the South and largely nonunion.
The union (UFCW Local 538) has been fighting this since last June. In February, they finally walked out and called for a boycott of Tyson-made pizza toppings (Pizza Hut and Kraft’s DiGiorno, Domino’s, Jack’s & Tombstone).