Strikers Barricade Hormel in Display of ‘Mob Rule’ : Hormel Strikers Barricade Plant; ‘Mob Rule’ Charged

AUSTIN, Minn. —  Striking meatpackers barricaded entrances to Hormel’s flagship plant with their cars today, forcing the facility to close in what the sheriff called a display of “mob rule.”

The shutdown, two days after National Guard troops were withdrawn from the plant, followed a raucous pre-dawn rally by more than 400 strikers and out-of-town supporters. A double line of vehicles blocked the north entrance to the plant. Metal spikes were scattered on a freeway ramp to shred the tires of workers attempting to enter.

“We’ve got a situation, at least in that area, where we’ve got mob rule, and to me that’s abhorrent to everything this country stands for,” said Mower County Sheriff Wayne Goodnature.

He said that he asked Gov. Rudy Perpich to send the National Guard back to the plant to quell the disturbance but that the governor refused. “Responsibility is squarely on the governor’s shoulders,” Goodnature said.

Gerry Nelson, the governor’s press secretary, said, “I think the sheriff’s comments are somewhat overstated. Nothing particularly violent happened.”

Goodnature said law enforcement officers did not attempt to remove the barricade because they did not want to “shed the kind of blood that would have been shed.”