How SPAM built a town—and tore it apart
On the Media
WNYC Studios
4.6 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, OTM presents the second installment of a new series by our colleagues at The Experiment. In this episode, we learn that SPAM is at the center of one of the longest and most contentious labor battles in U.S. history. In 1985, workers at the Hormel Foods plant in Austin, Minnesota, went on strike, demanding better working conditions and stable wages. Generations of meatpackers had worked at the plant, some for most of their lives—and that gruesome, difficult work afforded them a sustainable, middle-class life. So when that way of life was threatened, they fought back. SPAM boycotts spread to cities and towns around the world. The strike went on for almost two years, pit neighbor against neighbor, and turned violent; the National Guard was called in to protect those who crossed the picket line. In the end, the strike is a Rorschach test: either a lesson in what is possible when workers unite, or a cautionary tale about biting the SPAM that feeds.
This episode is the second in a new three-part miniseries from The Experiment—“SPAM: How the American Dream Got Canned.”
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the OTM Midweek Podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week we're bringing you |
| 0:10.4 | another story from our colleagues at the experiment, a show produced by WNYC in the Atlantic. |
| 0:16.9 | They're currently running a series called Spam, how the American Dream got canned. We shared |
| 0:22.5 | the first episode with you last week and the second installment, which we're airing today, |
| 0:27.5 | explains how the tinned pork mix is central to one of the longest and most contentious labor |
| 0:34.1 | battles in U.S. history. In 1985, workers at the Hormel Foods plant in Austin, Minnesota |
| 0:41.8 | went on strike demanding better working conditions and stable wages. Spam boycotts spread to cities |
| 0:48.7 | and towns around the world. The strike went on for almost two years, pitting neighbor |
| 0:53.9 | against neighbor and turning violent. In this episode, you'll hear from Gabrielle Burbe, |
| 0:59.6 | a producer at the experiment and Julia Lungoria, who hosts the show. |
| 1:13.9 | Before coming to Austin, we'd read in history books about the famous 1980s Hormel strike. |
| 1:19.3 | But we wanted to understand how it felt for the people here. So our first stop was the |
| 1:27.0 | home of race Hardy, the son of a meat packer. Hi, here for race. Hardy? Oh, is this the wrong |
| 1:36.2 | idea? I'm sorry. Apparently he lives at Southwest, not South East. |
| 1:41.9 | He knocked on the wrong door. Eventually, there's race. There he is. We found him. Thank you. |
| 1:49.4 | He offered to give us a tour to help orient ourselves to Austin. Since clearly, we needed it. |
| 1:55.8 | Mom wanted to come with. His 88 year old mom tacked along. Where do you live? I live in New York. |
| 2:01.8 | In Old New York. Poor thing. They were great tour guides because they've spent most of their lives |
| 2:10.7 | in Austin. Race teaches economics at Riverland Community College there. I'm trying to convince Riverland |
| 2:17.3 | to just have me just a class. My economics class just on Hormel Foods. He's kind of an unofficial |
| 2:24.8 | historian of the Hormel Corporation. The layers of this? Well, I think you could get a degree in spam. |
| 2:31.9 | Yeah, it's a spam degree. Part of the reason race knows so much about Hormel is because his |
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