Workers at the Pioneer Flour Mill in San Antonio have been on strike for a year now. On Wednesday, April 25, supporters will hold a solidarity demonstration at the strike headquarters, 1700 South Alamo, across the street from the Pioneer Flour Mill. Join the strikers for lunch at 11:00 A.M., then join them for a solidarity rally near the mill’s gate after lunch.
“Show your support for the hard working people that continue the fight for fairness and equality, not just for themselves but for all middle-class workers,” reads the flyer announcing Wednesday’s solidarity action.
The Pioneer Mill is owned by CH Guenther & Sons, an international food processing company, which makes baking products under a number of different brand names including Pioneer, Wing Wing/La Paloma, Sun Bird, and Morrison. The San Antonio mill also produces flour that McDonald’s uses in its hamburger buns and other bakery products.
The strikers, who belong to Teamsters Local 657, are trying to protect their health care and pension benefits. They also want the company to take their safety concerns more seriously. Food processing is dangerous work, and the strikers say that there have been a number of serious accidents at the mill but that the company has ignored their safety concerns.
Up to this point, the strikers have defied all odds. About 100 union members walked off the job on April 25, 2011 after the company’s last best offer included cuts to their health care benefit and too little money for a retirement plan. The company, which owns flour mills and other food processing plants in Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, the UK, and Belgium, has extensive resources, yet has been unable to break the Teamsters’ strike.
You can show your support for these determined workers by coming to San Antonio on Wednesday, April 25 to demonstrate your solidarity with them.
Left Labor Reporter 
Approximately 100-125 people rallied at the C.H.Guenther flour mill aka Pioneer Flour Mill to commemorate one year that workers went on strike to secure decent healthcare, pension benefits and job safety.
Members of the Democratic and Green and Socialist parties, AFT, CWA, Ironworkers, Laborers, Sheetmetal Workers and Occupy movement set aside differences to show their support for members of Teamsters Local 657. Teamsters from UPS, freightlines and Houston were also present.
It is my observation that stopping train shipments of grain is essential to victory. This would require mass civil disobedience on part of the strikers as well as labor and community supporters.
This observer sent Local 657 president a suggestion that he put together a committee of progressive clergy from the Catholic, Jewish and Protestant communities to meet with Pioneer CEO Dale Tremblay and pressure him to resume negotiations with the union.
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Thats a very bad news for the pioneer flour mill hope the solution will come up sooner