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July 21, 1999 9:48 AM, EDT

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters put another of its locals in trusteeship following a bitter, month-long strike against an Iowa Beef Processors slaughterhouse in Walla Walla, Wash.

Local 556 is the second to be placed in trusteeship since James P. Hoffa took over the Teamsters presidency earlier this year.

Local 19 in Grapevine, Texas, met a similar fate in June, when J.D. Potter resigned as president of the 3,500-member union.

Hoffa named Teamsters veteran J. Allen Hobart temporary trustee of Local 556 — 80% of whose members work at IBP, the world’s largest processor of beef and pork products.

“This is a deeply divided union,” Hobart said. “We have to begin the rebuilding process.”

hat may take some doing. Workers at the IBP plant say the international betrayed them, first by not supporting their job action and then by negotiating away their pension.

“The workers’ actions won us a wage increase,” said Chief Shop Steward Maria Martinez. “Our union officials’ actions cost us our pension. We’ve been robbed.”

For the full story, see the July 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.