August, 2007

Immigration, Legislation, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, War on Workers

BUSH ADMINISTRATION IMMIGRATION PROGRAM WOULD LEGALIZE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

Aug 14, 2007

Statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

(Washington, DC) – On a hot, quiet August morning in Washington, DC – when the President is on vacation and Congress at recess – the Bush Administration announced an immigration reform package that essentially mandates federal racial discrimination.

The Administration’s guidelines would throw the doors open to racial discrimination to whole classes of people by placing an undue burden on workers who sound foreign, look foreign and particularly, on the tens of millions of Hispanic and Asian-Americans who would face greater scrutiny in the workplace.  It is irresponsible to toss out civil rights for the sake of political gamesmanship.

Considering the circumstances, today’s announcement smacks of nothing more than a publicity stunt aimed at terrifying immigrant workers.  Further, this program lacks the support and mandate of the American people who have been demanding humane, comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the root causes of illegal immigration.  This program offers no solutions, only punishments to workers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has proven by its past behavior that it is not beyond their scope to traumatize innocent workers, including U.S. citizens, under the guise of immigration enforcement.  During its raids at Swift meatpacking plants last December, all workers, including citizens, legal residents, were held by ICE agents and subjected to unlawful search and seizure.  Law enforcement must uphold and defend the Constitution, not violate it.

Congress and the President promised the American people it would work toward solutions to these problems but both parties have failed.  It is time for our elected leaders to get back to work – not with unauthorized, sweeping gestures like this Bush enforcement program.

More than 250,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) work in the meatpacking and food processing industries.  Many of our workplaces include immigrant workers.  Enforcement actions aimed strictly at workplaces like these accomplish nothing in terms of stemming the flow of workers entering the U.S. seeking the American Dream.  Instead, they create huge turmoil in communities, significantly disrupt the otherwise stable production in the plant and violate the civil rights of all workers in the workplace.

The UFCW will continue to fight for reform that ensures that all working people—immigrant and native-born—are able to improve their lives and realize the American dream.

For the UFCW position on immigration go to Issues

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Food Safety, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

UFCW REPORT DETAILS MAJOR FOOD SAFETY CONCERNS AT LEADING KOSHER MEATPACKING PLANT

Aug 10, 2007


Investigation Uncovers Startling Violations at Agriprocessors Plant
in Postville, Iowa

(Washington, DC) – Research into food safety records at one of the United States’ leading kosher meatpacking plants has unveiled startling violations. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) researchers will release documents showing a pattern of food safety issues including recalled products, mad cow related safety concerns and repeated fecal and bile contamination.

“We find the USDA safety reports on this plant alarming,” said Jim Blau, assistant director of the UFCW Strategic Resources Department. “They raise troubling concerns about this company.”

Agriprocessors, one of the nation’s largest kosher meat producers, runs a beef, lamb and poultry processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Agriprocessors produces products under the following brand names: Aaron’s Best, Aaron’s Choice, European Glatt, Iowa Best Beef, Nevel, Shor Harbor , Rubashkin’s, Supreme Kosher, and David’s.

Over two-hundred and fifty non-compliance records were issued by the Food Safety and Inspection Service to Agriprocessors, between January 1, 2006 and January 24, 2007. The documents revealed numerous violations that may have increased the risk to consumers of possible food-borne illnesses. Documents also show repeated problems with plant monitoring for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow” disease.

The full report is available by request at press@ufcw.org .

“Meat and food processing plants put dinner on the table for American families,” said Blau. “The pattern and scope of violations at Agriprocessors need to be addressed.”

UFCW Stewards

Hormel Workers Prepare to Take Workplace Unity into Chain-Wide Bargaining

Aug 08, 2007

As summer winds down, Hormel workers at five plants across the U.S. are gearing up for a round of bargaining that will have an impact not only on their wages and benefits, but on standards for workers at packinghouses across the industry.
A contract covering 4,000 UFCW members at Hormel plants in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota expires in September. It covers members of UFCW Locals 6, 9, 22, 1996, and 1473. Because it is a single, chain-wide contract, the workers will be heading to the bargaining table with more power and leverage than if they were bargaining for just one plant–a fact we are well aware of and plan to use to our maximum advantage.

 

UFCW shop stewards play a big role in cultivating unity and driving contract negotiations that exhibit strength, determination, and solidarity “We’re much more powerful when we have thousands of us together,” says Michael Rasmusson a shop steward at the Hormel plant represented by Local 6 in Algona, Iowa. As fellow Hormel steward, Mark Coufal, of Local 22 in Fremont, Nebraska notes, “The company negotiates from a position of power, and we need to do the same thing. The more members we have backing us, the better chance we have in getting a good contract.”
There’s a lot at stake: wages, health benefits, retiree health benefits, and health and safety issues. Affordable health insurance, in particular, is a big concern. “When people have families, it’s important to have insurance at an affordable rate. If people are paying for it out of their pockets, it makes it hard to put bread on the table, shoes on their kids’ feet, and pay college tuitions,” says Richard Chinander, chief steward from Local 9.
Also on the minds of many of the Hormel stewards is the crucial issue of the company’s determination to see that more and more of its plants arenon-union.
“By Hormel operating union plants as well as non-union plants, they can take the work out of a union plant and move it to a non-union plant….The best thing for our workers would be to unionize all Hormel plants,” says shopsteward Steve Bormann of Local 6.

 

The chain-wide bargaining that will begin in August provides Bormann and the 4,000 other UFCW Hormel workers the opportunity to work together to win a strong new contract that will improve their wages and benefits—and will send a powerful signal to workers at non-union plants. “It will show new employees coming in that unions do work–and not just for wages, but for the future of America and its families,” says Local 22 member and steward Bill Anderson of the Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska.
With so much on the line, workers at the five plants already have started talking to co-workers, handing out informational leaflets, and makingplans for the August bargaining. “We all have a lot in common. We all want a fair wage, health care, and to be treated right. That’s why we need to communicate with each other and stand together on these issues,” says steward Ryan Dodds of Local 6. “It’s really important that we start talking and start working together.”
The need for unity is something stewards at all of the five plants agree is key. Says steward Armando Olvera of Local 9: “Unity creates power. We’re much stronger when we’re united.”