2007

Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Workplace Safety & Health

LEADING KOSHER MEATPACKING PLANT DELAYS CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT

Oct 17, 2007

Cedar Rapids, Iowa– The United States’ leading kosher meatpacking company will appear in federal court today challenging a class action lawsuit filed against the company on behalf of its workers.

The lawsuit alleges that Agriprocessors, a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa,
has not compensated workers for the time they spend preparing for work at the beginning of the day and cleaning up at the end of it. Such compensation has recently been upheld by the Supreme Court.  Agriprocessors is trying to limit worker participation in its attempt to avoid its obligations under Iowa state law which provides that all employees are automatically plaintiffs in the lawsuit unless they sign a form indicating otherwise.  Agriprocessors is arguing that only federal law applies, which requires employees to sign a form requesting participation in the class action suit.

Working conditions and food safety at the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse have been under scrutiny in the past year.  In May of this year, over 200 workers stood up for their rights and walked out of the plant in protest of the company’s misconduct.

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.

“Essentially the company is trying to undercut the voices of hundreds of workers by delaying the lawsuit and trying to limit their right to recover unpaid wages through overwhelming them with more paperwork and red tape,” says Attorney Brian McCafferty.  McCafferty will be representing the workers today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa federal court.

For more information go to www.eyeonagriprocessors.com.

____________________________________________________________________________

Collective Bargaining, Economic Justice, Health Care, Kroger, Press Releases, Retail Food, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

CINCINNATI KROGER WORKERS PREPARE TO SHOW STRENGTH AND SOLIDARITY THROUGH STRIKE VOTE

Oct 09, 2007

Workers Taking Strike Authorization Vote to Fight Kroger’s Gaslight Era Bargaining Tactics

Washington, DC—Grocery workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) are fighting back against the Kroger Company’s nineteenth century bargaining tactics. Kroger seems to be operating under that century’s model of “robber baron bargaining”— pushing workers to the brink and forcing strikes, all to justify greedy demands at the bargaining table and in the community.

In Cincinnati, where 10,000 workers are involved in negotiations with Kroger, UFCW Local 1099 members are meeting at sessions throughout the day on Wednesday, October 10, 2007, to consider the company’s latest proposals.  The workers’ bargaining committee is recommending that workers reject the proposals and vote to authorize a strike.  Meetings and times can be found at www.ufcw1099.org.

“There’s no excuse for Kroger’s behavior,” said Lennie Wyatt, UFCW International Vice President and President of Local 1099.  “This year, tens of thousands of Kroger employees have been pushed to the brink by their company and forced to vote to strike before Kroger gets serious at the bargaining table.  These hardball tactics are an insult to Kroger employees and customers.”

It’s time to put an end to this kind of “crisis bargaining” where a profitable company like Kroger comes to the table making outrageous demands of its hourly workers—demanding devastating cuts to workers’ health care and other benefits.

UFCW members understand that the rising cost of health care in the U.S. is a crisis we all must face together. In previous contracts, Local 1099 members have worked diligently to lower health care costs. Workers are picking up their share. Their hard work has made Kroger the hugely profitable chain it is today.

But Kroger’s greed just keeps increasing.  The company seems intent on driving workers to the brink of a strike, and threatening to disrupt tens of thousands of consumers in an attempt to extract even more from its workforce.

Kroger can’t have it both ways.  CEO David Dillon crows to investors and the public that when Wal-Mart expands its operations, Kroger gains market share, increases sales and boosts profits. There’s no excuse, then, to claim that competition from the low-wage, no-benefit Wal-Mart should require workers to strike in order to save affordable health care.

Across the country, Kroger workers have reached agreements – without a strike – that provide for preventative health care benefits, affordable premiums, and quality care for workers and their families.  Over the past ten months, UFCW members in Southern California, Seattle, Oregon, Detroit, Texas, and Toledo, Ohio have signed new contracts with Kroger without a work stoppage.  Cincinnati workers deserve the same.

For more on UFCW negotiations across the country, please visit the Grocery Workers United website at www.groceryworkersunited.org.

UFCW Stewards

Work Safe: Monitor Line Speeds

Oct 08, 2007

In her nearly eight years on the job at the National Beef processing plant in Liberal, Kansas, Theresa Garcia has seen the injuries that workers suffer when line speeds are too fast. “Muscle strains, torn ligaments, carpal tunnel-all kinds of injuries happen when speeds are too fast and meat starts piling up and stacking up,” says Garcia, a UFCW Local 2 member who works as an ergonomics monitor at the plant.
Last year, UFCW members at the Liberal plant asked the union to look at the jobs and line speeds to determine if staffing was sufficient for workers to safely keep up with the work. The time study carried out by UFCW industrial engineers showed that the staffing for one job in-particular chuck-boning was insufficient. As a result, the company agreed to add five additional chuck-boners to the line. The increased staffing, Garcia says, has been “a really big help. Now they have more time to work on the product and do the job properly.”
As Garcia and other UFCW work-site leaders know all too well, injuries in meatpacking happen at a far greater rate than those in other manufacturing sectors. Working with knives in hand, struggling to keep up with unprecedented production demands, meatpacking workers are injured at three times the rate of other manufacturing workers.
A key reason is dangerous line speeds. To ensure workplace safety, industrial engineers who work with UFCW urge plant workers to keep a close watch to see that lines in their plants are moving at safe speeds. Aside from the potential for injury, line speeds that are too fast usually mean that some workers have to work through their breaks or have to work past quitting time to get the job done.

 

If you feel that the line at your plant is moving too fast, a first step is to ask for a copy of the company’s crew chart-a document that outlines the standard for how many staff should be assigned to each job. Often, you might find that the company is not in compliance with its own crewing standards.

 

If necessary, the union can have industrial engineers conduct a time study. Joseph Rezac, UFCW Local 22′s chief shop steward at the Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska, recommends gathering as much information as possible before seeking a time study or filing a grievance. “There’s more to this than just getting the numbers. You should look at the safety, the ergonomics, and get the company to explain why the speeds are set the way they are. The company knows we have the right to file a grievance, and they don’t want that to happen.”
It’s important to get all the facts. There are times when time studies show a line is in compliance, but someone may feel it’s too fast because their knives are dull or they’re fatigued or just having a bad day. Rezac, who has worked for Hormel for 23 years, adds that it’s not difficult to detect the signs of unsafe line speeds. “I’ll find out right away if the line speed is up…The meat is not going to be cut properly or not going to be cut at all.”
When you see that happening, he says, it’s time to step up and start asking for changes to ensure that you and your co-workers are working in a safe environment.