November, 2008

Packing and Processing, Press Releases, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Workplace Safety & Health

UFCW Local 222 Staff Member Carmen Hacht Receives Health and Safety Award

Nov 14, 2008

November 10–Local 222 Recording Secretary Carmen Hacht is the 2007 recipient of the 2008 Tony Mazzocchi Award, an award for excellence in occupational health and safety in the workplace.

Hacht worked at Tyson Foods Inc. meatpacking plant (formerly IBP) in Nebraska for 20 years, playing a role as an active steward from the very beginning of her time there. In the mid-1980s, IBP workers were suffering from high rates of MSDs. Local 222 and the UFCW International’s Safety and Health department filed an OSHA complaint, and IBP receieved one of the highest fines ever for failing to provide a safe and healthy workplace.

Settlement of the citations led to a successful ergonomic program, and Carmen became an “”ergonomic monitor,”" a line worker trained in ergonomics. She was responsible for job analysis, audits of workers on light duty jobs, worker advocacy when workers were injured and needed help getting through the medical system, and monitoring workers training and skills.

Carmen’s work at Local 222 now includes overseeing the ergonomics program at the meatpacking plants. She teaches new monitors what their jobs will entail, and has earned the trust and respect of the plant workers. The UFCW is proud of the contributions that Carmen has made over the years to improving working conditions for thousands of workers.

Uncategorized

>Employee Free Choice is the Most Democratic Process

Nov 13, 2008

>Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act are gearing up and trying to frame the issue–before working people get the chance to speak up. Big business and front groups are hysterically claiming the Act would destroy democracy and take away the right to a secret ballot–which, of course, is not true. It just gives employees more options in regards to how they choose a union.

More options sounds pretty democratic, right? And how about the new option Employee Free Choice would give workers: the majority sign up option? Let’s see: a majority of workers sign cards saying they want to join a union…that sounds pretty democratic, too, huh?

Labor specialist Nathan Newman thinks so, too. He writes:

Horrors, the business lobby cries, weeping for the lost democratic voice of
their workers (as they threaten to fire anyone who supports the union during the
election), but here’s the thing– an NLRB election recognizes the union if a
majority of THOSE VOTING support the union, while the card check option requires
support from a majority of ALL WORKERS IN THAT COMPANY OR VOTING UNIT. So the latter option is harder and actually is more guaranteed to reflect the will of the workers.

More guaranteed to reflect the will of the workers. Who could object to that?

Well, companies who don’t want workers to unionize–that’s who. They understand that if this process more accurately reflects the will of workers–without throwing up all the blocks and obstacles that they can throw up now in a secret ballot election–that more workers will choose to join unions and have a voice on the job.

Horrors, indeed.

Press Releases, Retail, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, Walmart

Millions of Workers Being Denied Billions in Hard-Earned Wages

Nov 13, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC – “”American businesses are bilking millions of working Americans out of billions in wages every year,”" said Michael J. Wilson, International Vice President and Director of Legislative and Political Action at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, who appeared at the Department of Labor early this afternoon to discuss wage theft. Conservative estimates place the sum of illegally withheld wages at $20 billion. Millions of Americans are denied overtime, forced to work off the clock, and unjustly docked pay. American workers reasonably expect that the laws governing wages passed by the United States Congress and state legislatures will be respected by their employers. They expect that they shouldn’t have to go to court to collect the paychecks they’ve earned.

Recent history is filled with examples of systematic circumvention of wage and hour law by some of America’s biggest companies:

• The world’s single largest employer, Wal-Mart, faced nearly sixty lawsuits for violating wage and hour regulations in 2006 alone. Among numerous other breaches of state and federal law, Wal-Mart has docked workers’ pay for eating lunch, forced employees to stay at work off the clock, and denied overtime pay to individuals working full shifts seven days a week.

• Agriprocessors, Inc., one of the largest kosher meatpacking plants in the country, illegally charged more than 2,000 workers for required uniforms and safety gear, and withheld final paychecks from dozens of employees.

• Michael Bianco, Inc., a company with significant military contracts, docked workers 15 minutes worth of pay for being just one minute late, docked workers $20 of pay for being in the restroom for longer than two minutes, and required workers to work two consecutive shifts without overtime pay.

“”We’re not talking about mom-and-pop shops forgetting a nickel here and a dime there; some of the nation’s biggest companies have been systematically denying employees their hard-earned wages,”" said Wilson. “”Workers should reasonably be able expect that they won’t need to go to court to collect the paychecks they’ve earned.”"