August, 2009

Corporate Responsibility, Immigration, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, United Latinos

Plumrose Settles Allegations of Labor Law Violations

Aug 28, 2009

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa–In the face of allegations that it had violated numerous federal laws, Plumrose USA has entered into a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Many workers at Plumrose, which processes deli meats and pork products at its facility in Council Bluffs, have been taking steps to form a union with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) for several years. Plumrose had been charged with giving workers the impression that they were under surveillance and that their immigration status would be reported to federal authorities, forbidding employees from discussing the union at work, and interrogating workers about union activities.

“This settlement just confirms what so many of us have known for a long time,” said Carlos Barraza, a ten-year Plumrose worker. “It’s long past time for change at Plumrose. The only way we’ll get a real voice on the job here is by exercising our rights and standing together.”

The settlement requires Plumrose to post a notice in its Council Bluffs facility informing employees that federal law protects their right to form a union for their “benefit and protection” and that it would be unlawful for Plumrose to interfere with the exercise of that right. The full text of the notice can be found at http://www.fairnessforfoodworkers.org/plumrose.pdf

“Plumrose is a textbook case on why workers need a free and fair process to form a union,”" said Mark Lauritsen, Director of the UFCW Manufacturing, Packing, and Food Processing Division. “Standing up for yourself and your coworkers shouldn’t carry the risk of the boss’s wrath or losing your job. The employees who are forced to work in such a hostile environment hope that this settlement represents a new attitude at Plumrose toward the free exercise of the right to form a union.”

More than 1.3 million food processing, grocery, and retail workers in the United States and Canada have joined together in the UFCW to protect their workplace rights and to improve working conditions.

Constituency Groups, Immigration, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Values, United Latinos

UFCW members stand with Arizona workers for humane and fair immigration policies

Aug 26, 2009

PHOENIX—The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and UFCW Local 99 today held a community forum with Arizona workers to discuss how a failed national immigration policy has caused widespread confusion and fear among workers and their families  . At a community meeting today, UFCW leaders discussed the country’s failed immigration system, which has resulted in massive disruption of economics and business operations. Today’s event is part of a national series of community outreach events designed to bring people together, celebrate unity, and defend the rights of legal residents, citizens and workers.

“We have seen federal agents routinely violate the 4th Amendment rights of workers during massive workplace raids across the country,” said Mark Lauritsen, UFCW International Vice President.  “Until national leaders fix our country’s immigration system, our local communities will be torn apart, and the constitutional rights of citizens and legal residents will be routinely violated. Our country desperately requires a framework for moving forward, humanely and comprehensively, to fix our immigration system. Broken enforcement is exacerbating a broken immigration system.  We stand with the Phoenix community to question whether local police officers will be able to enforce immigration laws without exposing the city residents to racial profiling, discrimination and violating civil rights.”

Among those who spoke at the meeting were UFCW workers who—one year ago, on December 12, 2006 (the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Mexican religious celebration)—were illegally detained at meatpacking plants in five states in workplace raids carried out by federal agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). More than 12,000 meatpacking workers—including citizens, legal residents and immigrants in the process of legalization—were swept up in ICE raids at six meat packing plants. The UFCW represents workers at five of the plants, including Worthington, Minn.; Greeley, Colo.; Cactus, Tex.; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Grand Island, Neb.

“It is disgraceful how law enforcement officials violate basic human rights just because our government cannot fix the immigration system,” said Maria Acosta of Phoenix, who works at Food City grocery store.

“I was interrogated and detained for hours just because federal agents thought I was breaking immigration laws,” said Pasqual Talamantes, a UFCW meatpacking worker from Grand Island, Neb. “They were handcuffing us and holding guns. I told them I was a citizen, born here in the United States, and they did not believe me.”

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For more information: www.ufcw.org/icemisconduct.cfm

Press Releases, UFCW Values

Statement of UFCW International President Joe Hansen on the Passing of Senator Edward Kennedy

Aug 26, 2009

(Washington, DC) — “Senator Kennedy was an unwavering champion for workers across the country.  His passion, his vision and his devotion to the issues that matter ensured that working men and women had a voice in the halls of Congress. His commitment, his courage and his conviction brought dignity and opportunity to working families, to minorities and to recent immigrants. Time and time again, decade after decade, he stood with the UFCW in our efforts to improve the lives of our members.  He stood with us in the fight for equity and equality and justice.

“There will never be another Senator Ted Kennedy, but as he so eloquently and passionately said at the Democratic National Convention in 1980, ‘the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.’ It is now our mission to ensure that the work Senator Kennedy dedicated his life to goes on and that the dream he fought so hard for never dies—The dream of health care for every American, of a nation that upholds its rich and vibrant immigrant heritage, and where we embrace our diversity and put aside our differences in the name of building a more perfect union.

“Today, we mourn the loss of the Lion of the Senate. Tomorrow, let us redouble our efforts in the causes that he cared so much about. That is how we pay tribute to this amazing man. That is how we respect what he accomplished throughout his life, and that is how we honor his legacy.”