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Corporate Responsibility, Packing and Processing, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Workplace Safety & Health

UFCW Submits Comments to EPA Against Tyson and Dangers of Hazardous Chemicals to Workers

May 23, 2013

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALast week, the UFCW submitted comments about a recent EPA action against 23 Tyson plants that use hazardous chemicals. The EPA recently fined Tyson close to $4 million and required the company to take extra steps to improve their ammonia refrigeration safety programs.

While the EPA’s action is a step in the right direction, the comments pointed out that the settlement agreement failed to include the people who are closest to the problem – the workers who operate and maintain the refrigeration systems.

UFCW members work in almost 900 different facilities across the country that use anhydrous ammonia for refrigeration. Although these refrigeration systems are covered by very strict environmental and safety standards, many of them fail to comply with these standards. The UFCW Occupational Safety & Health Office has an educational program available for any interested Locals to help determine if plants are in compliance and to help develop an action plan to protect members.

The UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Office will continue to fight for workers and their representatives to be included in the process of improving and evaluating Tyson’s ammonia safety program.

Collective Bargaining, Economic Justice, Health Care, Packing and Processing, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

John Morrell Locals in South Dakota and Illinois Coordinate Bargaining, Ratify New Contracts

May 22, 2013
Pork

Workers at John Morrell pork plants in S.D. and Ill. voted to ratify new contracts.

Recently, workers at John Morrell meatpacking plants from UFCW Local 304-A in Sioux Falls, S.D., and UFCW Local 1546 in St. Charles, Ill., voted to ratify new contracts. Local unions and members worked together and stayed in close contact during the negotiating process to raise the bar for workers at both local unions, ensuring workers at both locations made equitable gains.

The new four-year contracts increase wages and maintain affordable healthcare with no increase in weekly contributions from workers. Workers also ensured that the contracts protected seniority status.

Approximately 2,400 workers in the Sioux Falls plant and over 200 workers in the St. Charles plant are covered under the contracts. John Morrell Food Group is part of the Smithfield Foods family of companies. Workers at the St. Charles plant make dried sausage products and the plant in Sioux Falls is a full pork processing plant.

Constituency Groups, Immigration, Legislation, LGBTQ, Packing and Processing, Politics, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, United Latinos, War on Workers

UFCW, Food Manufacturers Form Alliance on Senate Immigration Bill

May 08, 2013

UFCWnewsWASHINGTON, DC –The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union and the Food Manufacturers Immigration Coalition (FMIC) yesterday announced their partnership on comprehensive immigration reform in a letter sent to the Senate “Gang of Eight,” praising them for their efforts on S. 744. The labor-business coalition is also seeking improvements to the Senate bill in the areas of visa allocation and employment verification.

“We write in support of the comprehensive immigration reform process and thank you for your critical and constructive efforts in support of this legislation,” says the letter signed by UFCW International President Joe Hansen and Barry Carpenter of FMIC.

The labor-business coalition said they support the Senate bill’s provisions to establish a roadmap to citizenship, protect family based immigration, promote smart, effective border enforcement, implement a workable, transparent employment verification system, and create an occupational visa for non-seasonal, permanent positions. However, Hansen and Carpenter are also calling for commonsense improvements to S. 744 in the areas of visa allocation and employment verification.

The labor-business coalition asked for more flexibility when it comes to employment verification. “Allowing employers to use Self-Check in a uniform, nondiscriminatory fashion will create greater transparency for new employees, and will enable employers to ensure that their new hires are not circumventing E-Verify,” the letter reads.

Moreover, the letter outlined: “If an employer takes the extra step of deterring identity theft through the uniform use of Self-Check, then the employer should be presumed to have acted in ‘good faith’ with respect to the E-Verify confirmations it receives.”

Finally, the labor-business coalition requested that Senators direct the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to create regulations that would provide specific rules of the road “describing a course of conduct…that satisfies employment verification requirements and concurrently avoids anti-discrimination liability.” “If an employer follows these regulations, then the employer is presumed to have complied with both the verification and anti-discrimination rules,” the letter reads.

The labor-business coalition said they look forward to working with the Senate to improve S.744 and seeing comprehensive immigration reform become the law of the land.

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