| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 27, 2000 |
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Federal Agency Slams Cagle-Keystone with 153 Count Complaint Alleging Massive Violations of Labor Law Cagle-Keystone and its managers are facing 153 federal counts of threats, intimidation, coercion, spying, firing, suspending and even inciting violence in order to suppress the legal rights of workers at the company's Kentucky plant. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued the complaint on June 23, 2000 following charges filed on behalf of the workers by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 227. "The NLRB complaint paints a picture of a lawless management systematically targeting workers for abusive treatment, interrogation, suspension and discharge for the exercise of worker rights under federal law," said Renee Bowser, UFCW Assistant General Counsel. In some instances, managers apparently roamed the plant interrogating workers and demanding that employees wear anti-union t-shirts. In other instances, workers were told that they would not be allowed to use the bathroom if they had union representation. The managers threatened workers with loss of benefits and jobs for supporting a union, and threatened to close the plant if workers voted for union representation. The company tried to coerce workers into spying on other workers. And managers engaged in the illegal activity again and again, for more than six months, creating an atmosphere of fear and repression in the plant. "Cagle ran its plant like they were Third World dictators, without any respect for the rights or the dignity of Kentucky workers," said Marv Russow, President of UFCW Local 227. The NLRB complaint names 27 individual managers responsible for the terror campaign against the workers. John Davis, a shift manager, leads the list of shame with 19 separate counts of violating workers rights, including inciting violence against union supporters. From July until late November, Davis waged war on workers with an endless stream, as outlined in the NLRB complaint, of illegal threats, promises, interrogations and harassment. Second on the list of shame is another shift manager, Wade Flowers, with 16 counts of illegal activity. The company made good on the threats to some workers, and illegally fired seven of them and two have been on suspension for more than eight months, leaving them and their families without a livelihood for no reason other than company greed. "This is a wake-up call to the citizens of Kentucky. Taxpayers entrusted Cagle- Keystone with $54 million in subsidies and the company turned around and broke nearly every labor law on the books," said Russow. All but one other Cagle or Keystone plants are operated under union contracts that provide for considerably better pay and benefits for the company operations in other states. Kentucky leaders have criticized the company for shortchanging Kentucky workers, particularly after the state's taxpayers picked up the tab for much of the expense related to the building of the plant. The NLRB is expected to issue another complaint with nearly 200 additional charges in the next month or two. The UFCW is the largest poultry worker organization in the country, with 1.4 million members--60,000 of them in the poultry industry. |
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