| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 28, 2000 |
Contact: Jill Cashen at (202) 728-4797 or email press@ufcw.org. |
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Union And Community Organization Rally
To Turn Governor's Statement of Workers'
Rights Into Reality At Omaha Area Packing Plants Just a week ago, Omaha Together, One Community (OTOC) and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union announced a joint organizing campaign to bring a voice for positive change to the largely immigrant workforce of the non-union Omaha area packinghouse industry. Today, Governor Johanns proclaimed a Nebraska Bill of Rights for the state's packinghouse workers. The proclamation outlines basic worker rights including the right to join a union without fear of employer retaliation, safe working conditions, an end to discrimination and to compensation for all work performed. UFCW and OTOC cheered the Governor's action, and pledged support to help the state's effort to make the Nebraska packinghouse industry a model for the rest of the country. Over one hundred union meatpacking workers from the neighboring states and from as far away as Kentucky and New Mexico were there to lead the cheer as Governor Johanns announced the proclamation. According to OTOC and UFCW representatives, the cross section of UFCW meatpacking workers are living proof that standing together, along with the support of their communities, workers can take one of the toughest jobs in one of the toughest industries, and make good jobs that can support stable middle class families and communities. A new wave of immigration has brought a renewed fight for a workers' voice in non-union meatpacking plants. Decades ago, immigrants from Central and Southern Europe sweated and suffered in the slaughterhouses and processing lines until their churches and union rallied to transform their jobs and their lives into the mainstay of Omaha's middle class. Today, immigrants from Latin America struggle against wages and working conditions that are reminiscent of the 19thcentury. Once again their churches, synagogues and their union are mobilizing to organize immigrant to protect human dignity, improve wages, and reduce injuries. Each of the local religious organizations' traditions teach that the dignity of all workers must be respected and recognize and support workers' right to organize on the job in order to have a voice. Community and religious leaders are well aware of the abuses and injustices leveled against immigrant workers in the area's meatpacking industry. For some time, OTOC, along with immigrant workers, organized to call attention to high turnover rates, unsafe working conditions, low wages and lack of basic respect for workers on the job. OTCO's work caught the attention of the local media, which in turn inspired the Governor to promise an investigation of the state's plants and to issue a workers' Bill of Rights. Since the Governor's initial pledge more than a year ago, workers have been meeting with the Governor, sharing their stories and providing the needed background for today's proclamation. Today the Governor's ground-breaking proclamation had placed the state of Nebraska on the record as supporting improved conditions for workers. The proclamation lists the right to organize a union as the first among 11 rights enumerated. "Organization is the first right granted by the proclamation because organization is the only effective way for workers to enforce all of their other rights, everyday and in every workplace," said Mark Darby, Co-Chair of OTOC. The 1.4 million member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and Omaha Together, One Community (OTOC) launched a comprehensive program last week to give an organized voice to meat packing workers. The wages for workers have been cut in half since 1970, annual turnover rates skyrocketed to over 100 percent, and meat packing has become the most dangerous occupation in the country. At the same time, net profits for the companies have risen over 250 percent and production has more than tripled. "The packinghouse industry wants a low wage, disposable workforce that it can beat, cheat, and dump. Profits are up, and human dignity is down. Today, the governor sent a message, that's not Nebraska's way of treating workers," said UFCW representative Mark Lauritsen. The UFCW and OTOC called on the children and grandchildren of past waves of immigration to stand with today's immigrant workers. "We all have immigrant roots, and our parents and grandparents faced the same exploitation and the same brutal conditions. Then, as now, the union is the key that unlocks the door to the American dream. We will draw on our past to lead the fight for the future," said Lauritsen.
Youth activists from the AFL-CIO's Union Summer program have joined with the UFCW and community organizations in the worker mobilization effort. For the past month, students from across the country have been hand billing and meeting with workers to build a strong base of worker support that can withstand the anticipated employer attack on the unionization effort.
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