For UFCW members who work on the line in the food processing or meat packing industries, you know that the clock can be your best friend or your worst enemy – especially for workers who work in plants that use “gang time” to determine how much workers will be paid. When your plant uses gang time, compensable time begins when the first piece arrives at the beginning of the line and ends when the last leaves the beginning of the line. But often, workers on subsequent parts of the line end up working longer because equipment failures or USDA inspections slow the line down.

When it comes to your paycheck, every second counts. As stewards, we play an important role in plants where gang time is a factor. It is critical that we monitor the work day clock to ensure that our co-workers are paid properly for the work they do. Making sure the company doesn’t steal our time is part of the steward’s job: it protects workers’ rights and makes sure the company follows the contract we all negotiated and agreed to.

Connie Kimbe is a steward at the Tyson beef plant in Sioux City, Iowa and member of UFCW Local 222. She started at the plant in 1982, and has been a steward since 1987. Even though she’s in her seventies, Kimbe has not retired because of the commitment she feels to her co-workers. “I enjoy helping the people and being involved. Even well into my seventies I like to be a part of things and I’m enjoying it.”

As a steward, Kimbe keeps track of the time workers spend on the production line. “I have a stopwatch and I keep time from when they bring in the cattle, until they get all the way to the coolers. There are about ten critical parts in the line where work is likely to stop, or to be slowed, so I keep track of the minutes and seconds it takes to do each job,” Kimbe says.  “If any overtime happens after eight hours, I make sure to record it. Sometimes the company tries to get away with it, but everyone needs to be paid properly – that’s in our union contract, but more importantly, it’s also just the right thing to do for the people.”

In order to be a better steward and advocate to her workers, Kimbe keeps documentation on all the time logs for the production line. She also makes several copies to give to the general foreman, union representative, human resources, and one to keep for herself. Once paychecks come out a week later, she follows up to ensure that all time worked shows up in the paychecks.  If there is a problem, she is armed with the records and documentation to address the company and resolve the issue.

The production line in meat packing and production plants can stop for myriad reasons. In some cases it is an equipment malfunction. “We have an old plant,” Kimbe says, “so equipment breaking down is a factor for us sometimes.” Most of the time work is stopped so the USDA can perform inspections and make sure there’s no contamination. “The inspectors are there for the public’s safety, and we want the public to be safe. But the inspectors’ time shouldn’t negatively affect workers’ time,” Kimbe says.

Having a union on the job ensures that workers have decent hours and receive fair wages for those hours. If work in the production line stops, it is important that stewards accurately track and document it so that our co-workers get paid for the time they worked, and receive what is promised in their contracts. As stewards we cannot let the company intimidate us or keep our co-workers from fair treatment. It is our responsibility to serve as advocates for workers in terms of overtime and fair payment. Stewards can take a lot of pride in the roles we play in the food processing and meat packing industries because we are protecting our co-workers’ contracted rights and way of life.

USDA did not contact the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency responsible for protecting the health and safety of American workers, before publishing this proposed rule. This sets an alarming precedent for all agencies that may want to use administrative rulemaking to change policies that could weaken health and safety protections for workers. This lack of transparency or collaboration with the agency responsible for workplace safety could put workers in danger. And as we know, when worker safety is at risk in food processing facilities, the safety of our food supply can also be jeopardized.

Please join the UFCW in urging the USDA to pull this rule in its entirety until adequate safety studies are conducted and OSHA uses this information to create standards to protect workers. Click here to send a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, urging him to pull the poultry rule today.

Early in November of 2011, the UFCW hosted the IUF Global Meat Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. The IUF is a global union of meat and food workers

The global meat market is an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and it is currently dominated by a few companies whose power and reach are growing year after year. With the consolidation of these companies, workers in meat plants face both local and global challenges. We are all familiar with local challenges: inadequate crewing at higher line speeds, disregard for ergonomics and safety, improper handling of hazardous materials like ammonia, wage and benefits cuts, etc.

Globalization brings its own set of challenges. As companies compete in global markets, they devise new systems and strategies to increase profits and reduce costs. These systems are often designed in corporate offices, far away from the plants. Engineers arrive at plants with blueprints and equipment; they install new machines and systems, but their involvement stops once the installation is done.

“Come Friday at 3:30 in the afternoon, these engineers are gone,” says Dan Riesner, a UFCW steward from Local 222 who works a combined job at the Gelita plant in Iowa. “When management comes back and does its inspection tour on Monday morning, they see that things are working, but they don’t really understand the amount of effort and the number of people it took to keep things running during the weekend, once the engineers left. There is no support and no follow-through. They leave us holding the bag and these changes have a very negative effect on job performance.”

Unionized workers in the U.S. have the protection of good contracts and government agencies such as the NLRB, but workers in other countries have to deal with indifferent governments and abusive managers. When global companies promote these managers and relocate them for new positions in the U.S., our rights are in jeopardy. These managers are used to abusing workers and ignoring safety concerns. Not only that, they are used to getting away with it. So once they are relocated to our plants, they will try to impose their practices on our brothers and sisters.

But in a global market information and opportunities flow both ways. As Dan explains, “when workers from other countries reach our plants, we have the opportunity to educate them and share the values of our own labor movement. Once they experience the difference in working conditions in our plants, we should encourage them to share with their own families abroad. If companies are going to import their abusive practices, we should be able to export our values.”

Early in November of 2011, the UFCW hosted a Global Meat Conference for meat packing workers from all over the world in Omaha, Nebraska. The two-day conference focused on the challenges workers face with the growth and consolidation of international meat companies like JBS and Cargill.

Thanks to consolidation and globalization, just a handful of companies dominate this billion dollar industry, and their power is growing year after year. That means challenges for workers who want to share in the success of their companies – whether those workers are in the U.S., Brazil, Japan or any other country.

Meat packing and food processing workers face the same basic challenges all over the world: inadequate crewing, disregard for ergonomics and safety, improper handling of hazardous materials like ammonia, downward pressure on wages and benefits, and a lack of dignity on the job.

Unfortunately, globalization and consolidation don’t necessarily raise standards for workers – the opposite is often true. For instance, at the Global Meat Conference, workers from all over the world met each other to speak and compare working conditions. They discovered that although they may share the same employer or parent company, their working conditions could be markedly different. For instance, workers from the U.S. or Australia may have strong union contracts, but workers in other countries are systematically denied bathroom breaks, or forced to work for weeks without a day off. They also learned that companies in every corner of the globe work to systematically deny workers who want a voice on the job from joining together with their co-workers in a union.

If companies like JBS, Tyson, and Cargill are global in their scope, our union must act globally, too. That is why UFCW members are communicating and coordinating with workers who belong to other meat packing unions around the world. We are routinely meeting; sharing information and developments; and coordinating on contract language that prevents exploitative or dangerous practices. These are effective ways to build the power that lets us negotiate better contracts and raise the working and living standards for everyone who works in this industry – both in the U.S. and abroad.

Dan Riesner is a UFCW steward from Local 222 in Iowa who works at the Gelita plant in Sergeant Bluff. He is tasked with the maceration of beef bones in acid, and assigned to the operation of a wash tank. The experience meeting workers in his industry from all over the globe really drove home to him how important it is for workers to band together, even across international borders.

“By sharing information with each other, union workers can learn about strategies and tactics that are effective in pressuring companies to come to the table and agree to fair, respectful working conditions,” Riesner said.

“It’s been a real eye-opener. Our strong union contracts mean we have it pretty good here in the U.S., comparatively, but we can’t take it for granted. If we don’t want consolidation and globalization to bite us – we need to kick up our efforts to organize and to stick together when we bargain.”

The good news is, according to new reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), workplace safety in the meatpacking industry is steadily improving, with injury and illness rates for full-time workers on the decline.

The bad news is, in comparison to other industrial and manufacturing sectors, meatpacking and poultry processing are still among the most dangerous. Food manufacturing workers are twice as likely to experience injuries and illnesses than industrial and manufacturing workers as a whole. The meatpacking industry also ranks high for severe injury and illness cases – meaning those that cause workers to miss days at work or those that necessitate restricted work activities or even job transfers. Nationally, the poultry industry has the fifth-highest rate of worker illness across all industries.

Though progress has been made on worker safety in the meatpacking and poultry industries, we must understand what the numbers really mean, and make sure we are addressing issues that really make a difference in improving safety and health in these industries.

Some in the meat industry, like the trade association (read: lobbying outfit) American Meat Institute, are quick to highlight improvement using data that does not reflect the most dangerous jobs in the industry. That’s a slippery slope – and one that risks obscuring the truth on safety for the sake of profit-margin. The truth is, there is some doubt about the accuracy of the BLS numbers themselves. Studies conducted by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conclude that both BLS and OSHA miss from 20 percent to as much as 50 percent of the nation’s workplace injuries. A number of factors can cause this kind of under-reporting: workers sometimes don’t report injuries because of fears surrounding their immigration status and retaliation by their employers; employers are motivated to under-count injuries in order to win safety awards, and managers are incentivized by low-injury bonuses; and finally, some employers have instituted programs requiring workers who report injuries or accidents to undergo drug testing – adding additional risk to reporting.

For all these reasons, we must not let a modest increase in overall workplace safety lull us into a false sense of security when it comes to the meatpacking and poultry processing industries. We must continue to strive for better and safer workplaces for all meatpacking and poultry processing workers – and for collective bargaining agreements as well as stronger regulations that make it safe for all workers to report hazards and injuries.

As stewards, we understand that our ability to negotiate with our employers comes from the power of our numbers. When more of us stick together and stand up for our rights, our voice is stronger and workers have more strength at the bargaining table to negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions.

We know that power in numbers is more than just a union adage — it’s actually reflected in our wages and benefits. On average, union meatpacking workers make 15% more than nonunion meatpacking workers. And in socalled right-to-work states, where workers don’t automatically belong to our union, average pay is 10% less than in other union plants. Wages in these types of plants correlate with membership: fewer members mean lower wages. Fortunately, the correlation works both ways: with more union members, workers earn higher wages. And when workers in one plant join a union, that tends to raise the bar on wages and working conditions not just for themselves — but for workers in nearby plants that compete for the same pool of employees.
That’s why it’s important to all meat packing and food processing workers that more people are joining our union. During October and November, nearly 4,000 workers who work for National Beef in Dodge City, Kansas, Farmland Foods in Carroll,  Iowa, Nebraska Prime in Hastings, Nebraska, and JBS in Plainwell, Michigan voted to join the UFCW for a union voice on the job.

These new members will give each and every one of us a stronger voice when we bring our concerns to the companies and it will force management to really listen to workers. When companies know that they are dealing with a small number of workers, it’s easier to ignore worker requests at the bargaining table and disregard safety and dignity on the job.
Clemente Torres, a steward and a 9-year veteran at the Cargill meatpacking plant in Dodge City, Kansas knows this well. He works across the street from the National Beef plant where workers just voted to join his union, and he played a key role in organizing the workers there. “In my 9 years as steward I’ve seen our membership increase because workers can see what being united can do. Many Cargill workers worked at National Beef previously, or have relatives or spouses working there now. They understand the real difference is the power workers have during negotiations. If we are a stronger union with more members, we will be able to negotiate better benefits,” Torres says. “National Beef andCargill are Dodge City’s biggest employers. Now that workers in both places are union members, we have thousands of workers speaking together with one voice to raise the bar for working standards in the whole community.”
For workers, our bargaining power is measured two ways: by the number of union members in our individual plants, and by the number of union members in the entire meatpacking and food processing industry. If you work for a union company that operates non-union plants, talk to your co-workers about how non union operations bring your wages down. And ask your manager why your company insists on operating non-union.
If new workers at your plant don’t automatically become UFCW members, tell them you belong to the UFCW and explain to them that the company doesn’t simply provide better wages, benefits, and vacation days but they’re a result of bargaining with workers— union members like yourself.

Many UFCW members in meatpacking, poultry and food processing plants may not be aware that they work around anhydrous ammonia – a highly hazardous chemical that could trigger an evacuation of their plant as well as the surrounding community.

 
Under OSHA’s Process Safety Management Standard, workers and their representatives have special rights to action and information in every facility with over 10,000 pounds of ammonia. Most plants that have to cool large storage or production areas use well over 10,000 pounds in their ammonia refrigeration systems.

 
Since an ammonia release could affect workers in any area of the plant, stewards can benefit from a basic knowledge of the hazards of ammonia and the steps the employer must take to protect workers.

 
The Process Safety Management Standard gives stewards the right to ALL information the company has about their ammonia refrigeration system. The company also has to have a system in place for workers to express their concerns and to receive responses about those concerns.

 
“Anhydrous ammonia is a deadly material,” said Jeff Dillener, a steward at Cargill and member of UFCW Local 230 in Ottumwa, Iowa. “As a UFCW steward, I have been trained to follow exact procedures in handling this material so that I can keep my fellow workers safe from harm.”

 
Every three years, the company has to conduct an audit of their compliance with the Process Safety Management regulations. Stewards can request to see the recommendations of the past two audits. If the company is carrying over the same recommendations from one audit to the next, that’s a good indication that they are not taking their own Process Safety Management program seriously.

 
The regulations for highly hazardous chemicals are different from the general health and safety regulations for regular production operations. One of the big differences is that breakdowns are not acceptable in ammonia refrigeration systems. Components of the ammonia refrigeration system must be replaced BEFORE they reach their breaking point! Every component of an ammonia refrigeration system (including the miles of piping on the roof) should have an estimated life cycle and a scheduled replacement date. This system of fixing things before they break is called Mechanical Integrity. Since ammonia refrigeration systems are closed systems, the ammonia never should get out of the system into the air. A leak or a release is an indication that the system is not being maintained the way the law requires it to be.

 
An important provision of the Process Safety Management Standard is the requirement for the company to think through changes to the system BEFORE they make those changes. They must document this process, which is called Management of Change. OSHA has made it very clear that personnel changes, such as changes in staffing levels, hours, outsourcing and training, that have an impact on the ammonia refrigeration system must go through the Management of Change process. Members can ask to be part of this process and weigh in on the possible consequences of the change being considered. This is a way for workers to fight dangerous reductions in Refrigeration Technician staffing levels or dangerous increases in mandatory overtime. Contact the UFCW Health and Safety Office at (202) 223-3111 for information about training.

Once the election results were posted, Gene Muff was relieved and happy. He knew it was a time to celebrate, because change was coming to his plant.
Muff, a member of UFCW Local 271, works at an Americold Logistics plant in Crete, Nebraska. Last summer, workers at his plant voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first ever union contract, which provides them with solid wages and benefit increases.
Muff has been involved with the UFCW since the beginning of the organizing campaign.
“I told my coworkers we needed to join the union so we would get better treatment at the plant. That when we are united we are stronger, so that way they couldn’t bully us around anymore,” he said.
After workers voted in favor of having union representation, Muff joined the bargaining committee. With the help of the UFCW, workers at the plant fought to get the best possible contract.
“During our contract negotiations, safety was a big issue, hours were a big issue,” Muff said. “We had to bargain for better wages and benefits.”
Muff explained that negotiations were difficult since “the company was very hardheaded throughout the first year. Afterwards, the company realized we weren’t going to give up. Then, they got down to business.”
With unity, strength and fortitude, workers at Americold negotiated a good first contract.
“When we ratified the contract my coworkers were very happy,” said Muff.
“When they saw the final contract for the first time, they realized that the entire wait was worth it. It was worth standing together and standing up to the company, because we made our lives much better.”
Now workers at Americold are part of the more than 250,000 workers in the poultry and meatpacking industries nationwide who have a union contract with the UFCW.
“This contract gives us wages that protect full-time, family-supporting jobs in our community,” Muff said.
The new Americold contract includes:

• Average wage increases of $1.44/hr for the first year and an additional 30 cents per hour for the next four years;
•  A formal system to resolve workplace issues;

• Time and a half pay for holiday work;

• Night shift premium wages;

• Affordable family health coverage;

• Job advancement opportunities based on seniority; and,

• Funeral leave and paid vacation benefits.

“We got lower costs for health care. We got guaranteed wage increases. Now we’re able to stand up as one, and have a strong voice when we need to talk to management,” he said.
Muff said they owe this contract to the support they received from all the UFCW members across the country.
“I believe everyone in our local and in the UFCW was behind me and my fellow workers the whole time,” he said. “When we stand together we can make a very big difference.”
He added that workers at Americold support workers at other plants who are at the bargaining table. He had some advice for them:
“I would like to tell other workers who are trying to get their first contract that they should stick with it. The more you stand together the stronger you are and the better it is going to be in the long run. Your company might try to pull all different kinds of tactics on you, to make you feel like you made a bad decision in joining the union, but it’s worth it, because it can only make your life better.”

Even in a safe workplace, injuries are sometimes unavoidable. If a worker is injured, it is important that she or he get immediate medical attention.
Stewards should be prepared to act if an injury occurs during their shift.
“If a coworker is injured we should know what to do,” said Jorge Palomera- Angel, a steward from UFCW Local 22, who works at a meatpacking plant in Fremont, Neb. “As stewards, we should make sure that our coworkers receive immediate and proper medical attention if they get injured on the job.”
Palomera-Angel has been a steward for over six year at his plant. He said that during this time he has always helped coworkers who were injured on the job.
“When a coworker gets injured, the most important thing to do is to act as fast as you can,” said Palomera-Angel. “Immediately after the incident, notify your line supervisor and, if possible, accompany your coworker to your plant’s nurse’s office, if they have one.”
He said that it is important to be with the injured coworker while filing the injury or incident report with management.
“Try to help with the report. If you saw the incident, include yourself as a witness, or try to find other coworkers who were present at that time,” said Palomera- Angel. “Make sure that the report is complete and accurate. This will help to resolve any possible future conflicts.”
Palomera-Angel said that many workers don’t take full advantage of their health insurance.
“When people get injured, sometimes they just go to their company’s nurse office and their health worsens, because they don’t visit a physician right away,” he said. “I’ve known people who don’t want to go to the doctor because they are afraid of the costs.”
Palorema-Angel, a father of four, said he feels very fortunate to work in a unionized plant because of the great health care benefits.
“I have some friends who work in a non-union plant and they have to pay way too much money for their health insurance. We are lucky to have a union and a good contract,” he said.
Stewards should be acquainted with their company’s health insurance policy so they can guide and advise other workers who might need this benefit, said Palomera-Angel.
“Sometimes injuries go unreported because workers don’t say they are injured and don’t go to the doctor. We cannot improve safety at our plants if workers don’t step forward and report an injury, even if it is a small cut,” he said.
Palomera-Angel said that workers should visit their own primary care physician, even after they have been treated by the company’s medical services.
“Some of my coworkers don’t want to take time off to go and see the doctor. Many of them don’t know that we have sick leave in our contract,” he said.
Stewards should be familiar with their contract’s sick leave and extended sick leave policies, Palomera-Angel said.
“Stewards play an important role in improving the safety at the plant. We are in a union because we support each other, and that means looking out for each other’s health and safety,” he said.

Rosiles is on leave from his job as a worker at the Tyson Foods plant in Joslin, Illinois, where he served as a steward for Local 1546.  As a steward, Rosiles served as a significant link and conduit of information between union leadership and the workers at the Tyson Foods plant in Joslin, and had the advantage of knowing many of his fellow workers.  His new role as an organizer in the state of Nebraska presents the challenge of meeting and connecting with workers he has never met before and who may not be familiar with the benefits of joining a union.

“Some have a little bit of knowledge, some don’t,” said Rosiles.  “That’s what drives me—winning campaigns and helping people be united at work.

The changing demographics of the packing and processing industries have also posed a challenge for Rosiles, and many of the plants that he is working with in Nebraska have attracted immigrant workers from around the world.  Many of the immigrant workers he has approached are afraid of losing their jobs or unsure of their rights as workers in the U.S.  To counter that fear and uncertainty, Rosiles and other organizers have made a point to connect with workers outside of the workplace by visiting their places of worship and even their homes to show that the union is part of the larger community.

Rosiles believes that his experience as a steward has helped him hone his skills as an organizer, and encourages other UFCW stewards to get involved with organizing campaigns such as the Heartland Campaign in the Midwest.

“We need more leadership and people getting involved in plants,” said Rosiles.  “That’s what makes a union strong.”

For more information about the UFCW’s effort to provide workers with better wages and benefits in America’s Heartland and around the country, visit www.fairnessforfoodworkers.org.

If you feel that the line at your plant is moving too fast, a first step is to ask for a copy of the company’s crew chart-a document that outlines the standard for how many staff should be assigned to each job. Often, you might find that the company is not in compliance with its own crewing standards.

If necessary, the union can have industrial engineers conduct a time study. Joseph Rezac, UFCW Local 22′s chief shop steward at the Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska, recommends gathering as much information as possible before seeking a time study or filing a grievance. “There’s more to this than just getting the numbers. You should look at the safety, the ergonomics, and get the company to explain why the speeds are set the way they are. The company knows we have the right to file a grievance, and they don’t want that to happen.”
It’s important to get all the facts. There are times when time studies show a line is in compliance, but someone may feel it’s too fast because their knives are dull or they’re fatigued or just having a bad day. Rezac, who has worked for Hormel for 23 years, adds that it’s not difficult to detect the signs of unsafe line speeds. “I’ll find out right away if the line speed is up…The meat is not going to be cut properly or not going to be cut at all.”
When you see that happening, he says, it’s time to step up and start asking for changes to ensure that you and your co-workers are working in a safe environment.

Payton makes it a point to befriend new stewards. He’ll approach new stewards and let
them know they can come to him whenever they need help or advice, and makes it clear that asking a lot of questions aids the learning process. “A lot of times the solution to a problem isn’t spelled out in the contract. Not everything is black and white and new stewards can always count on us to help them deal with the different shades of gray.”

Payton knows how much of a steward’s effectiveness depends on how a particular situation is approached, so he offers advice based on the tactics which have worked for him under similar circumstances. This involves making sure new stewards know how to address management and deal with specific supervisors to better communicate the concerns of coworkers.

It’s also important to keep new stewards motivated. After years of being a steward, the hardest thing for Payton is still accepting that you can’t win every battle. When he sees new stewards getting frustrated or discouraged, he reminds them of their important role in the union. “When new stewards aren’t able to help a worker, I tell them it’s just one apple in the
whole tree. We hate that it fell off, but we have to fight for the other apples. We need to stay focused on the big picture.”
Payton still looks to his senior stewards for advice and inspiration. All stewards can learn from
one another because everyone has a different approach. Payton points out that sometimes the tactics of different stewards can be integrated—that’s how stronger and more effective stewards who are ready to deal with different kinds of situations are built. “We
are always learning from one another. Knowledge is power— that’s why we have to make sure
new stewards are prepared.”
In the end, by serving as a mentor, Payton not only helps to develop better stewards, he also contributes to building a more powerful union.

So it should not come as a shock that when accidents happen, it really takes the union’s action to force the company to take responsibility and comply with safety standards.

Being on the front line, the steward plays an essential role in workplace safety by being involved in accident investigations. It is also vital for shop stewards to be on their union’s safety and health committee, so that co-workers know who to turn to in case of an
accident and to make sure the company puts in place safety measures to prevent workplace injuries.
Dolores Sandoval is a chief steward at UFCW Local 1546 and a member of her union’s safety committee. She recently investigated an accident involving a machine guard at her Hormel
Foods plant in Rochelle, Ill. Sandoval’s co-worker, who worked as a machine operator, slipped on a piece of bacon and her hand slid into the cutter. Had themachine guard been working correctly, the machine would have stopped automatically. But it didn’t stop. The outdated
guard did not completely guard the blade, which allowed the worker’s
hand to slide through. The cutter pounded through the worker’s thumb, cutting
it almost completely. The woman suffered nearly 30 minutes with her hand
lodged in the machine until maintenance could get her out.
While the worker was flown to Madison, Wis., to have her thumb operated on, the union immediately took action in response to the accident: The safety committee inspected the machine, Sandoval drove over three and a half hours to interview her co-worker recovering in the hospital, and Sandoval also interviewed workers on the line at the time of the accident and maintenance workers.
“When an accident happens, you must respond immediately by talking to the workers involved,” Sandoval said. “You get first-hand information of the accident, not management’s spin.”
Sandoval says that besides investigating the accident, stewards must make sure to go over the worker’s statement with them to prepare for meeting with management. That includes choosing and using the right words to say when describing the incident to management.
Management may try to twist statements around to blame the worker for getting hurt if the worker is not careful of how to word his or her explanation.
However, Sandoval’s years of experience as a steward and safety committee member paid off with a solid accident investigation. The union’s safety committee determined the company needed to put different guards on the machine. The company shut down the work area, and within three days of the accident, rebuilt the machine guards to meet safety standards.
Sandoval knows that if it weren’t for the union, management would place safety solely on the responsibility of the workers.
“The company still feels it was her fault, but they had to report it as an accident because of the union’s investigation,” Sandoval said. “It’s the union— not the company—that checks to make sure all the guards are now working properly and that the company supplies workers with necessary safety equipment.”

The accident happened in October, but doctors are still not sure the worker’s thumb will heal. The woman, who still has no feeling in her thumb, has been moved to light duty since returning to work.