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UFCW Stewards

UFCW Steward Aims to Strengthen Membership in America’s Heartland

Apr 08, 2008

Luis Rosiles, a Tyson Foods worker and steward for Local 1546, has found his calling as an organizer in training for the UFCW’s Heartland Campaign.  Rosiles is part of a coordinated effort to target thousands of non-union packing and processing workers in the Midwest who need a voice on the job.  The new campaign is serving as a training ground for organizers like Rosiles, and the UFCW hopes to use the Heartland Campaign as a model for other UFCW organizers across the country.

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.

UFCW Stewards

Leading the Fight for Workers’ Rights

Jun 08, 2005

UFCW stewards are on the front line of member representation. Every day, thousands of UFCW stewards are standing up to help coworkers with everyday issues at work:

  •   Enforcing union contract provisions and identifying safety and health hazards; and
  •   Participating in chain meetings to coordinate bargaining strategies with union brothers and sisters from other locals.

In effect, stewards are leading the fight for workers’ rights. “I got involved in the union because I couldn’t stand seeing how supervisors treated my coworkers,” says Maribel Cervantes, a steward at the Excel beef operation in Dodge City, Kan., and UFCW Local 2 member. “You don’t need to know everything to be a steward. It only takes love for your coworkers and pride in your job.” Maribel, along with nearly a dozen other UFCW stewards from across the country, recently attended a training workshop at UFCW International headquarters in Washington. The workshop focused on developing steward skills to recognize on-the-job safety and health risks, then take the appropriate action so that companies correct them. The “Train the Trainer” workshop also focused on providing stewards with skills to go back to their workplaces and share information with coworkers on how to become more involved with solving workplace concerns.

 
Stewards are not only involved in actions to protect rights at work, they also play a leading role in planning bargaining strategy, and helping coordinate negotiation tactics for members nationwide who work for the same employer. Through chain meetings, UFCW stewards meet with other stewards and UFCW support staff to exchange experience and devise a plan to approach national employers.

 
“Coordinating negotiations in the Hormel chainhas been very beneficial for us,” says Dean Shinn, the walking steward at the company’s Knoxville, Iowa, plant and member of Davenport, Iowa, Local 431. Dean recently attended a chain meeting in Kansas City, Mo., along with stewards from all over the country, who work at the major food processing, manufacturing and meatpacking chains. “It’d be ludicrous for our plant of 105 people to try to negotiate by ourselves with a company like Hormel that has more than 8,000 employees,” he says. “With the growth of our major employers into nationwide operators, bargaining plant by plant just can’t happen any more. The chain meetings give us a chance to share information and coordinate tactics with brothers and sisters in other plants.”