OSHA’s PSM Standard applies to most meat packing, poultry, and food processing plants. One PSM requirement is that the company must conduct an audit of their compliance every three years. Stewards can request to see the recommendations from the past two audits and find out what actions have been taken. By looking at the audit results and the follow-up stewards can see if the company is taking their PSM seriously.

“When I was sent out for training, I received a lot of information about PSM that I realized could be helpful to not only me, but also my co-workers at the plant,” said Jim Oldenburg, a steward at JBS and a member of UFCW Local 1473 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Even though every worker at the plant cannot receive specialized PSM training, workers do have the right to stay informed about their plant’s PSM program and come to their stewards with questions or concerns. To help his co-workers at the plant, Oldenburg submitted a list of PSM questions and responses to the company. These questions were developed by the Industrial Refrigeration Consortium at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

“People look to me to help them and I’m doing everything that I can for them every day. Having this information available is just one of them,” said Oldenburg.

Here are the ten questions Jim submitted to management. According to the PSM standard your company must respond adequately to your concerns. Their responses to these questions can give you a sense of the condition of your plant’s ammonia safety program. If you need help evaluating the company’s response you can email the UFCW Health and Safety Representative for Process Safety Management at bthielen@ufcw.org.

1. When was our last compliance audit?

2. Can you show me the closeout of recommendations from the last compliance audit?

3.  Can you provide me a copy of the most recent incident report and documentation that shows how we closed out recommendations/from the incident report?

4.  When was our last Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) conducted and can you show me documentation that closes out the recommendations from the last PHA?

5. How often do we certify our plant’s written operating procedures for the covered process?

6.   What training program do we have for our operators and what are the means used to verify they have understood the training?

7.   How often do we do refresher training?

8.       Based on our plant’s mechanical integrity program, what is the next piece of equipment scheduled for retirement and when is it scheduled to come out of service?

9.  What criteria do we use to evaluate contractors that work on our covered process?

10.  What was the last change made to our system and can you show me the documentation for that change?

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.

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.”

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.

Food workers across the country are on the front lines of food safety. The work we do every day determines whether or not the country’s food supply will be safe. That is a responsibility we take seriously as UFCW stewards. The fact is, union plants are safer plants, and safer plants produce safer food. Having a voice on the job, and having stewards in the workplace, assures that we produce only the safest food.
Our union contract means we can speak out if we see something going wrong or jeopardizing food quality, without having to fear negative consequences – so only the highest quality food leaves our plants. It also means we can slow down the breakneck pace of production, and ensure proper staffing – factors that reduce on-the-job injuries and even further improve food safety. Workers who don’t have a union sadly do not have those same assurances.
“I see it as our duty to speak up if we see something going wrong in the plant. If we don’t make food safety our number one priority, everyone suffers. Bad food puts our families, and everyone’s families at risk. It also put our jobs on the line. If the public turns against our industry, it’s our jobs that get destroyed,” said Joel Elder, a UFCW Local 38 steward who has worked at ConAgra for 22 years.
It’s our responsibility as stewards to make sure that our coworkers feel comfortable enough at work to come forward and speak up if they see something unsafe going on. We must, above all, see to it that all of our brothers and sisters in the industry understand the high stakes of food safety and take seriously their active role in ensuring the quality of food we produce.
As stewards, as leaders, our responsibilities don’t end at the plant gates. The UFCW is leading our industry in pushing for food safety legislation at the federal level and at home in our states. We have to be active in that process so our lawmakers know we stand behind stronger food safety laws. Because we know that union plants produce safer food, we should also be involved in organizing more workplaces throughout our industry. The more food workers that come together in our union, the more power we can build at the bargaining table and the more leverage we will have to push for stronger food safety legislation. That will make food safer for all Americans. That’s something we can make happen by getting involved in organizing with our union.
“I’m proud to be part of a union that takes leadership in our industry, a union that looks out not only for those of us in the plant, but for everyone in our communities by making sure our food is safe,” said Elder. “One of the best ways I know to keep working to make our food even safer is to reach out to our colleagues in non-union plants and show them everything they have to gain by joining together with us in the UFCW.”
To learn more about how our union is working to ensure worker safety and food safety, visit www.FairnessForFoodWorkers.org.

As our country tries to pull itself out of the economic recession, corporations, despite having largely contributed to create the worst economy since the Great Depression, continue to use the same economy as a scapegoat to justify anti-working family behavior. Highly profitable companies are now demanding that workers take concessions at the bargaining table. At a time when the unemployment rate remains hovering near double digits and the economy desperately needs quality jobs, these companies are fueling a race to the bottom by gutting the few remaining family-sustaining jobs. This is an all out attack on working families, our communities and the broader economy.

One blatant example of such corporate greed at play is happening now at the Mott’s processing plant in Williamson, N.Y., where over three hundred of our brothers and sisters from UFCW Local 220* have been forced out on the streets on strike since May 23 over the outrageous concession demands Mott’s made, that would destroy the workers’ livelihoods and jeopardize their prosperous community.

Mott’s, a subsidiary of Plano, Texas-based Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, is the top applesauce and apple juice brand in the United States. Last year, the company made $555 million in profit. While other companies are struggling because of the recession, Mott’s, clearly, is doing very well. Despite their success, largely due to Local 220* members’ productivity and performance, Mott’s wants to eliminate workers’ pensions, force a 20 percent reduction to their 401Ks, slash wages by $1.50 an hour, significantly expand job responsibilities, and make workers pay thousands of dollars more for health insurance.

As stewards, we are the first line of defense of  bargaining agreements and it is our responsibility to make sure that the issues that matter most to our fellow union members are addressed and that their livelihoods are protected in our contracts. When there is no financial need for a successful company to insist upon drastic demands at the table, we must stand together and fight such corporate greed until we prevail.

“They say that we are overpaid, and to take money and benefits out of our pockets is the right thing to do, and that’s what they plan to do,” said Mott’s worker and Local 220* member Ira Bristol.

But while Mott’s is attempting to drive down wages for UFCW members, Larry Young the President and CEO of Mott’s’ parent company, made $6.5 million in total compensation in 2009, which represents an increase of 113 percent in just two years: that is corporate greed at its best.

UFCW Local 220* members, many of whom have worked at Mott’s for decades, refuse to be bullied by Mott’s into accepting a contract that would literally destroy the quality of jobs in their community. They are standing up to corporate and are engaged in a fight to level the playing field for working people across the country.

“There is no more just fight in the United States right now than the one against what Dr Pepper Snapple is doing to you right now,” UFCW International President Joe Hansen told the Mott’s workers on the picket line.

Please stand with UFCW Local 220* members and show your support by spreading the word inside your plant and your community.

Support the Williamson workers’ struggle by not buying the following Mott’s products:
Mott’s Apple Sauce, Hawaiian Punch, Margaritaville Margarita Mix, Mr. & Mrs. T Drink Mixes, Welch’s Grape Juice (64 oz.), Rose’s Lime Juice, Snapple cans, Mott’s Fruitsations, Mott’s Garden Cocktail, ReaLime Juice, ReaLemon Juice, Holland House Cooking Wines, and Clamato.

Visit www.mottsworkers.org or www.NoBadApples.org to learn more about the workers’ plight and on ways you can help. Call Mott’s at 1-800-426-4891 and tell them you support the workers in Williamson. On the Web site you can send a letter to Mott’s management. You can also print out materials for in-store actions at your local supermarket or to educate consumers in your community.

We work in a global industry, and UFCW stewards are part of a global federation of workers. In a time when Swift and Pilgrim’s Pride are both owned by JBS, a Brazilian company, when Plumrose is owned by the European company Danish Crown, and when Kraft Foods is acquiring the Britain-based Cadbury, stewards all over the world face the same issues and the same corporations as UFCW stewards here at home.
As more and more companies become multinationals, it is more important than ever that UFCW stewards interact with other stewards from around the world. When stewards connect across the globe to exchange strategies for keeping their coworkers safe and making sure working and living standards rise equitably across borders, the payoff is huge.
That’s why at a recent meeting in Omaha, the UFCW welcomed stewards and labor leaders who represent workers at JBS facilities in Brazil and Australia. JBS-affiliated stewards from several different UFCW locals had the opportunity to meet with these international representatives and share strategies for tackling challenges in the workplace and dealing with management on a variety of issues.
In the course of the meeting, one thing became clear: keeping lines of communications open among stewards across the world is crucial. If we keep in touch with our brothers and sisters in Australia, in England, in Brazil, as issues arise, we can get ahead of them and make sure things run smoothly in the workplace.
To that end, UFCW locals have also taken the lead in fostering international solidarity. UFCW locals from the United States have visited Brazil, to see how JBS plants there operate. Another important conversation started three years ago when Local 1776 was negotiating its contract with the Italian specialty meats company Citterio USA, in Freeland, PA. With assistance from the UFCW International, the Local turned to its brothers and sisters at Citterio’s plants in Italy for additional information about the companyand its practices overseas. In November 2009, a delegation of Italian union leaders and Italian Citterio plant stewards came to the United States to continue the conversation.
“Meeting with the Italian stewards from Citterio was great for us because we realized we are all dealing with the same company and facing the same issues. It was really helpful to have a chance to get together and discuss our experiences. I feel like now I understand the company I work for a lot better. I hope we can keep this connection going,” said Mike Palmer, a Citterio steward for Local 1776.
The visitors attended a 1776 Executive Board meeting, toured the Cargill case ready meat plant in Hazleton (the union also represents Cargill workers in Italy), visited the innovative Brown’s ShopRite at 52nd and Jefferson Sts. in Philadelphia, walked through a Walmart, and, most importantly, spent many hours meeting with 1776 Citterio Stewards to share experiences and best practices.
The UFCW also works with UNI Global Union and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations to strategize around the issues food and commercial workers face every day, in every country around the world.

Safety is one of the most important issues at any plant. Preventing injuries at the workplace is about identifying hazards and getting them fixed, and stewards play a particularly important role in making sure this happens.
Many workers are already familiar with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division within the U.S. Department of Labor that sets and enforces safety standards in the workplace.
These standards are the law and employers are required to comply with them. Among these requirements is the OSHA Form 300. Most employers with 10 or more full-time employees are required to file this form, which is a yearly log of work-related injuries.
Miguel Luna, a steward from UFCW Local 2, works in a plant in Guymon, Okla. He has been an active member of his plant’s safety committee for more than four years.
“I joined the safety committee to help to keep my coworkers safe. Together with other members, we have helped to improve safety at the plant. The OSHA 300 logs are fundamental for our mission. They help a lot,” Luna said.
OSHA mandates that employers record all new cases of work-related fatalities, injuries and illnesses if they involve death, time away from work, restricted work, transfer from another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional.
“An OSHA 300 log is where companies record the injuries that occur at the workplace,” said Luna. “By law, they have to report all the injuries to OSHA.”
The OSHA law gives workers and their unions the right to have access to injury logs.

Stewards, workers, and supervisors can use the OSHA 300 logs to help to improve safety in a food processing or meatpacking plant.
“At our plant, our safety committee meets once a month. We talk about how to improve safety at our plant,” said Luna. “The OSHA logs are very useful for those
of us on the committee, because we can see if we need to improve safety in one area or if we can do something different.”
Luna added that there have been several instances when the OSHA logs have helped the committee to improve safety at the plant.

“For example, if we see in the logs  that many injuries are occurring on the line due to an ergonomic issue, then we look into what is causing that issue, we investigate, and once we have reached a conclusion, we meet with the plant’s safety director,” he said.
Unfortunately, in some instances, workplace injuries are being under-counted. This year OSHA has enacted an enforcement program to review the logs and make certain that employers record all injuries.
Luna said that stewards play an important role in making sure employers keep the log current.
“As stewards, we have to review the logs to make sure injuries are being recorded in an accurate and proper way,” he said. “I recommend that stewards stay on top of things and check the logs on a regular basis.”
He said that if a steward suspects that an injury has been inaccurately reported in the OSHA logs, the best way to solve any discrepancy is to talk to the injured worker, get the facts, and talk to the plant’s safety manager or supervisors to try to clarify the issues.
For Luna, the most important thing to do if an injury occurs is to make sure that the affected worker fully recovers.
“Stewards should check back with the injured worker and follow up throughout his or her recovery. We have to support each other and that means making sure injured workers get the proper treatment,” he added.

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.”

UFCW members know there is a health care crisis in this country. We see it firsthand, every day. We fight at the bargaining table for good health insurance for ourselves and our families. We see our friends and neighbors affected by medical bills they cannot pay.
But this crippling problem is not something union members can solve at the bargaining table. It is a national problem, and it demands a national solution. The fact is that health insurance is taking up an increasingly larger and larger share of our total compensation. Anyone who has sat around a bargaining table hammering out a quality health plan that is affordable both for workers and for our employers knows that something has to be done. That’s why UFCW members are standing together to fix this critical problem.
Our demand of Congress is clear— every American must have access to quality affordable health care. Thousands of UFCW members across the country are reaching out to their members of Congress, and telling them that real health care reform cannot wait.
We know that real health reform must have certain key elements:
Shared responsibility by employers.  Big employers like Walmart shouldn’t be allowed to duck their responsibility to provide quality health coverage for their workers— especially when so many more responsible, union employers do pay their fair share.
A choice of a public insurance option. To keep the insurance companies honest, and ensure that American workers will always have an affordable plan available, we need the choice of a public health insurance plan.
Keep our coverage affordable. So that everyone can achieve access to health care, reform shouldn’t include a tax on health benefits. Any tax on health care would unfairly penalize people who are lucky enough to have coverage—especially union members who have fought hard to keep health care affordable.
Big business and the insurance companies are working together to keep us from achieving real reform.
That’s why it’s so important for UFCW members to take a stand in this fight. If thousands of us across the country contact our members of Congress, encourage our friends and neighbors to join us, and work for health care reform—we can achieve it. You can learn more about the issue and get the latest updates on the legislative fight at www.ufcwhealthcarenow.org. You can also call your Representative or Senator today. Call 1-888-743-4403 or visit www.ufcwactnow.org and enter your information. We’ll then make it easy for you to speak to your member of Congress.

Five Thousand workers at the world’s largest pork processing plant have their first-ever union contract, after a majority of workers ratified the agreement over a two-day vote. Members of UFCW Local 1208 will join more than 10,000 other Smithfield workers, and more than 240,000 others who work in the meat packing and food processing industry who have a UFCW union contract.

The new contract includes:

* Wage increases of $1.50/hour over the next four years.

* Continued company-provided affordable family health care coverage.

* Improved paid sick leave and vacation benefits.

* Retirement security through protection of the existing pension plan.

* Continued joint worker/management safety committee, including company funded safety training for workers.

* Guaranteed weekly hours that protect full-time, family supporting jobs in the community

* A system to resolve workplace issues.

* Three working days of paid funeral leave following the death of immediate family members.

Congratulations to all the Smithfield workers in Tar Heel and welcome to the family!

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s in town today, fundraising for his re-election campaign. So some union members from his own state, along with supporters here and from Colorado, have decided to ask Ritter about his refusal to support Colorado’s working families.

The Bush administration’s enforcement-only policy was a disaster for workers. Administration officials became masters of misdirection, as Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted terrorizing worksite raids under the guise of meaningful immigration reform.

On December 12, 2006, the Bush administration conducted massive worksite raids at six Swift and Company meatpacking plants, rounding up, detaining and criminalizing thousands of workers at each plant for doing no more than reporting to work, no more than trying to earn a living.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the union that today represents the workers in those plants, established a National Commission on ICE Misconduct soon after. The Commission held five hearings on those and other raids, in cities across the nation. Now it has released a report telling the story of the human toll exacted by the Bush administration’s enforcement-only policy, in the hope it will trigger a dialogue on immigration reform with our new administration.

It’s the story of workers’ terrifying ordeal, when ICE agents handcuffed them, denied their right to counsel or to meet with union representation, and didn’t even have the decency to let workers use the bathroom or call their families. It’s the story of workers held against their will, native born and immigrant citizens alike—all because the Bush administration had identified, out of the 12,000 people working at those Swift plants, 133 who were suspected of identity theft. It’s the story of misplaced priorities on national security. As Senator John Kerry, who spoke at Commission hearing in Massachusetts, said of a raid there:

On March 6^th of 2007, of all the dangers that were lurking in America…of all the threats being assessed by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, apparently, on that day, none were more insidious or challenging to us, or more menacing, than several hundred people, mostly women, in New Bedford who were making backpacks for the U.S. Army.

The consequences were grave; towns were devastated, families were torn apart. Children and parents suffered lasting mental effects. A high school student, Maria, described her mother’s arrest at a Swift plant and how she broke the news to her younger siblings:

At night, I had to do the hardest thing in the world, explain to a three-year-old and a five-year-old what was happening and why their mother wasn’t coming home. They looked at me with their eyes filled with tears. I felt the same way, so helpless and alone…Many kids are scared of the boogieman, but [my siblings] are afraid of ICE.

And the consequences for workers’ civil liberties were just as horrifying. In the report’s introduction, UFCW International President Joe Hansen describes the Bush administration’s flagrant disregard for the rule of law. “Racial profiling. Due process ignored… the Constitution tossed aside.”

The Commission offers this report as a record of an administration utterly abdicating its responsibility to provide a workable immigration policy. But it’s also offered as an opening for a new dialogue on immigration with the Obama administration, with a president committed to the idea that our ideals and security need not be mutually exclusive.

And central to that discussion, that dialogue, is the idea that at its core immigration is about workers. We need a productive immigration discussion about all workers, native born and immigrant, and their rights, protections, and opportunities to achieve the American Dream.

crossposted at DailyKos

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.

It’s not a new refrain. It’s been heard throughout our history during periods of immigration of various groups, like the Chinese, to the United States. It’s a dangerous phrase that implies a delicate balance between “us” and the “other,” the immigrant, which “they” are tipping by coming into our country and taking all the jobs. It’s a phrase that cuts off all debate and has even some reasonable, otherwise compassionate people nodding in agreement.

And now we find out it’s not even true. From the Des Moines Register today:

With the Obama administration and Congress expected to push ahead with immigration reform, it’s important that lawmakers and the public shape policy changes based on fact rather than fears.

It has perhaps seemed logical to assume that the willingness of many foreigners – particularly those here illegally – to work for low pay takes jobs away from Americans. But it turns out that having a large number of recent immigrants in a location doesn’t necessarily correlate with a lot of native-born workers being unemployed, based on an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

That analysis, done by the Immigration Policy Center, shows that “there is little apparent relationship between recent immigration and unemployment rates at the regional, state, or county level.”

The report shows, for example, that:

Recent immigrants make up 8.4 percent of the population in the Pacific region (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii), but just 2.8 percent of the population in the East North Central region (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin). Yet, the regions had similar unemployment rates of 10.8 percent in the Pacific region and 10 percent in the East North Central region as of March 2009.

Another example: In New Jersey, recent immigrants account for 7.3 percent of the population, but in Maine they are just 0.8 percent. Nonetheless, the states’ March unemployment rates respectively were 8.3 and 8.l percent.

The report found the highest unemployment rates are in counties in manufacturing centers and rural areas, which generally draw fewer recent immigrants.

The tradition of blaming job loss on immigrants is one we ought to lose in a hurry. Unemployment is very real problem, but it’s not the fault of immigrants. We need problem-solving, not scapegoating, to fix our economy and implement meaningful immigration reform in this country.

Or what about $7000?

If that last figure seems a little low to you, you’ll no doubt be horrified to hear that that’s the top rate. The maximum amount that OSHA is allowed to fine companies who’ve received citations subjecting their workers to preventable hazards that could result in death or serious physical harm.

This is the palty price WalMart has to pay after OSHA

cited Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for inadequate crowd management following the Nov. 28, 2008, death of an employee at its Valley Stream, N.Y., store. The worker died of asphyxiation after he was knocked to the ground and trampled by a crowd of about 2,000 shoppers who surged into the store for its annual “Blitz Friday” pre-holiday sales event.

This is what a worker’s life is worth. Less than a fraction of 1 percent of those bonuses paid out to AIG executives.

Doesn’t that reflect a problem with our labor laws? As Jason Lefkowitz at CTW Connect points out:

President Barack Obama has brought in a new team at the Department of Labor that is committed to ensuring that every worker has a safe workplace. But they can only do as much as they are empowered to do by the law. And the laws that govern worker protection on the job are shockingly toothless.

Lefkowitz goes on to make the same ask that I’ll make here: Please tell Congress to pass the Protecting America’s Workers Act, which is currently before the House of Representatives. It’s legislation that would put some teeth in our labor laws and strengthen many protections for employees at their workplaces–including upping the minimum fine for the type of citation WalMart received after their worker’s trampling death.

It won’t bring workers who’ve died on the job back to their families and friends. But it would at least give companies pause to think about the consequences of not adequately protecting workers from on-the-job hazards.

Making workers safer on the job? That really would be priceless.

The study, by Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, is titled “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing.” The study was

based on a random sample of 1,004 unionization elections from early 1999 to late 2003 and relied on a review of National Labor Relations Board cases and documents, as well as surveys of 562 lead union organizers.

A similar study done 12 years ago found that employers used 10 or more types of anti-union tactics in 26 percent of unionization drives. Bronfenbrenner’s study shows that 10 or more antiunion tactics were used by employers in 49%, or almost half of all organizing efforts. In 12 years, companies have doubled their efforts to oppose unionization among their workers.

The report includes confirmation that there has been an increase in more coercive and retaliatory tactics, such as:

plant closing threats and actual plant closings, discharges, harassment and other discipline, surveillance, and alteration of benefits and conditions.

And it shows that even workers who have the determination and strength to fight through may not be guaranteed a contract, since:

Even for those who do win the election, 52% are still without a contract a year later, and 37% are still without a contract two years after an election.

For most workers who’ve tried to get a union at their workplace, the report simply confirms the bitter truth they’ve been aware of for a long time–and demonstrates the increased importance of passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

When Joanne Fowler, a Certified Nursing Assistant at Lake Village Health Care in Wilmot, Ark.,and her co-workers tried to organize their workplace, management threatened workers with layoffs and tried to bribe workers with raises if they would vote against the union. She said that:

under the Employee Free Choice Act, it will be the workers’ free choice to organize. You won’t have to worry about the company threatening you.

At a briefing today on Capitol Hill to unveil the study, California Rite Aid worker Angel Warner, who is trying to form a union and get a contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union spoke out about anti-union tactics and intimidation:

We wanted to form a union so we would be treated with dignity and could speak up without fear of losing our jobs. Now we finally got through the harassment to form a union and we still don’t have a contract. It shouldn’t be like this. If my coworkers and I want a union, we should have one.

They’re intimidated, and they are afraid. My family and other families have paid the price for freedom. And when you tell me I can’t talk about a union, you’re taking my freedom from me.

Workers in more than 100 stores in 15 states across the country have joined together and signed union representation cards, citing a lack of respect from the company, as well as poverty-level wages and sub-par benefits as reasons they need a union voice on the job. Even though Walmart’s got a long and well-documented history of anti-worker activities, workers say they Obama’s election has inspired them to take action, as has the introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress. The campaign comes at a time when workers find their wages have stagnated, even as Walmart and the Walton family continue to make record profits. Walmart’s recently released 2009 10K shows the company made $13.4 billion in profits last year. In the new video, which can be viewed at http://www.walmartworkersforchange.org/index.php/pages/articles/walmarts_war_on_workers, 10 workers from coast to coast detail the company’s response to their organizing efforts, including:

Dominique Sloane and Mark Moore, of Dallas, Texas, were told that their store would be closed if workers voted to organize. In Miami, Florida, Cheryl Guzman was interrogated by a manager about who among her colleagues supported a union. Linda Haluska, of Glendale, Illinois, was called into four mandatory meetings in one week, where she and her colleagues were shown anti-union, anti-Employee Free Choice videos.

Walmart Workers for Change is a new campaign made up of thousands of Walmart workers joining together to form a union and negotiate better benefits, higher wages, and more opportunity for a better future.

Celia Cisneros never imagined that she would need to harvest grapes for 12 hours a day during a hot California summer, just to make ends meet. But she had no other option — she was fired from her job at a poultry plant in Potterville, Calif.
The reason: she says it’s because she is a union supporter.
Cisneros, 53, a resident of Lindsey, Calif., has worked for almost eight years at this Potterville poultry plant. During all this time, she was known as a model worker. She just wanted decent wages, benefits and respect at work for her and her coworkers.
“When I heard that the UFCW was organizing the plant I was very excited. I knew that this was our chance to improve our standards of living,” Cisneros said. “I began talking to my coworkers about the union. They were supporting the union. I was sure that we were going to win the election.”
Instead, the union lost the election, thanks to the behavior of the company.
“The supervisors began intimidating workers,” said Cisneros. “People became afraid. They didn’t want to lose their jobs and when they arrived to the ballot box the company left them with no other option.”
Celia Cisneros was fired four months later. She found herself desperate with bills to pay, a husband with a chronic disease, and four children to take care of.

The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). After investigating her case, the NLRB ordered the company to rehire Cisneros.

Cisneros knows that she is not alone, and that many other workers across America have to struggle to join a union. Last month she joined other workers fromdifferent states and traveled to Washington D.C., to show her support for the Employee Free Choice Act by talking directly to her elected officials.

UFCW members and workers visited their members of Congress to share their stories of trying to organize their workplace.
“I came to the nation’s capital to let our elected politicians know that we, the workers, want to see the Employee Free Choice Act become a law,” Cisneros said.
The Employee Free Choice Act is a bill that will help strengthen the economy by making it easier for workers in America to join a union and bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The Employee Free Choice Act is the best way to expand the nation’s middle class and stimulate the economy.
UFCW stewards around the nation have been supporting the Employee Free Choice Act by urging their coworkers to sign pledge cards and to contact their elected officials.
Their effort has not been in vain. Earlier this year, hundreds of workers met in front of the Capitol to deliver these pledge cards.
And thanks to the effort of hundreds of members who volunteered to support the presidential campaign of President Obama, now the nation has a leader who is on the side of workers.

President Obama has said that“unions are part of the solution.”
But we cannot take anything for granted. It is more critical than ever to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
“We came to the nation’s capital because all of our senators need to know that we are counting on their vote in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Armando Martinez, a steward from Local 22 in Freemont, N.E.
All stewards should urge their coworkers to contact their U.S. senators and let them know that they are counting on their support.
“Call their office, write a letter, send an e-mail, if you want to visit them personally even better. It is important that senators know that all workers are behind
the Employee Free Choice Act,” Martinez said.
Stewards can find sample letters and find out how to contact their elected officials at www.ufcwforfreechoice.org.
Celia Cisneros’ dream is to have a union at her plant, so she never again has to fear losing her job and being intimidated by her supervisors.
“We are all in this together,” said Cisneros. “The Employee Free Choice Act will give us the freedom to choose a better life by joining a union.”

Today, a PriceRite worker involved in the UFCW’s PriceRite campaign spoke out about the need for Employee Free Choice at a press briefing held at the National Press Club. Representatives from the UFCW, as well as the nation’s top workers’ rights groups, labor experts, and progressive leaders laid out the case for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

“The company has made people afraid that they’ll lose their jobs when the union comes in,” said PriceRite worker Joe Sorrentino. He spoke about how the company has intimidated workers who support the union, by telling them that their store will close if they vote for a union, spying on them, sending out letters and even calling the police to arrest organizers who are legally handing out literature to the public.

Workers at PriceRite do not have a union, but many workers at another company owned/and or operated by the same parent company, Wakefern, are represented by the UFCW.

“We just want to the same fair chance to choose a union and have the same union benefits that workers at most ShopRite stores have,” said Sorrentino. “Instead, the company won’t even give us the chance to talk about the union. The Employee Free Choice Act would make it so the company couldn’t interfere with us or try to intimidate employees into voting against their own interests like they do now.”

Sorrentino emphasized the need for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. “To not pass Employee Free Choice,” he said, “would lead to another generation of low-paying jobs and uninsured Americans. The middle class would be a thing of the past.”

The event was organized by American Rights at Work, representing a broad coalition of labor and workers’ rights advocates, which also previewed new television ads as part of a nationwide ad campaign in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Check it out and tell us what your favorite video is!

Have a video you want to share? If you’ve got a Facebook account, it’s easy. You can upload your photos and videos to the UFCW Fan Page and share with members all over the world.

What are you most looking forward to in 2009? Passing the Employee Free Choice Act? Healthcare reform?

Sound off in the comments!

“Nowadays, we have more organizers outthere,” says Richard Vazquez, a steward from Local 540 in Plainview, Texas. “The more organizers we have to help workers form a union, the stronger we will be. With more members, we can speak with one voice and have more power at the bargaining table.”
“It is important that all the plants have a union,” he continues. “Because then we can have better benefits and wages for all.”

Vazquez has been a union member for 18 of the 21 years he has worked at the meatpacking plant. For nine of those years, he has worked as a steward.
“There have been a lot of good changes throughout the years,” says Vazquez. “Even now we have an office here in the plant, where we can help more workers band we can be closer to them. And we’ve seen the difference first hand with more membership and more density.”
For the past 10 years, David Espinosa Rangel has worked as a truck loader for a food company in Salinas, California. Since his first day on the job as a new member of Local 1096, he has been an active union member. Three years ago, Rangel became a steward.
On January 1, 2007, his local merged with UFCW Locals 120, 373R, 428, 839, 870 and 1179, to form Local 5, based in San Jose, California.

“When I heard about the merger, I thought it was an excellent idea because I knew we were going to have more members working together, and a stronger voice to negotiate,” says Rangel.
Rangel said that before the merger, some locals were too small and not strong enough. “Now we are over 20,000 members and we are very strong. We are stronger at the bargaining table and we can get better benefits and wages to all workers.”
He says one of the main advantages of the merger is that there are more available resources.
“It is easier to organize more people because there is more money and more support. Other workers who are not organized can see how we have a better standard of living, and they are more interested in organizing a union at their workplace. Every worker in America needs to join a union. Together, we can reach a better life- -with one union speaking with one voice.

Wal-Mart faces the largest gender-discrimination lawsuit of all time, with 1.6 million women suing over unequal pay and unequal opportunities. Its managers have told women they “don’t belong in management” and that they “can’t manage men.” More recently, Wal-Mart has repeatedly denied military moms leave to see their children before they deploy to war zones.

Instead of printing more 20 page “Mom’s day” ads, Wal-Mart should be printing 20 page apologies to every woman hurt by its unfair policies.

Today, we need to ensure that Wal-Mart respects the hardworking mothers employed in their stores. This Mother’s day, join our mission to change Wal-Mart’s anti-family policies for the betterment of women and mothers across America. Add your name to our petition to CEO Lee Scott and 3 demands for change.

Click this link to sign our petition

Change won’t come on its own. We’ve seen time and again that Wal-Mart has little respect for mothers, or the sacrifices they make for their families. Just ask Olga Sanchez or Susan Lyons, two long-time Wal-Mart workers.

When Olga’s son, Mark, was deployed to Iraq, she requested leave to see him off. Her request was denied. Wal-Mart told Olga that, as a department manager, her commitment was to the company. At Wal-Mart, unfair scheduling policies often take precedence over families, and over the morale of America’s armed service members.

Olga’s story is just the beginning. Last September, Susan Lyons learned her daughter would be on leave from Iraq during the following December. Susan requested a mere two days of vacation time to see her. Wal-Mart denied the request because of the holiday shopping season. When she expressed her disappointment, Wal-Mart told Susan that if her daughter’s deployment upset her so much, her daughter “should not have joined the Air Force.”

These stories are a slap in the face to mothers, and they insult the dignity of the armed service members we also celebrate in May.

Don’t let Wal-Mart continue to treat mothers this way. Sign our petition today. Keep the pressure on Wal-Mart to change and you can make these outrageous policies history.

Sign on to our 3 demands for change, add your name to our petition today

Thanks for taking action, and have a happy Mother’s Day.

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.

UFCW shop stewards play a big role in cultivating unity and driving contract negotiations that exhibit strength, determination, and solidarity “We’re much more powerful when we have thousands of us together,” says Michael Rasmusson a shop steward at the Hormel plant represented by Local 6 in Algona, Iowa. As fellow Hormel steward, Mark Coufal, of Local 22 in Fremont, Nebraska notes, “The company negotiates from a position of power, and we need to do the same thing. The more members we have backing us, the better chance we have in getting a good contract.”
There’s a lot at stake: wages, health benefits, retiree health benefits, and health and safety issues. Affordable health insurance, in particular, is a big concern. “When people have families, it’s important to have insurance at an affordable rate. If people are paying for it out of their pockets, it makes it hard to put bread on the table, shoes on their kids’ feet, and pay college tuitions,” says Richard Chinander, chief steward from Local 9.
Also on the minds of many of the Hormel stewards is the crucial issue of the company’s determination to see that more and more of its plants arenon-union.
“By Hormel operating union plants as well as non-union plants, they can take the work out of a union plant and move it to a non-union plant….The best thing for our workers would be to unionize all Hormel plants,” says shopsteward Steve Bormann of Local 6.

The chain-wide bargaining that will begin in August provides Bormann and the 4,000 other UFCW Hormel workers the opportunity to work together to win a strong new contract that will improve their wages and benefits—and will send a powerful signal to workers at non-union plants. “It will show new employees coming in that unions do work–and not just for wages, but for the future of America and its families,” says Local 22 member and steward Bill Anderson of the Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska.
With so much on the line, workers at the five plants already have started talking to co-workers, handing out informational leaflets, and makingplans for the August bargaining. “We all have a lot in common. We all want a fair wage, health care, and to be treated right. That’s why we need to communicate with each other and stand together on these issues,” says steward Ryan Dodds of Local 6. “It’s really important that we start talking and start working together.”
The need for unity is something stewards at all of the five plants agree is key. Says steward Armando Olvera of Local 9: “Unity creates power. We’re much stronger when we’re united.”

The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at Swift & Co. were yet another example of how our immigration system isn’t working. Basic civil liberties and human dignity were thrown out the window and families torn apart. “I’m pretty upset with our government. I think we can do better than what we did the day of the raids,” says Randy Imler, UFCW Local 22 steward at Swift & Co., whose plant was raided in Grand Island Nebraska. “This is supposed to be the country that everyone wants to come to, not one that people are mad at or afraid to live in.”
As stewards, we’re on the front lines in the fight for a better workplace. We believe that all workers deserve decent wages, benefits, safety conditions and respect–no matter the color of their skin or the language they speak. That’s why it’s so frustrating to know companies specifically hire people to work in dangerous conditions for substandard wages because they don’t know their rights on the job and are too afraid to speak up. “If you’re a union member, and you go to work and pay union dues, the UFCW has a responsibility to protect you just as they would protect the rights of anyone else-no matter your race, creed, or color,” says Kevin Diale, a UFCW Local 227 chief steward at Swift & Co. in Louisville, Kentucky.
Stewards can help educate members on how the system which enables companies to violate workplace laws for immigrant workers is allowing them to violate protections for all workers. Immigration is not an easy thing to discuss, but it’s something we need to talk about-and stewards can take the lead.
“It’s time for a change,” says Lenora Reed, UFCW Local 227 chief steward at Equity Group in Albany, Kentucky. “Our government needs to hold somebody accountable–and it needs to be these companies.” The need for change is clear; however, there’s much debate on what reforms should be made. That’s why the UFCW has presented several principles of reform that you can use as talking points. The most relevant in our industry include:

•  End ineffective work site immigration enforcement programs like “Basic Pilot”and ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE);

•  Meaningful and enforceable employer punishments for immigration and labor law violations;

• Wage and working condition protection for all workers;

• No new guest worker or temporary worker programs that allow employers to turn permanent, full-time, family-supporting jobs into temporary, go-nowhere, exploitative jobs.

The UFCW supports comprehensive immigration reform that respects all workers’ rights. It’s important that we keep in mind that, a hundred years ago,the Polish, Italian, and Southern European immigrants who worked in our nation’s packing plants helped build the UFCW. Today, it’s immigrant workers from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa who work alongside native-born workers in the processing lines of our industries who can make us stronger.

“We work side-by-side because our kids have to eat, because we have bills and rent to pay,” says Lenora Reed, “We share the same duties. We laugh, we joke, we cut up, and we move on. We’re buddies. We’re brothers and sisters.”

We look a lot different, but we are still the same union–one that is responsible for representing and protecting UFCW members and is committed to ensuring that all working people, immigrant and native-born, are able to improve their lives and realize the American dream.

Accordingly, in addition to securing better contracts, one goal of bargaining is growth. The first step to growth is unity bargaining, where UFCW members across the country who work in the same industry or for the same employers unite to bargain for better contracts. This makes sense because UFCW members no longer work for the small, locally owned employers of yesterday. Those small businesses have been taken over and are owned by a handful of national and multi-national employers with millions or billions of dollars in resources.

The recently launched Grocery Workers United is the first example of the UFCW’s unity bargaining campaign in the retail food industry. This campaign has a website, a major email activist program, and bulletin board flyers to keep UFCW grocery workers informed and mobilized. The campaign also creates national collective action through sticker and petition campaigns. For instance, UFCW members who work at Kroger grocery stores throughout the U.S. can show solidarity and support for members bargaining with Kroger stores in a particular area by wearing stickers or signing petitions.

Grocery Workers United has helped secure better contracts for several local unions who have already bargained contracts this year. The UFCW is building on the early success by further mobilizing UFCW members: identifying a “store coordinator” to inform and activate coworkers and customers, doubling the number of e-mail activists, and holding worksite meetings.

While the grocery industry has been the first to engage in unity bargaining, this type of unity campaign will extend to other industries like food processing, meatpacking, and poultry. The ultimate goal of unity bargaining in each industry is to create a core group of activists within our membership who will quickly respond with action in support of UFCW members nationwide. The key to mobilizing UFCW members and creating a core group of activists is through UFCW stewards. Stewards have day-to-day contact with members and can hold in-store or in-plant meetings, handle questions, and be the conduit for union and store information around the clock.

This year, the UFCW is initiating a program of multi-local stewards meetings. In areas where local unions have common employers, stewards can meet together to shape a common agenda and form a common program. Stewards will be trained to talk to their coworkers about union-wide bargaining, how to conduct break room meetings, and how to respond to questions.

This kind of industry-wide unity is a necessity for securing better contracts with our employers. The UFCW will continue to coordinate bargaining and contract expirations dates, as well as continue to use other resources such as political and legislative action and community pressure. But the UFCW’s strength at the bargaining table will come from the commitment of UFCW members uniting and acting together.

Our employers have to be convinced that the UFCW is capable of sustained union‑wide action if we are to convince them to change their behavior. Our employers complain about non-union competition, yet they become just that when they open up new plants or stores as non-union. If our employers want us to confront the non‑union competition, they must cooperate with us at the bargaining table and remain neutral in organizing new plants or stores. We are not going to help our employers grow if they want to expand non-union and have UFCW membership shrink. A union employer accepts and respects the union in every plant or store, in every area.

We can work with our employers to level the playing field with their non-union competition if they cooperate with us in creating a union differential in our contracts that attracts non‑union workers and helps us organize. That is how we can level the playing field. Everyone at every level of the UFCW must constantly, consistently and forcefully raise these issues in all of our dealings with our employers.

For UFCW members, the contract is the way to a better life. It’s what makes them “union” and they must be engaged in the plan for growth. UFCW members must become activists for growth because it’s the way to make contracts better, and that is the way to make life better for UFCW members.

The Occupational Safety and Health Office offers workshop trainings on many topics, including:

• Identifying safety and health hazards in the workplace

•  Incident investigations

•  Workplace violence prevention

• Building a stronger union through safety and health

•  Workers’ rights under OSHA

•  Ergonomics

• Personal Protective Equipment

•  Strengthening safety committees

Adolph Simms is a UFCW Local 325 member working at the Bay Valley Food Processing plant in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he has been a union safety representative for almost 10 years. Simms has participated in several UFCW safety and health trainings over the years and encourages others to take advantage of them.

“There are many opportunities for UFCW stewards and members to participate in safety trainings. If you think about it, the union’s basic mission is to advance the quality of life for workers. If there is a serious injury on the job, that clearly diminishes the quality of life for that worker and even the worker’s family.”

Simms says workers best know the hazards of their jobs, and it’s really in their interest to take an active role in safety and health on the job. “As workers, we have the most to lose from an unsafe work environment. Therefore we should have the largest role and the greatest impact in promoting workplace safety.”
Safety and health workshops can also be conducted at stewards’ conferences. In addition, the UFCW International hosts an annual Train-the-Trainer program where participants not only learn about safety issues, but also develop the skills needed to train their co-workers when they return to their worksite.
Simms has also participated in a Train-the-Trainer program and says the knowledge and skills he has learned from this workshop is helpful back on the job for many reasons. “Not only have I learned a lot and taken that knowledge back to the shop floor to help other workers,
but I’m also a part of contract negotiations to make sure our safety and health issues are addressed.”
If stewards don’t think they have time to participate in safety trainings, Simms argues it might make more sense to find a union member interested in making safety and health his or her only agenda. He says that stewards can be overwhelmed with many tasks, and it may work out better to have a union worker solely devoted to safety.

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.

The Reston, Virginia, steward has a good relationship with her co-workers because she approaches each worker with a commitment to fairness, honesty, and a passion to defend workers’ rights.

“I don’t let personal or professional feelings about a member affect my job as steward.  As their advocate, I have to make sure that all members feel comfortable with me in bringing forth questions or concerns,” Armitage says.

She adds that addressing everyone with kindness helps put workers at ease with her.  “I greet everyone in the workplace—it doesn’t even matter if they barely smile back,” says Armitage.  “It’s a small thing, but greeting everyone is one indication they know they can come to me and I’ll treat them the same as I do everyone else.”

Armitage says she ends up being so approachable that co-workers talk to her about all kinds of issues—even non-work related concerns.  While this may seem time consuming, it builds a trusting relationship between workers and the most accessible member of the union they can go to for help—their shop steward.  To sustain this relationship, she advises other stewards to take every problem seriously, and to show interest in what co-workers have to say.  It’s also vital to remember to keep matters between a steward and a co-worker confidential.

“When workers come to you with a problem, don’t just brush them off.  Though it may not be a big deal to you, it’s a big deal to them, and you should show that you care,” she warns.  “That includes following up with every conversation by taking the necessary steps of problem solving or filing a grievance.”

Armitage says stewards should look to defend workers, and never judge them.  “A surefire way to damage your reputation as a steward is for workers to feel you are passing judgment on them.  They won’t want to talk to you anymore, and that definitely can end up weakening the union in your workplace.”  She stresses to act as the worker’s advocate—never their adversary—when dealing with management.

According to Armitage, another thing that will hurt a steward’s credibility with workers is giving them incorrect information about the union, their contract, or grievance procedures.  “For many of the workers at my job, I am the union.  If they come to me with a problem and I give them the wrong information because I’m not sure of something, it’s not only me that has let them down.  They feel as though the union has failed them, and they lose their faith in being a union member.”

The steward must make sure that the worker’s rights are never jeopardized, Armitage explains.  If she isn’t certain how to answer a question or whether to file a grievance, she consults the other shop steward or speaks with the local union representative.  She looks over the union contract, union policies, and company policies for the correct information with every worker complaint.    Armitage says it’s her duty as a steward to provide sound advice for every worker, every time.

•   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.”