According to members of the in-plant leadership committee established in the course of the union-organizing struggle there, many workers at the plant have been called into individual meetings with company lawyers and the head of personnel. At these meetings, the bosses try to pressure workers into signing a statement to the effect that "I am willing to testify on my opinion about the election proceedings."

The company's excuse for these meetings is its professed concern about the democratic character of the July 21 union election, in which workers voted overwhelmingly for the union 112-71. The company has filed a challenge to the election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is scheduled to conduct a hearing August 29. The union representation victory, in which workers voted to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789, was the result of a hard-fought seven-week effort to organize a union. This effort began June 1 after workers staged a seven-hour sit-down strike demanding improvements in conditions--especially a reduction in the brutal line speed.

Some 220 workers are employed in the beef slaughterhouse, the big majority of whom are Spanish-speaking immigrants. The company is owned by Rosen's Diversified, Inc., (RDI) a major beef processor.

The lawyers for the bosses claim no pressure is involved in the meetings with individual workers, and that whether or not workers sign the statement will have no impact on their standing at work.

"The purpose of the company in trying to get workers to sign the statement is not just to use in the upcoming NLRB hearing," said Francisco Picado, a full-time organizer for the union. "The statement is very vague and can be used to present the opposite of the intentions of those who sign it. Some workers were told that signing the statement would indicate willingness to speak on behalf of the integrity of the elections. The purpose is to intimidate the workers at Dakota and to trap them in red tape. It is to get them to think that what will be decisive in the fight against the company will be the legal proceedings, not their ability to act collectively and affect production, as they showed so powerfully they could do in their sit-down strike.

"The purpose is also to draw workers into collaboration with the company."

According to workers in the plant, company bosses have also been on a campaign to meet with workers individually to demand information about the union and its leaders in the plant. "Who distributes the Workers' Voice?" they ask, referring to the bilingual in-plant union newsletter. "Where did you get the copies of the Workers' Voice to distribute? Who gave them to you?"

One worker the company has singled out for attack is Samuel Farley, a boning worker and one of the leaders of the June 1 strike and union-organizing drive. Farley is one of four Black workers in the plant.

The company made it impossible for Farley to qualify on the job he performed in the middle of the boning room. Farley was recently disqualified from his knife job. Instead he was moved to operating the wizard knife in an isolated area of the boning department, where few co-workers can talk to him. There the bosses keep close track of his work, time his bathroom breaks, and follow him to his locker.

"In fact, I am much faster than my trainer," Farley told the Militant. Two boners are now doing the operation that Farley was doing. "The company is trying to isolate me and set me up."

A delegation of workers who are supporters of the union fight, led by a worker in the boning department, Miguel Olvera, went to the manager's office August 21 to support the pro-union worker.

"We must see this as an attack on a co-worker and a leader of our fight," said Matías Loya, a supporter of the union in the boning department. "I don't care about race, origin, or language. It is an attack against a co-worker and we have to see it that way. Everyone has to see that if they get Samuel, they will come after the others."

Workers report that the company has a record of discriminating against Blacks and other groups of workers. The parent corporation, RDI, last August was judged guilty by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of participating in and allowing the sexual harrassment --abusive gay baiting--of male workers in its plant in Long Prairie, Minnesota. The company was fined $1.9 million because of its responsibility for the attacks.

The company has attacked some union supporters by claiming in certain instances that their immigration papers are not in order.  
 
Bosses keep pushing line speed
The company maintains a line speed well above the 95 cattle an hour it negotiated with workers during the June 1 sit-down strike. Workers say the line speed varies, but that it frequently moves as fast as 115 per hour. "The company manager, Steve Cortinas, told us at the company meeting on August 10 that the weight of the cattle makes the chain move faster," said Amy Roberts, a worker in the boning department. "He also claimed that the machinery malfunctions."

"However, we know what he says is not true. The company is not only attempting to push for immediate profits. It is also trying to assert that the union cannot have any control. It wants to maintain the idea that the company is the total boss."

A member of the in-plant leadership committee reported to the Militant that at their August 17 union meeting the meat packers present discussed the need to reassert the validity of the July 21 union election victory. They were outraged that the company was challenging the wishes of the workers. They decided that a petition would be circulated in the plant to reaffirm that the union election registered the will of the workers in the plant and was therefore democratic. This is now being carried out.

Workers at the meeting discussed again the shop steward elections and the responsibilities of shop stewards. "The election is very important," Miguel Olvera told the Militant. "We will work with the newly elected stewards to record company abuses and work with them on how to conduct themselves as stewards. We will work with them to fight the disciplining by the company and to fight all the other problems that are considered normal now." It was concluded that the shop steward elections would be conducted August 24.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home