BY SUSAN LAMONT AND RONALD MARTIN
BELZONI, Mississippi - Since mid-November, nearly 70 workers
at the Freshwater Farms catfish processing plant here have been
waging a determined struggle for workers' rights and dignity on
the job. All are Black; most are women.
They began their action the morning of November 16 by standing outside the plant to protest the company's refusal to treat their demands seriously, said Joann Hogan. Although no one had punched in, the company responded by firing them that morning. Hogan, 36, who has worked at Freshwater Farms for seven years, is one of the workers' spokespersons. She actually went into work November 16, but was also fired when she went out to speak with protesters at lunchtime. She and other workers are staffing an informational picket line across the highway from the plant and recently explained the issues in their fight to a team of Militant reporters visiting the Delta.
`Stand and be brave
One of the their protest signs summarizes what the struggle
is all about: "We'd rather stand out and be brave than to go in
and be slaves."
A major concern is the company's refusal to allow adequate time for workers to use the bathroom. Their workstations are between 400 and 500 feet from the restrooms. Only seven minutes are allowed for bathroom breaks, three times a day. "By the time you get your gear off and get to the wash room, the seven minutes is practically gone," Hogan said. "Then you have to get sanitized and redressed up before you can go back to your work station." If they take longer than seven minutes, workers must clock out or they will be written up.
There is no set shift length, either. The shift starts at 8:00 a.m. and workers must stay until the work is finished, whether it's eight, nine, or ten hours a day - or longer. Between 100,000 and 120,000 pounds of catfish are processed each workday. The company also wants workers to stand motionless - and silent - at their workstations, not moving or talking to fellow workers. They expect workers to buy their own supplies, such as gloves, aprons, and hairnets. If you get a hole in your gloves, you have to work with ice-cold water on your hands, unless you can replace the gloves yourself. Workers also face abusive and unfair treatment by supervisors.
The area outside the plant that was designated for smoking was filthy and crawling with maggots. Workers start at $5.20 an hour, five cents above minimum wage. There is a minimal "incentive" plan: workers who have been at Freshwater for 15 years make as little as $6.45 an hour. There are no medical benefits. There are no white workers on the production line. The company fired a woman worker who was white, after they found out she was married to a Black man, Hogan said.
There was a one-day work stoppage in May over the same issues. Despite company assurances that changes would be made, nothing happened.
The company has said that the 68 workers who protested are fired, claiming they violated the "no strike-no lockout" provisions of the union contract. The workers, who have not yet received discharge papers, consider themselves locked-out. They have been unable to collect unemployment, however, or sign up for food stamps, and some have been effectively blacklisted from other jobs in the area.
The company has called Humphreys County sheriff John Allen Jones on picketers several times. Jones is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department over the death and mistreatment of Black jail inmates. They have also had dead deer and a deer head thrown by their protest area.
The workers are calling for a boycott of Freshwater Farms products, which are sold to restaurants and supermarkets. They have begun informational leafleting at area supermarkets. The plant is organized by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1529. Hogan was one of the shop stewards; another shop steward was also among those who joined the protest.
Despite the fact that local union officials are not backing their fight, the workers view their struggle as benefiting the workers who are still inside. "If we can make things better, we'll make it better for them as well," Hogan said. There were a total of about 240 workers in the plant when the protest began.
`The new plantation'
The workers who walked out have contacted area ministers and
the Mississippi Delta chapter of Southern Christian Leadership
Conference for support. They have formed a new organization,
the Catfish Workers of America. An informational leaflet they
put out says, in part, "The catfish industry, the new
plantation in America, makes millions of dollars of profit off
the labor of African-American catfish workers who are paid low
wages and given little in benefits. These workers are forced to
work under deplorable and dehumanizing conditions where racism
is rampant. In the Mississippi Delta, America's poorest region,
there are no African-American catfish processors, managers and
few, if any catfish farmers. The only African-American catfish
processor was driven out of business several years ago."
Mississippi is the leading producer of farm-raised catfish in the United States, a $45 million industry for the state. The first catfish workers to win union recognition were at Delta Pride's plants in Indianola, about 25 miles from Belzoni. They began pressing for union recognition in 1986 and finally won in 1990. Workers at Delta Pride are in the same UFCW local as Freshwater Farms workers.
For more information about the Freshwater workers' fight or to send a donation, contact Catfish Workers Fund, c/o the Myers Foundation, P.O. Box 29, Belzoni, MS 39038 or call (601) 247- 2694 or (601) 247-1471 or e-mail at www.commonground.com