According to reports by two workers in Long Prairie, located about 100 miles northwest of here, INS agents have been knocking on the doors of Latino workers in a trailer park near Long Prairie Packing Co., a beef slaughterhouse where members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789 have been putting up resistance to a speedup offensive by the company. Other workers have been stopped on foot, in their cars, or on bicycle.

"Five workers from the plant have been taken to jail," stated Jose Rena, a worker at Long Prairie Packing who was himself stopped by the INS and asked for his papers after he left the plant on his bicycle. "Many of these five were just picked up on the street. La migra [the INS] hasn’t gone into the plant, but they know where to find workers where we live. They have been making their rounds around the trailers. The cops have a long list of names of people with them. I saw the list when they stopped me."

About a month ago a majority of workers in the boning department organized a job action, refusing to return to work from the company cafeteria for an hour and a half in response to a big increase in the speed of the production line. Long Prairie Packing is owned by Rosen’s Diversified, Inc., the same holding company that owns Dakota Premium Foods, a beef slaughterhouse in South St. Paul where a yearlong fight against harsh speedup conditions has been part of a drive by the workers to win union recognition of Local 789.

Jose Luis Ramírez, a worker on the kill floor, said that conditions have not improved much in the plant. "We are killing 850 to 900 cows a day. The conditions are so bad that there is no space for workers to work."

Rena said workers are intimidated by the campaign of the INS and the local cops. "The company doesn’t want to eliminate us, because we are productive. But the company wants us to forget about defending ourselves through the union and to scare us with the INS," he said. Workers at the packing plant have carried out other actions against the company’s offensive.

Workers have responded to the attack by publishing a new issue of the Workers’ Voice, a newsletter of the union members at both Rosen’s Diversified plants. An article in the new issue points out that the bosses at Dakota Premium Foods have been asking for workers who have already given their Social Security number to the plant supervisors to come to the office to once again give their numbers. As reported in the newsletter, "One worker said, ‘Why are they asking for our number if it is already in our applications when we first got hired and on our checks?’"

The article continues, "This is a concerted effort by the bosses of Rosen’s Diversified using the cops, INS, courts, and other governmental institutions to 1) bust and weaken the union at Long Prairie Packing; [and] 2) to set fear in the hearts and minds of us here at Dakota Premium Foods in order to prevent a successful fight for a union contract."

Miguel Olvera, a leader of the union at Dakota, told the newsletter: "The company realizes that they can’t increase the velocity of the line like they once did, because workers are resisting." The article states that Local 789 president William Pearson was outraged by the INS actions and sent a letter of protest to the regional INS office.  
 
Anniversary march planned
A June 15 march and rally from the Dakota Premium Foods plant to the union hall is being planned by Local 789. The action is called to celebrate the first anniversary of the sit-down strike that launched the organizing drive and fight for a union contract. Last year workers refused to go back to work until the company met with workers representatives and discussed their demands to lower the speed of the line and to stop the practice of forcing workers to work while they are injured.

According to the Workers’ Voice, the purpose of the action is to highlight the refusal of the company to recognize the union, despite a large majority vote for Local 789 last July. The company appealed the results of the election, first to the regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and, failing there, to the national NLRB. Months have passed since the latest company appeal was filed. There has been no indication given to the union’s lawyers when a judgment will be handed down.
 
 
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