The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), along with the religious and community coalition, Omaha Together/One Community (OTOC), are engaged in a sustained drive to organize Omaha's 4,000 meat packers. Nebraska Beef is the largest plant they have targeted so far. Although the union has been defeated in a vote by production workers at ConAgra-Northern States Beef, two smaller elections have been won. One result of the drive is that meatpacking workers from a number of plants are forging ties, discussing their common conditions, and sharing the lessons they have learned as they work to counter the bosses' antiunion campaign. For example, meat packers at two ConAgra plants in the area have been part of the union organizing drive at Nebraska Beef.

A UFCW official and coordinator for the organizing drive said in response to the election outcome that Nebraska Beef's antiunion campaign "was equal to or worse than any I have seen in 20 years of organizing, including the Smithfield plant" in Tar Heel, North Carolina. The Smithfield plant is a notoriously antiunion hog slaughterhouse that employs roughly 5,000 workers.

"They had to cheat us to beat us. But the battle is not over," said Anselm McCrimon, a worker in the fabrication department. On the day before the election, McCrimon reported that workers in his department "were chanting 'We want a union!' and slamming their hooks on the tables. A lot of people came back after the election--they couldn't believe it. They wanted to know, how did we lose?"

In the week leading up to the vote, union supporters stepped up their activity. On Sunday, August 12, workers from the plant visited area churches to speak before congregations and ask for support in the fight for a union. Father Damien Zuerlein of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church sent a letter to every worker at Nebraska Beef stating that OTOC and his parish "support you and your co-workers as you organize."

Some 100 church members, unionists and others rallied with Nebraska Beef workers outside the plant two days before the election, raising frequent chants of "Sí se puede!" Spanish for "Yes, we can!" The next day, workers in the fabrication and kill floor departments beat out the rhythm of the chant with their knives and hooks whenever the production line went down.  
 
Workers wear pro-union stickers
Nearly a dozen workers on the kill floor wore union stickers on their hard hats and shirts on the day prior to the election. In the early afternoon, bosses pulled each of these workers off the line and told them to remove their stickers. Many workers were angered by the company move, especially since "Vote No" stickers were being worn by supporters of the company.

At the center of the company's campaign were four antiunion videotapes--two in English and two in Spanish--that all employees were required to watch. With the slick look of an "infomercial," a supposed news anchor and reporters attacked the unions as big businesses that are interested only in sucking up dues money to pay the high salaries of union officials. The video recordings blamed unions for everything from plant closures, strikes, and boycotts, to organized crime. A "reporter" explained that if a person tries to decertify a union, they may be subjected to threats, violence, or fines.

In the plant the bosses put up large "Vote No!" posters on the walls of the cafeteria, and giant reproductions of newspaper articles that sought to tie unions to plant closures and corruption.

The battle between the union and the company also took the form of competing leaflets. The company attached its leaflets to paychecks or had them put on lunch tables in the cafeteria. As the election neared they cranked out two or three pro-company leaflets each day.

A leader of the organizing drive who works on the kill floor says he was threatened with dismissal for placing a leaflet entitled, "What a union is and why the company wants to stop it" on lunch tables.

Two days before the election, the company placed a professionally produced, spiral-bound notebook in every worker's locker with the words "Vote No! No Union" colorfully printed on the cover. The book repeated, in English and Spanish, the antiunion themes of the company's videos.

On election day many workers reported seeing people who did not work in the plant going in to vote. Many wore clean white coats, indicating that they had not been working in the plant, since most workers become splattered with blood in the course of their shift. Workers in the factory have reported numerous instances of threats and promises made by company bosses to influence the vote.

Despite the intense antiunion campaign, hundreds of workers voted for the union and were convinced that they would win the election.

Union officials say they are planning to file a challenge to the result with the federal government, demanding that the election be thrown out and that a new vote be organized outside the plant.

"In the days before the election I decided that if we didn't win the vote for the union that I would quit Nebraska Beef," Oscar Ramirez, a worker on the kill floor, told the Militant. "But when I saw how the company had stolen the election from us I decided that I would stay and continue to fight for another election and to bring the union in."  
 
 
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