On December 24, 50 workers picketed the company chanting in English and Spanish, "Si, se puede" and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" Among the signs, with demands in Polish, Spanish, and English carried by the union members, one said, "AMPAC: Scrooge of the Year." There was some coverage of the picketing, mostly in the local Spanish-language media.

By claiming the decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend inspections at the plant forced them to shut down, the American Meat Packing Corporation (AMPAC) avoided regulations under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Act, which states companies must give a 60-day notice of a plant closing. After being laid off "temporarily" as of November 8, workers were sent a letter dated November 16 stating that as of that day their employment was "permanently terminated."

The plant of 400 was organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) and was the last hog slaughterhouse in Chicago.

AMPAC, a division of the Pinnacle Food Group, had already begun to farm out work to the company's nonunion plants. Workers received a letter from Pinnacle officials offering them jobs starting as "new hires" at the company's nonunion plant in Des Moines. Pinnacle offered $250 in "relocation expenses" and another $250 loan--to be repaid out of the workers' first 10 paychecks--to anyone who decided to move.

"Our demands are very simple," said Shawn Robinson, one of those at the December 24 action. "We want an extension of our medical benefits for three months and severance pay. We demand the truth about what really happened with the closing of the plant. It is the least they can give us." Robinson explained that while the company had previously said they were bankrupt, they never gave warning to the workers that the plant would close. "They robbed our families of both Thanksgiving and Christmas," he said. "It is unfair to the people who worked for them for so many years."

Henri Korszlak, a worker originally from Poland who has 16 years at the plant, added, "We have no jobs, insurance, or anything."

Silvia Contreras, one of the few women who worked in the upper kill department, explained she wanted to be part of the rally because of the "injustice" of AMPAC's closing. "The company gave nothing to the poor people who worked hard for them a lot of years," she said. "We have to fight for our rights, for the rights of everybody."

Many workers at the rally had been unable to find a new job, and face a cutoff in their medical insurance. A number of the laid-off union members are in the middle of expensive medical treatments and one came to the rally on crutches. What will happen to company pensions is also a major concern for those present.

UFCW Local 1546100A vice president Javier Ramírez and La Unión Latina de Chicago (Latino Union of Chicago) director Jose Landaverde both spoke at the event.

The protest was initiated by laid-off AMPAC workers and built by La Unión Latina, which organizes day laborers and temporary workers in the area. Days before the action, an ad hoc group of 25 former AMPAC workers gathered at La Unión Latina to discuss their demands and issued a call for the rally.

One of the leaders of the action, Rufino Peña, said among those in the fight today are leaders of a strike in 1985. That walkout was a hard-fought 15-month battle, where 60 workers among the 350 at the plant stayed out the entire time. "Most of those you see today were those who stayed out with us. We kept our word. When we said we were going on strike, we went on strike." The strikers were not recalled to work until positions opened up in the plant. The union later won a lawsuit for lost wages against the company for unfair labor practices.

Many workers do not believe the company's claims that it shut down involuntarily. They point to the fact that last fall the bosses relocated part of the ham line of the boning department to Illinois Meat, a sister nonunion plant a few blocks away. Workers on the ham line were offered a position at the nonunion plant, but would have lost their union membership and taken a cut in pay. No worker accepted this offer. Later, management received three warnings from USDA inspectors to improve the conditions in the plant, which included rat droppings and condensation on ceilings. While routine cleanings were done each day, these warnings went largely unheeded.

Workers have organized several delegations to meet with union officials about their demands. The officials agreed to file a Freedom of Information Act claim with the USDA seeking inspectors reports leading up to the closing in order to learn more about the company's claims.

After the meeting Sunday, Peña said the company "thinks they can use us. They want us to keep our mouth shut and let them take advantage of us. From this experience, I learned that we have been cheated. I didn't know that there were people who would cheat you like this after you give your entire life to them and leave you with nothing. I gave so much to make those guys rich, now I have nothing. I hope that we get our rights. We have to fight for them."

Arrin Hawkins is laid off from American Meat Packing Corporation.  
 
 
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