Last May production workers voted by a decisive 252–126 margin to join the UFCW. This was the first union victory at one of the large slaughterhouses in the area since the union teamed up with Omaha Together/One Community (OTOC), a community and church group, a year earlier.

ConAgra has not reconciled itself with having a union in the plant and continues to harass and fire workers. In June, workers on the fabrication line walked off the job after the bosses dismissed a worker the day before.

"They were getting ready to fire another worker," a union supporter said, "so the workers walked off the line and the whole department stopped running, because nothing runs without that line." The unionists called the UFCW officials, who came to the plant and met with the bosses. The company slowed down the line speed a bit, did not fire the worker who they had threatened, and are reviewing the case of the employee who was dismissed.

"The supervisors are treating us with more respect," the union supporter said. "It was a big success." As word of the job action spread to the kill floor, workers responded enthusiastically to the results of the huelguita (mini-strike), as some called it.

The following day three union officials wearing UFCW hard hats and frocks walked through the plant observing working conditions and greeting workers. "We really liked it when Donna [the local union president] walked around the plant," said one fabrication worker.  
 
Workers’ delegations
The in-plant Workers Committee has been organizing delegations of five to 20 workers to go to the front offices at the plant to take up cases with the bosses of workers who have been disciplined by the company or forced to perform jobs that are causing injuries. Some victories have been won this way, with the bosses agreeing to move workers to different jobs and reduce disciplinary measures.

At the same time the company has stepped up its actions against workers on the production line. It organized an "appreciation picnic" to thank workers for their "excellent" production. The bosses hung large banners throughout the plant exhorting workers to "Think and work safely!" One of the leaders of the workers committee, while making an announcement to workers in the cafeteria about the first day of negotiations, warned co-workers to be extra-attentive to safety issues so as not to give the company any pretexts for firings. A young shackler had recently been accused of not wearing the proper equipment and was fired.

A local newsweekly, The Reader, featured the union election victory at ConAgra as its lead story along with a large photo. Inside a two-page collage of photographs illustrated the struggle of the meat packers at various stages of the organizing drive. Workers organized to make sure stacks of the free weekly were widely available in the cafeteria and locker rooms throughout the day.

The struggle in Omaha and union organizing victory there have also been given prominent coverage in the liberal biweekly magazine The American Prospect. The July 1 issue features an article entitled, "The Kill-Floor Rebellion," which details the background to the fight. It notes an "alliance of a union and a community group may have found the way to reorganize the meatpacking industry--and the Latino immigrant workers in small-town America."

Contract negotiations began at the end of June between United Food and Commercial Workers Local 271, together with an elected negotiating committee of seven workers, and company officials.  
 
Union struggle at Nebraska Beef
Activists from the Workers Committee joined members of the Omaha Together/One Community outside the Nebraska Beef slaughterhouse July 9 to leaflet workers at the plant gate. The union lost a representation vote at the plant last August, but the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the results should be thrown out. The company has appealed that ruling. Supporters of the union in the plant have renewed their organizing drive and have begun to petition for a new election.

At the plant gate ConAgra workers held signs they had made saying in Spanish, "Compañeros of Nebraska Beef, We did it! You can too!" and "Onward!" Forty Nebraska Beef workers signed union authorization cards that afternoon.

Nebraska Beef has been looking for opportunities to get rid of known union supporters. Several workers have been fired on a variety of pretexts and some have not been rehired after returning to their native Mexico for a visit. The company normally rehires workers as soon as they return from Mexico.

Recently the company put union supporter David Rosenfeld on indefinite suspension from the plant. While walking to lunch, a worker fell on top of him, knocking him to the ground. One of the top bosses was conveniently standing there and asked, "What’s happening here?" as if there was a fight. The man who fell on top of Rosenfeld claimed the unionist had grabbed him.

The boss escorted Rosenfeld to the office and the union activist was then escorted off the property by plant security. The other person was allowed to walk away.

Two weeks after the provocation the company refused to allow Rosenfeld to return to work. In the days following the suspension several workers distributed a fact sheet on the incident and the Workers Committee at Nebraska Beef is discussing ways to defend workers victimized by the company. The UFCW has filed charges with the NLRB on behalf of Rosenfeld and other workers in the plant, maintaining that the company is harassing supporters of unionization.  
 
 
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