The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 67/No. 29           August 25, 2003  
 
 
Union wins vote deadline
at New York packing plant
(front page)
 
BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD  
BRONX, New York—Workers at the Garden Manor Farms meatpacking plant at the Hunts Point Market here scored a victory in their fight for union recognition. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in early August that an election must be held by the end of the month on whether employees will be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 342. “This is really good news,” said John Jiménez, who has worked as a butcher at the company for three and a half years. “The company was told to give the labor board a list of the workers who can vote in the election by today,” he stated in an August 8 interview. “We are almost done.”

The workers have been fighting since November 2002 to bring in the union. Jiménez explained that a union veteran who got hired into the plant initiated the organizing effort last year. “He told us if we got everyone to sign union recognition cards he would call the union,” Jiménez said. “So that’s what we did.” The company succeeded repeatedly in stalling the vote by trying to tie the workers up in NLRB hearings and appeals.

By the end of June, the workers had had enough—they went on strike to protest the company’s stalling tactics. The walkout took place over the busy July 4 holiday weekend, beginning July 3 and ending July 11, putting real pressure on management.

During the strike, delegations and individual workers from a number of plants in the market made visits to the picketline during their lunch and other breaks to express support for the organizing drive.

“It made everybody stronger,” said Robert Roman, also a butcher at Garden Manor Farms, referring to the strike. “Everybody is together now. Nobody is backing down.” Roman said the company has continued to try various ways to forestall the election, including filing charges with the NLRB that workers were intimidated into signing union cards. “But it doesn’t matter. We are going to get there sooner or later. They are down to their last bullets,” Roman added, referring to the company.

“If we keep together they can’t do anything against us,” said Jiménez. “We are the people who make the money for the company. Without us they can’t do anything. So in the end we are going to win.”

As part of the effort to unionize the more than 20 workers at the plant, and possibly other shops, organizers are maintaining a regular presence at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market—a 60-acre complex in the Bronx with 47 meat companies. Only about half a dozen of these shops are unionized at this point.

After the recent ruling by the labor board, organizers handed out flyers in English and Spanish announcing: “Garden Manor Farms Bosses Lose Another One.” They also distributed a flyer outlining various methods bosses often use to divide the workforce and disrupt organizing efforts.

Workers at Garden Manor say the main issues fueling the organizing drive are low wages, lack of benefits, and abusive treatment by the bosses.

Dean Hazlewood is a member of UFCW Local 342 and works at Hunts Point.  
 
 
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