“It was such a tight vote, but we came out on top,” said one worker, who asked that her name not be used. Now the union supporters must convince those who voted “no” to join the union, she said.

The organizing campaign got under way in February as UFCW organizers and Casa de Oro workers organized house visits and broader meetings to build the base of union support in the plant. They collaborated with activists in Omaha Together One Community (OTOC), a community organization that has been active in several union-organizing efforts.

Organizers distributed union leaflets at the plant gate in four languages. Tortilla production is spread over three shifts, and involves workers from Bosnia, Vietnam, and a number of countries in Latin America, along with U.S.-born workers.

The drive to unionize Casa de Oro is one of the most recent UFCW organizing efforts in this city. It built on a union-OTOC campaign launched in June 2000 to organize Omaha meatpacking workers. In May 2002 this campaign scored its first success at a cut and kill operation, when meat packers at the Swift cattle slaughterhouse voted for union representation by a margin of two to one.

Since then, workers at a smaller sausage plant have voted to join the UFCW. The union also suffered a reversal with a lost election at Nebraska Beef, a slaughterhouse with close to 1,000 workers.

Two days before the September 23 election some 15 Casa de Oro workers gathered with families, organizers, and supporters of the union-building effort for a picnic at a local lake. Workers from the tortilla plant and other factories spoke briefly about their struggle, stressing the importance of sticking together in the face of company attacks. “The company has tried to intimidate us by saying they’d shut down the plant,” said one man with nine years on the job. “They threaten to fire us. But we just get fired up!”

Martín Cortez, a Swift kill floor worker and union steward with 24 years seniority, was one of 10 workers at the picnic from the cut and kill plant. Winning the union at Swift gave workers “a way to defend ourselves, to organize to win respect,” he said. “My co-workers and I are here today to share our fight and experiences with these fellow workers, and the fight that continues as we work to build the union inside the plant. These kind of fights will continue anywhere that people are being treated unjustly and inhumanely.”

Many Casa de Oro workers took pro-union flyers with them to distribute inside the plant the next day. On September 23 supporters of their fight assembled outside the plant gate at each shift change to encourage a “union yes” vote. From 10:00 p.m. to after midnight students from Creighton University, four Swift union activists, and one Casa de Oro worker joined organizers and OTOC members beside the security gate to welcome the third shift. Swift workers held signs saying, “Victory is only minutes away, union yes!” and “Swift workers say union yes!”

“Although we’re not inside the plant with the workers, we are committed to helping them better their workplace,” said Adam Young, a 20-year-old Creighton sophomore. Kelly Orbik, 19, said, “I’m sure more students would come out if they saw how glad the workers are to see our support.”

Casa de Oro workers now face a fight to win a contract. “It’s been a long road and the journey has just begun,” said Jared Westbrook, a 21-year-old worker who helped lead the fight. He joined co-workers and fellow unionists from the Swift plant onstage at the September 27 Omaha rally for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, during a section of the program set aside for workers involved in local organizing victories.

“This election shows us that a large company is vulnerable,” Westbrook said. “Our next step is to negotiate a contract to say what we want, not what they want to give us.”

Lisa Rottach is a kill floor worker at the Swift and Co. plant in Omaha and a member of UFCW Local 27.  
 
 
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