Local 789 won a groundbreaking victory in organizing Dakota Premium Foods in South St. Paul, Minnesota, two years ago and has been trying to organize other packing plants in the area. The vote at Buffalo Lake is the first victory in this struggle.

The September 24 vote here came less than five months after meat packers backing the union lost a previous representation election. Deteriorating conditions at the Minnesota Beef plant helped turn the tide, workers said. In addition, promises the bosses had made last spring of better pay and benefits if the workers rejected the union never materialized, union supporters pointed out.

“If we get injured or if we have to work light duty, we automatically get bumped to $7 an hour,” said Manuel Cespedes, a boning worker, in an interview here two days after the union vote. “One knifer was pregnant, but she could not afford to take the pay cut she would get while on light duty. So she kept on working her regular job, which is very difficult. When she finally had her baby, it turned out that she also had a hernia.”

“We are here for work, not to be treated like animals,” said another boning worker who asked that his name not be used. “The line speed has gotten faster and faster. We kill more than 300 cows in less than six hours. That is too fast and we can’t live on pay of just six hours a day. It’s for the company’s benefit that we kill more cows and they get more money. We just have three demands: better treatment, better pay, and more hours.”

Buffalo Lake, a town of less than 800, is located about an hour and a half west of St. Paul. There are around 125 workers at the Minnesota Beef plant.

“This victory is testimony to how strong these workers are,” Local 789 organizer Bernie Hess told Militant reporters. “This was made possible because of the unity they showed.”

Unionists lost the previous vote on May 5 by a 67 to 32 margin. Many of the workers said the company had tried to intimidate them in the period leading up to that vote. According to union officials, management said it would call the police to check the documents of workers, most of whom are immigrants from Mexico, raising the threat of deportations. The union appealed the vote and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that the company had to hold a second vote.

The success at Minnesota Beef puts Local 789 in a better position to organize the 1,000 poultry workers who are also fighting for a union in the nearby town of Willmar, said Hess. The union has so far failed to organize the workers at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant there.

“Many workers have friends and relatives who work in all these different plants and they all talk to each other,” the UFCW organizer added. This also played a part in the election victory in Buffalo Lake.

“A lot of the workers also know people who work at Long Prairie Packing and at Dakota Premium Foods,” Hess said. At both of these plants the workers have won unions. “The company said that if the Minnesota Beef workers got the union, they would be forced to pay $25 a week in union dues. But when one worker saw the paycheck of his friend who works at Long Praire, he saw that they only pay $6 for dues.”

The union victory at Dakota Premium Foods came after a two-year-long struggle that began with a seven-and-a-half hour sitdown strike in the company cafeteria in June 2000. It took workers one year to force a union election and win the vote, and one more year to force the company to sign a contract with UFCW Local 789.  
 
 
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