The workers hit the streets again to show their determination to win a decent contract. They are demanding improved job conditions, an end to company abuse, and recognition of the affiliation of their union—the League of Independent Workers of the San Joaquin Valley—with the International Association of Machinists.

“We decided to go out again because the company doesn’t want to negotiate with the union,” said Francisco Alvarez, a coordinator for the League in the packaging department. “More people came out from the second shift than last time, so it was a victory for us.”

Picket lines were spirited, he said, with workers chanting, “Yes, we can do it,” in English, Spanish, and Punjabi, and “The people united, Will never be divided!”

Foster Farms is Merced County’s largest private employer, processing half a million chickens a day. It is one of the largest chicken processing plants in the United States.

While the overwhelming majority of the 2,000 workers in the plant are employed by Foster Farms, pickets said that over the last two years the company has brought in hundreds of workers supplied by a contractor.

“It is criminal that the contract workers are paid only $6.75 an hour while the contractor earns much more off them,” said Juan Caballero, a long-time union supporter in the plant.

The company has used the hiring of contract employees to create divisions among the workers in the plant in order to gut seniority and keep everybody’s pay low, unionists said. A worker with many years in the plant, for example, will be sent home early while a contract worker stays on the job. During the two walkouts, the company hired more contract workers as replacements for those protesting.

Workers who walked out November 3 were to return to work on Monday, November 7, and are prepared to come out again if no progress is made in negotiations with the bosses. “We feel that we have hit the company hard,” Alvarez said. “We don’t know what will happen on Monday, but everyone is ready to continue this fight for justice.”  
 
 
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