Vol. 71/No. 34      September 17, 2007

The newsletter reports that in one week two workers—Samuel Farley and Antonio Gómez—suffered stabbing injuries on the production line, “which could have been prevented with proper safety measures or a slower line speed.”

The union contract at the plant expired at the end of June. A few weeks before the expiration date two pro-company workers began circulating petitions “to remove the union.” The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which decides if there will be a vote or not, has yet to make a decision. The union says the company-backed petition was illegal.

Workers at the plant waged a two-year battle including a sit-down strike to forge the union in the plant. They won their first contract in 2002.

Local 789 activists are organizing to visiting every union member who works at the plant.

Last week, the Workers’ Voice reports, management called Farley, who is the last remaining union steward on the cut floor, into the office “five times in two days for the letting pieces go down the line.” The newsletter says there were not enough workers assigned to perform the job with Farley.

“The attack on me is really an attack on workers in the plant and the union,” Farley told the Militant. “It comes in the context of a company attempt to break the union. The company is keeping the other steward in the boning area, Miguel Gutiérrez, out of the plant on the basis of a false excuse.” Farley filed a grievance with the union against the company for this harassment and the union filed an unfair labor practices charge with the NLRB.

“The company is trying to work us like dogs,” Farley continued. “We workers are cutting up cattle at a faster pace than anytime in the eight years I’ve worked here.”

Other workers confirm that the intensity of the production speed is a major issue.

Rosendo Salgado, who works on the production line where beef chuck meat is deboned, said workers on that line are being pressured “to do the job of seven people with only four to five people.”

Rebecca Williamson is a trimmer at Dakota Premium Foods and a member of UFCW Local 789. Tom Fiske contributed to this article.
 
 
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