The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 73/No. 31      August 17, 2009

 
Meat packers in Utah plant win contract
 
BY CHUCK GUERRA
AND REBECCA WILLIAMSON  
Workers at the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Hyrum, Utah, voted July 14 to ratify their first union contract. After years of trying to unionize, workers at the plant voted overwhelmingly last summer to be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 711. The contract was approved after eight months of negotiations.

Among the provisions of the new contract are: a pay increase of up to $1 an hour over the three-year contract, amounting to a 4.6 percent pay increase for many workers; guaranteed hours for full-time employees; health insurance coverage for workers and their families with no increase in premiums; no out-of-pocket expenses for work equipment, tools, and work clothes; and paid funeral leave.

More than 1,100 workers at the beef slaughtering and butchering plant joined the union. On Dec. 12, 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement cops raided the plant along with the five other meatpacking plants then owned by Swift, arresting nearly 1,300 workers for allegedly not having proper documents. The Hyrum plant is the only one that was non-union at the time.
 
 
Related articles:
L.A. workers win delay in ‘no match’ mass firings  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home