HOOPESTON, Ill. — Since the beginning of June, some 65 members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 1 at the Teasdale Latin Foods canning plant here have been on strike. Solidarity from fellow workers and unions in this town of 5,000, in the heart of Illinois farm country, has been strong.
“We get a lot of support. Local union people drop by bringing ice, food, Gatorade and wood. Most importantly, the Teamsters are backing us up. They are paying our employee contribution for our health insurance,” picket captain Juan “Chico” Lugo, who has worked in the plant for 26 years, told the Militant. “That was a big tipping point, when they decided to back us up. Next year their contract expires, and we’ll be there for them.”
The Teamsters union organizes the company’s distribution workers, who work in a building next to the bean-canning plant. The union is financially supporting them as they refuse to work as long as the cannery workers walk the picket line.
BCTGM regional organizers and officials of Local 1, which is based in the Chicago area, two hours to the north, regularly visit the picket line. The strikers picket around-the-clock.
Strikers say the biggest issues are proposed changes to scheduling and bosses’ use of nonunion outside labor in the plant. The company is pushing to get rid of their four-day schedule with 10- to 12-hour shifts, replacing it with a five-day workweek. Lugo thinks the company will try to impose 60-hour workweeks.
“That would be insane,” he said. “I have grandkids. People have families.” The company has also been “trying to replace us with outside contractors and push us into lower-paying jobs. They want to push older workers out the door.”
Striking workers all got a letter saying that if they didn’t return to work unconditionally, they would be permanently replaced.
BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton issued a statement supporting the strike. “I commend our BCTGM Local 1 brothers and sisters for holding their ground for what they and their families deserve,” he said, “and urge our Local Unions and fellow members to offer solidarity and support for them however possible.”