WREXHAM, Wales — “We are here, we are stronger, and we will win this fight. It’s not impossible!” Joanna Kowalska, a striking Unite union member, told a rally of hundreds of food production workers here Oct. 18. Six hundred workers have been on strike at Oscar Mayer since Sept. 12.
The rally was also addressed by Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary. The union is not recognized by the company.
The workers produce ready-made meals for major supermarkets and are being threatened with dismissal if they refuse to sign new contracts. The company is attempting to impose an up to 3,000 pounds ($3,890) pay cut by reducing breaks from three to two during a 12-hour shift and making all breaks unpaid. The company also wants to stop extra pay and days off for those who work on public holidays.
The new contract was issued only in English to the workers, who are mostly from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. Some workers have already been fired as they did not understand the company’s deadlines for accepting the contract changes.
“We have a small salary and they want to take away even this. We just want to keep what we’ve got,” Kowalska said. “I know that these people will stand till the end, nobody will leave. They will fight.”
Some 200 workers gathered near the Oscar Mayer plant when this reporter joined with them Oct. 24. Then they drove in procession toward the local shopping center to stage one of the protests they hold each week. Many held union signs in Polish, Romanian and English reading “Stop the wage theft!” and “Fire and rehire, the disgrace of Oscar Mayer!”
“In April this year we had less than 50 union members, but by June 600 had joined up,” said Leigh Williams, a Unite union organizer.
In the first week of the strike a picket of hundreds was mounted outside the factory gates and many truck drivers decided to turn away in solidarity. In response, the company threatened legal action.
Bosses have brought in agency workers to maintain some production along with nonunion workers. Strikers say that less than a third of the production lines are working.
“I learned that the union is a good thing, that we’re not fighting just for now, but for the future,” striker Alex Iordache told the Militant. He came to the U.K. from Romania four years ago.
“I have been working here for 29 years, and I never thought this would happen. I was shocked. But it’s because people have had enough,” Rob, a Welsh-born striker, said.