Leaders of the fight for a union at Dakota Premium Foods said the union meeting, which was followed by a party, was the biggest ever, and marked a new stage in the struggle: the fight for a contract. Workers at the meeting began to build up the union's communications and women's committees, necessary steps in strengthening the union and increasing its fighting capacity.

Since the July union victory, the bosses had sought to deny, or at best delay, recognizing the union through challenging the outcome of the vote. But the union was able to refute each of these claims during National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearings and maintain its support in face of the company's tactics. Last week an NLRB officer issued a detailed 64-page document dismissing each of the company's charges of unfair labor practices against United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 during the organizing drive and proposed certification of the union. The company has 14 days to appeal from the issuance of the ruling.

The large participation in the union meeting is one indication of the determination to form a union and the power of the organizing effort, which began with a sit-down strike to protest conditions in the plant, especially the increase in line speed, injuries, and lack of respect from the company.

"This is the only time that so many people have come together," said Jose Estrada, a kill floor worker and meat packer for 44 years. "Many came and found out what a workers meeting is like and that perhaps this is the way it's going to be in the future."

"Many are asking, 'When is the contract going to be presented to the company? Are we going to wait for a long time? Are we going to go out on strike?' Some are saying that we need to begin an emergency fund just in case," said Estrada, who is a member of the union's communications committee.

"Many people realized that we achieved a very important step when the [NLRB] decision was announced," said Matías Loya, a boning worker. "Some people said that we need to organize one or two more meetings on this."

Workers reported that Local 789 officials at the union meeting handed out copies of the pay scales at Long Prairie Packing, another beef slaughterhouse in Minnesota owned by Dakota Premium Foods' parent company, Rosen's Diversified Inc. Workers at Long Prairie Packing are also members of Local 789 and have had a contract with the company for 12 years.

The company pays workers at Long Prairie Packing $1 to $2 more an hour for the same jobs at Dakota Premium Foods, according to Local 789 union representative Francisco Picado.

The union victory will help combat company-fostered divisions between workers in the kill and boning departments, said Amy Roberts, a boning worker who is also a member of the communications committee. It also presents an opportunity to organize more women workers into actively supporting the union, she said.

For example, workers report that the company usually buys lunch and cake for kill-floor workers about once a week, and has been known to run the boning line faster than the kill line. Kill floor workers also work more overtime, usually five to 10 hours a week, and many workers depend on the extra money.

"Their objective is to win points on the kill floor, because they are losing in the boning department," said Loya. "They are trying to make two groups, but what we have is one union."

One of the leaders of the fight for a union on the kill floor is Obdulia Flores, a worker at Dakota for four years. Flores said more women can be drawn into union activity. "Women need the union more," Flores said. "At any job, they always harass women, and when you have the union, you can defend yourself against harassment from anyone."

Most women at Dakota Premium Foods work in packaging, where many workers do not make more than $8.68 an hour, compared to $9 to $11 plus an hour for knife jobs, which are worked mostly by men, said Roberts.

Company officials used workers' break time to inform them of the NLRB ruling on the day it was issued and held another round of meetings during break time two days later. At those meetings, company vice president Esteban Cortinas informed workers that the company plans to appeal the NLRB decision.

When two boning workers pointed out to Cortinas that the company was not implementing its promise that a group of people would keep track of the line speed, Cortinas reportedly encouraged individual workers who "felt dissatisfied" to come to the company to "negotiate problems that had solutions." Cortinas then ended the discussion.  
 
 
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