The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 69/No. 32           August 22, 2005  
 
 
New York meat packers strike;
demand back pay, protest firings
(front page)
 
BY DAN FEIN  
FARMINGDALE, New York—Union meat packers went on strike here July 28 to demand back wages and to protest firings of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members by BMW Meats, a chicken and beef processing plant in this Long Island town.

In face of a solid picket line, the company by the end of the week gave each of the 25 strikers one week’s pay in cash. Workers say they are determined to continue their strike until they are paid in full and fired workers are reinstated.

“The paychecks started bouncing two months ago,” said Marta Fialos, a worker with 12 years in the plant, who was holding a copy of one of the bounced checks. “And then, on top of that, the bank would charge us $10 every time they bounced the check.” Some workers had not received a good check for up to six weeks.

On July 26 the boss, Brian Weiner, posted a notice that nine workers were to be fired, which he claimed was “due to the current financial condition of the company.” The list included workers with up to 18 years’ seniority in the plant. Workers walked out two days later and began picketing, demanding that the fired workers get their jobs back and that payments be made in cash for all wages owed. The meat packers make between $7 and $14 per hour.

“They thought that we would just go back home and do nothing,” said Mercy Manas, the shop steward at the plant. “They didn’t expect us to fight.”

On Friday, August 5, company representatives told union officials by phone that half of the back wages would be paid in cash at 3:00 p.m. that day.

At 5:10 p.m., a company representative gave the workers one week’s wages in cash, instead of paying half of what was owed to them as promised.

UFCW Local 342 representative David Rodriguez then announced that the union had one-week checks from the union strike fund for everyone. Cheers and clenched fists went up as the checks were distributed.

Manas led other strikers in chanting in Spanish “El lunes aquí!” meaning the picketing would resume on Monday to press the fight for all back wages to be paid. “The boss said he doesn’t want the union. That’s so he can pay us what he wants to pay,” she said.

“We had to strike. We weren’t getting paid for our work,” said Olga Baca, who worked at the plant for 18 years and was on the list to be fired. Five of Baca’s checks had bounced.

Two UFCW Local 342 members who work at Garden Manor Farms in the Hunts Point Meat Market in the Bronx, Joseph DeJesus and this writer, drove to the picket line after work on August 5 to bring solidarity.

Paul Pederson and Millie Sánchez contributed to this article.  
 
 
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