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Vol. 72/No. 9      March 3, 2008

 
Minnesota meat packers fight harassment
 
BY JULIAN SANTANA  
SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minnesota, February 18—Bosses at the Dakota Premium Foods slaughterhouse here are stepping up harassment after workers defeated a company-backed effort to decertify their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789. The workers are organizing to stand up to company attacks and to win a new contract.

Stepped-up firings are accompanied by speed-up and worsening safety conditions on the job. This reporter had direct experience with unsafe work conditions, as reported in the February 18 edition of the Workers’ Voice, a newsletter put out by workers in the plant.

“The harassment and pressures we face contribute to the high injury rate on the job,” says the newsletter. “Last Wednesday Julian Santana, another kill worker, was made to work the jobs of two people. His finger got caught in the shackle around the cow’s leg and he was pulled off the platform where he works. A coworker hit the button to stop the line and reversed the shackle to pull Julian back on to the platform. Besides Julian at least four other workers on the kill are on work restrictions due to on the job injuries, 3 hurt just last week alone!”

In response to these conditions workers are explaining the need to use the strength of the union. “To stand up to these every day conditions on the job we need to defend each other and use our union stewards to back us up,” says the Workers’ Voice. “Whenever we are injured, harassed or called to the office we need to call on our union stewards.”

Since their January 25 union election victory, Dakota workers have been meeting at least once a week to discuss how to take on the company attacks and contract demands they will be raising in upcoming negotiations. At their next meetings they will choose shop stewards and members of the negotiating committee.

Workers at Dakota have been working under an old contract since it expired in June. According to Local 789 representatives, contract talks are tentatively scheduled to begin February 29. Among the demands workers are discussing are wage raises, open access to the plant for union representatives, control of the line speed, and more.

Julian Santana is a kill floor worker at Dakota Premium Foods and a member of UFCW Local 789.
 
 
Related articles:
Minnesota: YS joins meat packers’ struggle  
 
 
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