Vol. 72/No. 24      June 16, 2008

She talked with several members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 789, involved in the struggle at Dakota Premium Foods, a beef slaughterhouse here. One of the workers, Ricardo Orozco, from the boning department, had invited Kennedy to meet with several Dakota workers at the restaurant where he holds a second job. Orozco, Julian Santana, one of the shop stewards in the plant, and two other workers explained how they had beaten back the company’s attempt to break their union and win a contract.

Orozco referred to the continuing harassment and pressures on workers in the plant since their contract was approved on May 14. He told Kennedy, “We’ve got to fight and keep fighting. If we hadn’t fought all these months we wouldn’t even have a union today.”

At the end of the discussion some of the workers volunteered to help with the socialist campaign, including petitioning to put the SWP candidates on the November ballot.

Kennedy also met with Victor Taday, a worker fighting his firing and those of 14 other workers at D’Amico Restaurant. The workers have been organizing picket lines and other actions against the unjust firings.

Taday explained the bosses met with the workers last year to tell them they had received government no-match letters claiming there were inconsistencies in the workers’ Social Security numbers. The workers were told they would not lose their jobs unless a proposed new law was passed forcing the company to dismiss them. The law was never passed but in March the company fired the 15 workers anyway.

The fifteen workers all had between 10 and 15 years at the restaurant and were making between $12 and $14 per hour and had several weeks’ paid vacation. They have now been replaced by workers paid $9 an hour with no upcoming vacations.

Taday described to Kennedy a strike he was part of in his native Ecuador before moving here. “I was one of 400 government workers, a driver,” he said. “We struck for three weeks and defended our union.”

Rebecca Williamson works at Dakota Premium Foods and is the SWP candidate for Congress in the 5th District.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist Workers file petitions for ballot status in New Jersey
Socialist candidate for U.S. president tours Australia, New Zealand  
 
 
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