Meatpackers in NY's Hunt's Point win fight for vote on union

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Union wins vote deadline
at New York packing plant

BY DEAN HAZLEWOOD
BRONX, New York?Workers at the Garden Manor Farms meatpacking plant at
the Hunts Point Market here scored a victory in their fight for union
recognition. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in early
August that an election must be held by the end of the month on
whether employees will be represented by United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW) Local 342. ?This is really good news,? said John
Jiménez, who has worked as a butcher at the company for three and a
half years. ?The company was told to give the labor board a list of
the workers who can vote in the election by today,? he stated in an
August 8 interview. ?We are almost done.?
The workers have been fighting since November 2002 to bring in the
union. Jiménez explained that a union veteran who got hired into the
plant initiated the organizing effort last year. ?He told us if we got
everyone to sign union recognition cards he would call the union,?
Jiménez said. ?So that?s what we did.? The company succeeded
repeatedly in stalling the vote by trying to tie the workers up in
NLRB hearings and appeals.

By the end of June, the workers had had enough?they went on strike to
protest the company?s stalling tactics. The walkout took place over
the busy July 4 holiday weekend, beginning July 3 and ending July 11,
putting real pressure on management.

During the strike, delegations and individual workers from a number of
plants in the market made visits to the picketline during their lunch
and other breaks to express support for the organizing drive.

?It made everybody stronger,? said Robert Roman, also a butcher at
Garden Manor Farms, referring to the strike. ?Everybody is together
now. Nobody is backing down.? Roman said the company has continued to
try various ways to forestall the election, including filing charges
with the NLRB that workers were intimidated into signing union cards.
?But it doesn?t matter. We are going to get there sooner or later.
They are down to their last bullets,? Roman added, referring to the
company.

?If we keep together they can?t do anything against us,? said Jiménez.
?We are the people who make the money for the company. Without us they
can?t do anything. So in the end we are going to win.?

As part of the effort to unionize the more than 20 workers at the
plant, and possibly other shops, organizers are maintaining a regular
presence at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market?a 60-acre complex in
the Bronx with 47 meat companies. Only about half a dozen of these
shops are unionized at this point.

After the recent ruling by the labor board, organizers handed out
flyers in English and Spanish announcing: ?Garden Manor Farms Bosses
Lose Another One.? They also distributed a flyer outlining various
methods bosses often use to divide the workforce and disrupt
organizing efforts.

Workers at Garden Manor say the main issues fueling the organizing
drive are low wages, lack of benefits, and abusive treatment by the
bosses.

Dean Hazlewood is a member of UFCW Local 342 and works at Hunts Point.