Thread: Tyson immigrant workers plan vote on unionization

http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_5229990

Tyson immigrant workers plan vote on unionization
By Roxana Hegeman / Associated Press
El Paso Times
Article Launched:02/15/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

HOLCOMB, Kan. -- Each day, 150 semitrailers loaded with cattle arrive at Tyson Food Inc.'s Holcomb plant for slaughter. Each day, workers butcher 5,700 head of cattle.
And each day at least one meatpacker at the plant gets hurt on the job.

On the killing room floor, beef carcasses dangling from an overhead conveyor belt constantly stream past blood-splattered workers -- each with a very specific job to do.

A worker slits the throat of one cow as its blood rushes down to the pit below him. One man skins the animal. Another worker disembowels it. On the processing floor, hundreds more meatpackers working in near-freezing temperatures carve the meat into the cuts that will land on grocery store shelves. And they do the same thing cow after cow until their eight-hour shift is done.

For years, the 3,100 workers who toil at the plant have accepted injuries as a risk of working in one of the nation's most hazardous occupations. Now they are seizing upon those injuries to buck a trend of low union participation that grew as the nation's meatpacking industry consolidated and drew more immigrant labor.

Ramon Sandoval, a 63-year-old Tyson worker, grimaced as he tried to make a fist with his swollen right hand. Nerve damage from the repetitive work cutting meat has injured it, and the company has since put him on light duty.

"We are fighting for justice, dignity and respect," he said.

Adopting farm labor organizer César Chávez's rallying cry, "Si se puede!" ("Yes, we can"), immigrant workers have now taken on behemoth Tyson. On March 1, workers will vote on whether to unionize under the United Steelworkers. The union would represent 2,450 workers in Tyson's Holcomb plant, about 80 percent of whom are Hispanic.

In May, Holcomb workers sued Tyson, alleging the company violated labor laws by not paying them for time spent putting on and taking off protective equipment.

Tyson is the world's largest processor of chicken, beef and pork -- employing 114,000 people at 300 plants around the globe. Human Rights Watch reports that about 30,000 employees in 33 Tyson plants are represented by unions.

Union membership and wages in the U.S. meatpacking industry plummeted in the 1980s amid plant closings, lengthy strikes and deunionization struggles, according to a study by the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service.

Shucks, there goes that CHEAP LABOR

immigrant workers that are legal???? or illegal????

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

immigrant workers that are legal???? or illegal????

Hmmm....now what do you think, Greg. Unions who used to work for the protection of AMERICAN workers now use our union dues to organize criminal aliens and protect their rights. Makes me sick. I've yelled and screamed at my own union about this when they called me to work in organizing. CWA sucks...out loud.
They only do this to line their own pockets; they're not fooling anyone.[/b]

Originally Posted by NotGoingToTakeItAnymore

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

immigrant workers that are legal???? or illegal????

Hmmm....now what do you think, Greg. Unions who used to work for the protection of AMERICAN workers now use our union dues to organize criminal aliens and protect their rights. Makes me sick. I've yelled and screamed at my own union about this when they called me to work in organizing. CWA sucks...out loud.
They only do this to line their own pockets; they're not fooling anyone.[/b]

Just like the baby of a new mother cries
cry so do unions, when the rest of the United states works there butts off and the rest of the country putts on cloths to go to work with out pay
so should the union worker, there is more non union then union in the country and all unions are on there way OUT

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Originally Posted by NotGoingToTakeItAnymore

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

immigrant workers that are legal???? or illegal????

Hmmm....now what do you think, Greg. Unions who used to work for the protection of AMERICAN workers now use our union dues to organize criminal aliens and protect their rights. Makes me sick. I've yelled and screamed at my own union about this when they called me to work in organizing. CWA sucks...out loud.
They only do this to line their own pockets; they're not fooling anyone.[/b]

Just like the baby of a new mother cries
cry so do unions, when the rest of the United states works there butts off and the rest of the country putts on cloths to go to work with out pay
so should the union worker, there is more non union then union in the country and all unions are on there way OUT

Of course they're on their way out. That's why they organize the criminal aliens. They're pockets were emptying out. They're protecting their own butts/pockets...not Americans.

Originally Posted by NotGoingToTakeItAnymore

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Originally Posted by NotGoingToTakeItAnymore

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

immigrant workers that are legal???? or illegal????

Hmmm....now what do you think, Greg. Unions who used to work for the protection of AMERICAN workers now use our union dues to organize criminal aliens and protect their rights. Makes me sick. I've yelled and screamed at my own union about this when they called me to work in organizing. CWA sucks...out loud.
They only do this to line their own pockets; they're not fooling anyone.[/b]

Just like the baby of a new mother cries
cry so do unions, when the rest of the United states works there butts off and the rest of the country putts on cloths to go to work with out pay
so should the union worker, there is more non union then union in the country and all unions are on there way OUT

Of course they're on their way out. That's why they organize the criminal aliens. They're pockets were emptying out. They're protecting their own butts/pockets...not Americans.

My questioning of the above story where did it say illegal immigrent workers, and if they are illegal they gave a time and a place to be picked up buy the proper Authorities

They never say illegal alien. I think Tyson was/is being sued now for hiring them. I wish ICE would show up too.

Originally Posted by NotGoingToTakeItAnymore

They never say illegal alien. I think Tyson was/is being sued now for hiring them. I wish ICE would show up too.

The unions I am familiar with keep the lower level employee (Basic labor) down low. They want it that way so its no health care no benefits package ect… I can’t see these immigrant workers making any more then a few pennies more then what they got now from Tyson.

If they even make it that far! We need to keep on and I mean hard the issues that are expressed by :labor organizer César Chávez's
labor organizer César Chávez's he he a legal alien to this country ???

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Originally Posted by NotGoingToTakeItAnymore

They never say illegal alien. I think Tyson was/is being sued now for hiring them. I wish ICE would show up too.

The unions I am familiar with keep the lower level employee (Basic labor) down low. They want it that way so its no health care no benefits package ect… I can’t see these immigrant workers making any more then a few pennies more then what they got now from Tyson.

If they even make it that far! We need to keep on and I mean hard the issues that are expressed by :labor organizer César Chávez's
labor organizer César Chávez's he he a legal alien to this country ???

I remember when unions were a good thing, and Americans, for the most part, supported them and they supported us. Then, the government busted the unions, and labor laws became so weakened that the unions lost a lot of clout.

Now, years later, no one thinks they're necessary, and the unions know Americans feel that way. They really did used to be a good thing. Then they became like any other big business and thought only of themselves.

As a result of their weakened status and their own greed, they seek to rebuild by representing criminal aliens...many union members have protested their dues being used to organize criminal aliens who will, in turn, take the very jobs they've worked for years to make into something that will be a benefit to them and their families.

Chavez was born in the USA and is now dead.