Injuries Spawn Immigrant Workers at Tyson Food Plant in Kansas to Start Unionizing Drive

[Omaha Steve]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070214/tyson_injuries.html?

Tyson Plant Employees Seek to Form Union
Wednesday February 14, 4:15 pm ET
By Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press Writer
Injuries Spawn Immigrant Workers at Tyson Food Plant in Kansas to Start Unionizing Drive

HOLCOMB, Kan. (AP) -- Each day 150 semitrailers loaded with cattle arrive at Tyson Food Inc.'s Holcomb plant for slaughter. Each day workers here 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 throats 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 here 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 Cesar Chavez'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 union. If they succeed, the union would represent 2,450 workers in Tyson's Holcomb plant, about 80 percent of whom are Hispanic.

The unionization vote is the second recent challenge these workers have mounted. 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.

The workers face a formidable opponent. 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 facilities are represented by unions.

FULL story at link.

[muntrv]

1. Good. It's time that workers at Tyson fight for better working conditions.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. kick

your job is a property right in my opinion. You help build the compnay and you keep it going. Just as if you made payments on a car you shouldn't lose it..you should not lose a job at a place you built up without compensation and FAIR PROTECTION while there. I cannot wait until May Day this year. Wait to see the strikes in the US!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. K&R. Everything I've heard about slaughterhouse work is horrible. nt

[fed-up]

4. Quit buying Tyson "meat" -put your money where your mouth is n/t