Franklin, WI – On the morning of August 7, a crowd of around 80 people marched outside a Strauss Brands meatpacking facility located in the small town of Franklin just south of Milwaukee. In the crowd were workers from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1473 (UFCW 1473) and their families, and members of other unions and community groups; most visibly immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera.

The crowd was gathered to call for justice for 31 line workers who had been fired for organizing for better COVID-19 protections. Strauss fired these Latino workers with Social Security No Match letters from the Social Security Administration, calling it proof that these workers can’t legally work in the U.S.

A no match letter from the SSA is used to let a worker know they may not be filing taxes correctly. It is not legal proof of immigration status, and UFCW’s contract with Strauss protects workers from firing under a No Match letter. This was an obvious racist attack on working class self-defense during a global pandemic.

The rally called for plant human resource director Cheryl Wisman to be fired, for the fired workers to be rehired, for CDC recommended safety measures to be taken, and for any fired worker who chooses not to come back to be fairly compensated and covered with a six-month insurance extension. The workers reached out to Voces to organize the rally on behalf of the workers after the UFCW grievance process failed to win the fired workers their demands.

After marching, the crowd gathered around the plant entrance to hear messages of solidarity from the presidents of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 and Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, endorsements from public officials, and firsthand stories from some of the fired workers. For now, Voces is following up with a public petition built around these demands.

#FranklinWI #Protest #meatpacking #UFCW #COVID19

Green Bay, WI – While Wisconsin business owners and their political allies claimed local COVID-19 cases were on the decline and pressed to repeal Governor Ever’s Safer at Home order, manufacturing plants in Brown County were experiencing a huge outbreak of the deadly viral disease amongst the workers. Cases at three meatpacking plants – JBS Packerland, American Foods Group, and Salm Partners – have accounted for over half of the county’s cases, even as the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union fought for and won vital hazard pay, safer working conditions, and personal protection equipment (PPE) for its members, following concerns raised by the immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera.

However, these measures came too late. Brown County now has the highest infection rate per capita in Wisconsin, and fourth highest among counties nationwide. This disaster is not limited to only the workers of the meat packing plants: the workers at the plants unfortunately spread the virus to their families and other close acquaintances.

Meat processing plants are known for their demanding and dangerous working conditions, and have long relied upon immigrants, and other oppressed peoples to perform the difficult work required to provide meat to people across the country. Workers operate “elbow-to-elbow” in temperatures near freezing in order to prepare meat products for sale. These conditions have spread the viral infection COVID-19 at an alarming rate among workers in the plants.

These working conditions alone did not cause the drastic infection rate among employees. Reports from inside the plants in early April describe a failure to provide PPE to employees, as well as a lack of hygiene supplies such as soap and hot water. Workers were pushed to arrive for their shifts even if they were exposed to a case of COVID-19, and even told to hide their symptoms and keep working or they would be fired.

Meanwhile, rich Wisconsin business owners, their politicians, and their allies have constantly called for a “return to normal”. Their profits have been disrupted by attempts to contain the pandemic, and despite the toll it has taken on those called “essential workers”, they want their comfortable lives to return. A rally in Madison, WI drew thousands of people, calling for the end to the Safer at Home order, and the State Supreme Court is currently debating whether the order is “unconstitutional”.

During the recent State Supreme Court discussion on the order, a justice remarked that the virus is mostly present in meat packaging plants and isn’t affecting “regular folks” – a racist callout to the separation between the Black, brown, and immigrant workers who are deemed “essential” and forced to work in dangerous and life threatening conditions, versus the rich that profit off their labor, allowing them to live safely and more comfortably.

The JBS Packerland plant, after reporting a massive amount of infections among the workforce, announced an indefinite closure of the facility in order to test for the virus. The results were shocking: almost 300 workers, or 25% of the workforce, tested positive. But we will have to wait to discover whether that number will improve or get worse: in late April, the health department announced they would comply with requests from the three meat packing facilities and stop reporting cases of COVID-19 at the plants in the county and state totals.

Adding to this disaster is President Trump’s executive order for meat processing plants to reopen, so that the meat supply chains will not be disrupted. On Tuesday, May 5, JBS Packerland resumed operations despite the number of infected in the workforce. This only serves to benefit the company. The UFCW International Union had negotiated 32 hours of pay per week for their members during the plant closure in order to protect their livelihoods while essential testing was being performed. This was a short-lived protection and workers are now again being exposed to potential infection.

Asked for comment, Northeast Wisconsin-based refugee advocate Wess Roberts responded, “These events prove two things. First, the initial suppression of information and protective measures by private actors illustrates just how essential unions remain in protecting modern workers, and by extension, the greater well-being of the public.”

Roberts continued, “Second is that, even with union protections, the vast, intersecting federation of vulnerable minority groups employed by the food production industry – racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, refugees, asylees, migrant workers, etc. – continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of the risks and consequences of an inaccessible, profit-driven decision making apparatus. The case for the existence and reinforcement of our unions practically makes itself.”

#GreenBayWI #Labor #OppressedNationalities #US #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #meatpacking #UFCW #DonaldTrump #COVID19

The workers are members of Local 538 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The longstanding local represents workers at three meatpacking plants in the Madison area.

Tyson Foods bought out the Jefferson plant in recent years. Tyson has an agenda of driving down wages in the meatpacking industry. Its stated goal in these negotiations is to bring the wages at the Jefferson plant down to the level of other Tyson plants around the country.

Work in meatpacking is hard. Because of union militancy, it used to be an industry that offered relatively good wages and benefits. Meat packers were organized as part of the communist led organizing drives of the 1930s and 1940s. Times changed, and in the late 1970s and 1980s, large meatpacking corporations, such as Hormel, set out to bust the unions and drive down wages. For the most part, the union bureaucracy went along with this agenda, allowing wages to be driven down to poverty wages. When local unions, such as Local P9 in Austin, MN resisted and went on strike, they were sold out and undercut by the international union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Now the industry is a low-wage industry, mainly employing immigrant workers with horrible safety conditions and poor working conditions.

The UFCW workers in Jefferson, WI are refusing to go along with management's renewed agenda to push down wages. Driving into town, to attend a support rally or walk the picket line, one sees homemade signs stating, “Stop Tyson's greed,” and supporting the striking workers. Local businesses are supporting Tyson-free foods, for example, by not putting Tyson pepperoni on the pizza.

The problem the union faces is that employers no longer fear the traditional strike. The government has put so many restrictions on workers that the workers in a traditional strike are fighting with their hands behind their backs. To win this fight will require aggressive tactics in stopping the company from operating with scabs. Whatever tactics the workers choose, however, they will need support from all workers.

For more info on how to support the Tyson workers, check out their website at www.tysonfamiliesstandup.org or send donations to: UFCW Local 538 Strike Fund, 2228 Myrtle St, Madison, WI 53704

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