Egg processer labor battle (actions by the company against the union supporters were so egregious)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/10-03-25/news-egg.html

Violence alleged on both sides

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The owner said they had a vote for a union and they lost, but the union won’t accept the defeat. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said that the actions by the company against the union supporters were so egregious that a fair vote was not possible. Now an administrative law judge will decide if the company must recognize the union.


TRR photo by Fritz Mayer
Milan Bhatt, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Law Center, speaks at a news conference at the Sullivan County Government Center on March 22.


The company is Deb-El Food Products, which has a plant located in Thompsonville, a few miles from Monticello. The plant produces egg products and has a workforce of about 60. An administrative hearing began at the government center on March 22 that will determine if the company must hire seven workers who were fired and negotiate with the union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 342.

Before the hearing, a number of groups held a news conference to lay out the case against Deb-El. Milan Bhatt, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Law Center, said that more than half of the employees signed cards in May 2009 indicating they wanted a chance to vote on union representation. He said after that happened, the company began to behave illegally and abuse workers.

Bhatt said there were: “reports of threats being issued against children and other family members of workers, a report of a worker being told to eat spilled egg products off the floor, reports that workers were deprived use of basic facilities such as public rest rooms and one worker was assaulted in the parking lot of his own home.”

FULL story at link.