Minnesota meat packers start negotiating new contract

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.themilitant.com/2008/7211/721104.html

BY REBECCA WILLIAMSON
SOUTH ST PAUL, Minnesota—“We’re just asking to be treated right, for them to do the right thing,” said Lucy Aguilar, a boning worker at the Dakota Premium Foods slaughterhouse here, referring to contract negotiations with the company. “They make like it’s an offense, an attack on them.”

Aguilar’s comments were featured in the new issue of the Workers’ Voice, the newsletter of the members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789 at Dakota Premium Foods.

Contract negotiations began February 29. They were the first talks since the 250 workers here voted January 25 by almost two to one against a company-backed campaign to decertify their union. The company began its attack on the UFCW two weeks before the previous contract expired in June.

On the day negotiations restarted some workers showed their support by passing out bright yellow or grey union T-shirts that say in Spanish “Fight for a better contract” and “UNION YES! ¡Sí SE PUEDE!” (Yes we can). Several workers put the T-shirts on, joining those who had already worn them to work.

Fifteen unionists, including workers from the plant and from the company’s cold storage unit in nearby Newport, sat across the negotiating table from three company representatives.

According to the Workers’ Voice, company representatives complained about union grievances and what they called the “daily” Workers’ Voice.

FULL story at link.