UFCW Endorses Obama for 2012
December 21, 2011 (Washington, D.C.) -- At a time when there are so many great challenges facing our nation, Congressional Republicans decided to put politics over patriotism. The Republicans running for President are no better. One says blame yourself if you can't find a job. Another wants to get rid of child labor laws. And all have supported attempts to weaken collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and across America.
In the current climate of economic turmoil and political division, President Obama still managed to pass the most sweeping financial reform legislation since the Great Depression. He formed a middle-class task force so working families have a voice at the White House. And he took George Bush's Department of Big Business and made it the Department of Labor again. Our right to a safe workplace is being enforced instead of ignored. The right to fair pay free of discrimination is being protected, not trampled on. And the right to stick together and join a union like ours is being promoted, not destroyed. That's the difference when someone like President Obama is in the White House.
The past four years have been rough on all of us, but the choice is clear—we must re-elect Barack Obama in 2012.
UFCW Speaks Out for Revised NLRB Election Rules
New Rules A First Step Away from Wasteful Litigation
Washington, D.C. - (July 17, 2011) – Recently, the National
Labor Relations Board
proposed new rules
that would modernize
the antiquated
union election process.
The rules reduce
the amount of time
between filing for an
election and when the
election is held, and
improve the efficiency
of the labor elections
process.
UFCW Executive Vice
President and Director of Organizing Pat O'Neill, picutred above, spoke on
behalf of the new rule in a hearing held in Washington, D.C.
today. Here is a brief excerpt of his remarks:
"American workers are struggling to make ends meet during
the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Workers in the grocery, retail, meatpacking and food processing
industries are no exception. Union contracts offer the best
opportunity for stable, middle class jobs. While the National
Labor Relations Act gives workers the fundamental right to
join a union and achieve the benefits of collective bargaining,
the NLRB's current rules are seriously outdated, needlessly
complex, and foster frivolous litigation. The current process
creates barriers to workers exercising their fundamental right
to form a union. It's time to return the process to its original
intent – which is to give workers a clear path to making the
choice when they want collective bargaining.
"We view the proposed election rule changes as a modest but
important first step toward modernizing and streamlining an
outmoded process that encourages unnecessary, time-consuming
and wasteful litigation.
"Workers go to work to earn a living, not to get engaged in
a protracted lawyer-driven tug of war with their employer.
When workers want to organize a union, they want to do it
immediately."
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National Beef Workers Choose UFCW for a Union Voice on the Job
November 7, 2011-- (Dodge City, Kan.) – A majority of the 2,500 workers at National Beef’s Dodge City, Kansas beef slaughter and processing facility voted to join UFCW District Local 2, in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, on Thursday and Friday, November 3 and 4, 2011.
The workers’ campaign began when several National Beef workers contacted the UFCW seeking a union voice on the job. At that time, National Beef and the UFCW agreed on a fair and balanced process that allowed employees to vote on whether or not they wanted union representation. UFCW represents the workers at a neighboring Cargill beef slaughter and processing plant in Dodge City.
“Helping to organize my co-workers into a union was a life changing journey,” said Rebecca McGary, a worker in the fabrication department at National Beef.
“We know that workers at Cargill, just down the street from National Beef, have had a contract with Local 2 for many years – and that means they have always had a say in their wages, benefits and working conditions,” said Ramon Prieto who works on the kill floor at National Beef and who took a leading role in organizing his co-workers. “That’s why I voted to join the UFCW, so that we all will have a chance to negotiate benefits and salaries, job security, and a better life for our families.”
The National Beef workers are the latest in a series of meatpacking workers to join the UFCW at locations across the country. On October 19, approximately 1,000 workers at a JBS beef kill facility in Plainwell, Michigan joined UFCW Local 951.
On October 25, 125 workers at a Farmland Foods facility in Carroll, Iowa joined UFCW Local 440. And in late September, 300 workers at Nebraska Prime in Hastings, Nebraska joined UFCW Local 293.
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