Sindicato

Like most North Carolinians I did not know much about unions. In fact, I thought that N.C. was a "non-union" state. Not true - workers here do have the right to organize. North Carolina is, however, a "right-to-work" state, which means that workers have a choice as to whether or not they want to join a union.

Today, I went to support the union movement in Mountaire Chicken Plant in Lumber Bridge, North Carolina. Home to over 2,000 workers, Mountaire workers earn low wages and work long hours. Over 6 months ago, a local union filed unfair labor charges against the Mountaire plant for : "disciplining employees for their union activity, threatening to have employees arrested, engaging in surveillance and coercion, interrogating employees, threatening termination and change in personal working conditions if employees support the union." 

Today while in Eastern NC we visited the pork plant Smithfield Foods, in Tarheel, NC. They do have a union, and while it is still a difficult line of work they have organized and it has made a difference in both worker pay and conditions. The workers there get paid $13.50 and up, depending on their job.

In contrast, Mountaire workers who work through a temp agency make only $8.25 an hour, and do not receive days off. The plant's workers are 50% African American,  30% Latino, 15% Haitian, and 5% other. According to national union organizers, there is a lot of discrimination especially against Haitians. This might include allowing others to take bathroom breaks before them, etc.

The Mountaire plant has a strong "anti-union" campaign. They allegedly have a sign inside the plant that says "we don't need a union - we're a family".

The UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) says that, ideally,  they need at least 65% of the union cards to be signed. They only need 30% to conduct elections (run by the government). However, it can take up to 45 days for the government to 'organize' the election, which means that the company has plenty of time to change the workers' minds.

In order to win, they'll need 50% plus one vote. Let us hope for that one vote.

Here's to Mountaire, to people everywhere who work hard in factories to make sure our meat gets to our table. Thank you for the food. Amen.