JBS workers worried contract talks will go south under new leadership

JBS USA’s Greeley meatpacking plant workers fear their chances for a satisfactory new contract may be in jeopardy now that their union is undergoing a statewide management change in January.

Hundreds of workers packed a large meeting hall Sunday at Island Grove Regional Park Events Center in Greeley to get information on contract negotiations between their employer and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 7, which have been ongoing since November.

The workers’ five-year contract expired Nov. 22, and the company has committed to making the contract changes, including wages and benefits, retroactive to that date.

But employees so far are not too thrilled with the company’s latest offer, which they say essentially means to subtract employee wellness days, raise health insurance costs and give raises totaling 55 cent by the end of four years.

What’s complicating matters is that all negotiations and work current union representatives have done is about to fall by the wayside, some worry.

Linda Sughroue, who has worked at the packing plant for 25 years and is on the negotiating team, said the entire process is “a mess.” She said the company, which has stalled meeting with the negotiating team until after the new leadership takes up residence, is using that change to its advantage. The company has given three dates in January for the workers to pick from in the next set of negotiations.

“It’s like they are trying to break everything up,” Sughroue said. “We’ve been negotiating and it appears to me that everyone is prolonging this for the new people to take over. They’re going to go in with a brand new (group) and all the work we’ve done will be for nothing.”

The union is set to undergo a management change come Jan. 1, with people who know little about JBS and the workers here in Greeley, some employees fear. The UFCW also represents grocery store workers throughout the state, and the president-elect, Kim Cordova, was a Safeway baker before running against current UFCW president Ernest Duran. She did not attend Sunday’s meeting, but she said that was more out of professional courtesy to Duran, who asked her to stay out of the picture until his term ended Dec. 31.

“I’m not new to the union. I was the senior union representative on staff and so I’ve trained most of the people … I’ve been around 241⁄2 years, and I have as much time in as Ernie,” Cordova said in a phone interview Sunday. “The workers should know that we’re going to aggressively represent them and do our best to get them a fair and decent contract.”

Some employees worry new leadership will not fight for them well enough, and they’re also worried JBS will take advantage of the little they know about the Greeley meatpacking membership. They fear the company is exploiting that, having already stalled continued negotiations until after the first of the year, when the current union membership must leave.

The UFCW Local 7 is one of the state’s largest unions, with 23,000 members, including grocery store, meatpacking and private health care workers.

Cordova said while she is being prohibited from getting involved in current negotiations, she has kept up on the JBS talks, and swears they will not have to start from scratch.

“We’re not going to resubmit proposals,” Cordova said. “They’ve only had a few sets of negotiations, so we’re not going to start over from new. There may be a change in staff, because obviously, I campaigned on change, but we’re not going to upset the process.”

Cordova, however, said she and her incoming team are quite capable of negotiating for the workers, and will do so come January. She was a union representative in May when she quit to run against Duran, alleging nepotism and misspent funds. Greeley’s union director, Fernando Rodriquez, who ran Sunday’s meeting with the workers, stepped down last month to be the northern Colorado union representative for grocery stores, Cordova said.

“Going forward, when we take over, the workers should not be concerned,” Cordova said. “I’m an aggressive negotiator and we’re going to aggressively represent the workers. Obviously, there are concerns for the people outgoing, because they’re leaving … This is some type of political move, and it’s unfortunate because we certainly want to represent a united front.”

Workers who attended Sunday’s meeting announced their concerns about the unity, especially given a second complicating matter that involves a new population of workers. An ever-growing Somali and Burmese worker group has their own concerns about equal treatment and representation from the union. Some said, through the aid of a meeting interpreter, that they felt the union representatives didn’t meet their needs, and were not there for them last year, when many employees were fired at the plant during concerns about religious freedom.

Cordova said that’s the beauty of creating this new contract, which, when it was negotiated five years ago, did not consider the prayer time the Somalis are asking for as they just started working at the plant in the last two to three years.

“The great thing about negotiations is that workers get to propose language that protects their rights,” Cordova said. “This is the time where we get to put something like that in, so we don’t have an issue where we had a walk out (last year). That doesn’t help the company or the workers. I’m hoping that JBS understands that’s something very important to part of the population of the work force out there.”

JBS officials have declined to discuss details of ongoing negotiations, but copies of union and company proposals were available at Sunday’s meeting.

Many workers walked into the meeting on Sunday thinking they would be voting on whether to strike. Rodriquez said the union is prohibited from striking until they get a “last, best and final offer” from the company, which hasn’t happened.

He told workers that if a strike did happen, there was $14.8 million in a strike fund and workers would be paid $200 a week while off the job.

“At this time, we’re a long ways away from a strike,” Rodriquez said. He noted later that “strike” was a powerful word, and could be used to help get the workers what they want.

“This is your life and your contract,” he told the workers. “You need to stay united (regardless of the leadership). You control it by your vote. Do not allow them to make you eat something you do not like.”

Greeleytribune