Eleven-month union battle at Dakota marks new contract

http://www.themilitant.com/2008/7222/722202.html

BY ERNEST MAILHOT
SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minnesota—Workers at Dakota Premium Foods, by a 94 to 51 vote, approved a contract May 14 registering gains for the 250 workers at the meatpacking plant. The members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 789 had a week earlier rejected a previous contract offer.

The new agreement runs through July 2011. The workers will receive a lump sum back pay from a 40-cents-per-hour pay raise dating back to July 2007, when the previous contract expired. There will be another raise of 40 cents per hour this year, with hourly raises of 35 cents per hour for each of the next three years. For many months Dakota management insisted raises could not be much more than its original offer of 15 cents per hour with a 10-cents-per-hour attendance bonus.

Among the advances made by the workers in the new contract was the right to have union representatives visit the plant three times a month, as opposed to once a month, the previous arrangement. The contract also included some improvements in how job openings are posted and awarded.

One of the central demands of the workers throughout the contract fight—a line speed at no more than 94 cows per hour, verified by the workers—was not addressed in the new contract. This will remain a focal point of struggle, according to union activists interviewed by the Militant.

Company’s attempt to take credit
Thirty-five percent of the union members who voted opposed the contract. This registered sentiment among many that the contract fight had put workers in a strong position to win more from the company, including better safety on the job. Most of the workers—both those who voted “no,” and those who voted “yes”—see their accomplishments and consider themselves stronger today for having used their union power to wrest some wage concessions from the company.

Rebecca Williamson, one of several workers who became shop stewards during the contract fight, explained: “The company flyer put out the day of the vote urging workers to ratify the contract says the employer worked hard for 11 months to get us this contract.

FULL story at link.