File – In this May 20, 2020 file photo, residents cheered and raised a thank-you sign to welcome Smithfield’s pork processing plant employees starting a shift in Sioux Falls. I am. The union said on Wednesday, June 2, 2021 that it was considering a strike after the contract negotiations between Smithfield Foods and the union stalled last year. (AP Photo / Stephen Groves, File)
Sioux Falls, South Dakota (AP) — The Smithfield Foods pork processing plant union in South Dakota said it would head to contract negotiations on Tuesday with permission to strike.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s Sioux Falls branch approved the strike late Monday, with 98% of the votes cast and the overwhelming majority, the union said. However, union leaders said they wanted to avoid interruptions in work while preparing to meet with company representatives.
Meat processing employees were encouraged after a virus broke out in a factory last year, killing four employees and infecting nearly 1,300. The union has asked Smithfield to raise wages on a four-year contract to match the wages of the JBS pork mill in the region, as well as make some concessions on breaks and employee health insurance costs. Yes.
“We are not going to change our position,” said BJ Motley, chairman of the local union.
Virginia-based Smithfield Foods said the first proposal rejected by the union last week was “perfectly in line” with agreements that the UFCW had already accepted at other factories.
Strikes at factories that produce about 5% of the national pork supply daily can have a spillover effect from pig farmers to supermarket shelves. When the factory was closed in April 2020 during a virus epidemic, it highlighted a vulnerability in the meat supply chain. A major meat packaging company has persuaded former President Donald Trump to declare it essential to national security.
Smithfield, like other major meat packaging companies, has spent millions of dollars incentivizing its employees and installing plexiglass safety fences in its factories. He points out that large-scale outbreaks have been avoided after the factory was reopened.
However, factory workers complain that they are working harder and longer in the labor shortage caused by both the pandemic and its economic consequences. They say workers are leaving the factory and working in other meat packaging factories that offer better wages, or for jobs in the service industry that suddenly boosted wages.
Smithfield Foods asked for comment on Tuesday, but didn’t respond immediately.
Motley did not provide a deadline for when the strike would occur, but the union said it would wait until Smithfield made a final contract proposal.
Union vote approves strike at South Dakota pork factory – WJET / WFXP / YourErie.com
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Union vote approves strike at South Dakota pork factory – WJET / WFXP / YourErie.com - Pennsylvanianewstoday.com
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