PEP, April 2007: The World of Work. Right to organize. Workers testify in Congress.

Managers instill fear through threats and lies about the union

I have a good union job that pays well and provides affordable health care benefits for my family and me. However, it wasn’t always this way.

Four years ago, before Cingular took over, AT&T Wireless owned our call center — and it was a very different experience. When we approached upper management about unfair and inadequate pay, our request fell on deaf ears. Frustrated with the company’s neglect and indifference, my co-workers and I decided to form a union with the Communications Workers of America.

Management began to dump our outspoken union supporters for so-called “bad attitudes” and other flimsy charges. They wanted to control the information we received and instill fear through constant threats and lies about the union.

Months into our organizing struggle, we heard that Cingular Wireless was going to purchase AT&T Wireless. When asked about our organizing, Cingular CEO Stan Sigmund revealed that he had a good relationship with CWA. Soon the harassment and intimidations stopped. In 2005, a majority of us voted for the union by signing authorization cards. Today, supervisors treat us with respect. Our wages are now determined by a wage scale, not favoritism. We have more vacation days and—more importantly—we have job security.

—Teresa Joyce, Cingular Wireless

We are employees at will with no voice

I worked as an electronic machine operator at the Blue Diamond Growers plant in Sacramento, California for 35 years. That is the largest almond processing plant in the world.

In October 2004, a group of co-workers and I started organizing to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. It has been my experience that as workers of Blue Diamond Growers, we have no voice in terms of policy change and no job security. We are employees at will and we have no guarantees.

In March 2005, we went public with our demand to gain a voice and respect on the job.

In April we gave management a letter with the names of 58 co-workers who agreed to be part of an organizing committee. Less than a week later, I was fired.

In March 2006, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Jay R. Pollack found Blue Diamond guilty of more than 20 labor law violations. He ordered the company to rehire me and one of my co-workers.

Getting a union shouldn’t be so hard. The Employee Free Choice Act would increase the penalties on employers so they would have to think hard about firing union supporters.

After being back at work for about six weeks, I decided to retire, but I have stayed active in the union effort, because I care about my co-workers and I care about justice.

—Ivo Camilo, Blue Diamond

Sheriffs in battle gear with guns stand guard at union elections

Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant, which is about 80 miles south of Raleigh, is the largest hog slaughter and pork processing facility in the world. I work inside the pens where hogs are unloaded off trucks.

I was fired for trying to get workers to sign cards to join the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. At the time, my wife was pregnant with our first child. It took me two years to find a decent job because I had been given a bad name by the only real employer in town, Smithfield Packing Company. In the end, I lost my car and could hardly pay my bills or buy groceries and baby supplies.

Shortly after my firing, there was a close vote for representation and the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Smithfield for violating workers’ rights. On both days of the 1997 election, Bladen County deputy sheriffs, dressed in battle gear with guns, lined the long driveway leading to the plant.

In 2000, the NLRB judge found massive violations of labor law and ordered broad remedies. In 2004, the board affirmed the 2000 decision, ruled that Smithfield engaged in massive illegal activity and ordered extensive remedies.

Then, in 2006, after more than 12 years of litigation by the company, including appeals, a settlement was reached. Smithfield was not fined or indicted for breaking the law and none of its executives were punished. Smithfield was required to offer jobs to those workers like me who were illegally terminated and to pay back wages for the time we were unemployed or could not find comparable pay. In my six months back at Smithfield, I have been intimidated and harassed numerous times because I continue to exercise my rights to fight for a union.

—Keith Ludlum, Smithfield Foods Corp.