Unionizing in Morristown

A group of 700 mostly Mexican chicken processing plant workers in Morristown, Tennessee has made the news in New York City. They won the right to unionize as part of a new movement to organize minorities.

The United Food and Commercial Workers won its union vote at the Koch Foods plant last week. They will represent workers like Antonia Lopez Paz, who cut up chickens at a rate of 42 per minute for $7.77 an hour or less without bathroom breaks. When boxes on a chute in the plant broke Delores Smith’s glasses, she was told the company would pay less than 20% of the replacement cost.

United Food and Commercial Workers joined the Teamsters and Service Employees International Unions that split with the AFL-CIO this summer known as “Change To Win”. Backed by the muscle of the Teamsters, this new movement seeks to revive the dying labor movement in America and especially in the anti-labor South with aggressive organizing.

Workers and organizers visited area church, including my own Church of the Savior here in Knoxville. Members wrote letters of support to the union and even planned to attend a union rally, though forced overtime by Koch required a rescheduling of the event.

Read more about this bold new unionizing effort here, and the Koch Foods workers here. — T