Please feel free to print this up and leave in your work place

RESEARCH-EDUCATION-ADVOCACY-PEOPLE
REAP
P.O. BOX 822, GAITHERSBURG MD 20884
(O) 301-972-3081 (F)301-972-3422
E-MAIL: REAPINC@AOL.COM Website: www.REAPINC.ORG

William E. Gammert

for

UFCW-777

E-MAIL: camman@telus.net Website: www.oocities.org/ufcw777

BUSINESS UNIONISM & LEADERSHIP ARROGANCE
HAS SAILED UFCW INTO TROUBLED WATERS

   In the last 24 months, workers have attempted to decertify UFCW at
several large plants because of poor contract settlements and little to no
service. Decertification petitions have either been circulated or filed at
Hormel Beloit, Wisconsin; Hormel Rochelle, Illinois; IBP Joslin, llinois; and
IBP, Waterloo, Iowa. These units are meat packing plants which are part of
large local unions led by grocery store union leadership. The combined
number of workers at the plants listed is approximately 8,000.

            In each of the situations the attempt to decertify UFCW was led
by workers who charged that they received poor representation from UFCW. In
three of the four situations, the workers sought out other unions to
represent them. In at least two of the situations UFCW International Union
representatives and company officials were working together to crush the
workers’ desertification attempt.

      Reliable sources have advised REAP that IBP allowed UFCW International
Union representatives to go into the Joslin plant and conduct a straw vote of
the workers to determine whether the desertification should be withdrawn. To
the shock of the UFCW International Union, 1,100 workers voted to continue
the decert process and 300 voted against it. While the desertification
attempts by the workers are for the most part beaten back by one maneuver or
another, the fact that so many packinghouse workers are driven to take such
action should be awake up call for UFCW.   Service is so bad that earlier
this month a UFCW International Union Vice President admitted as much in a
letter.

      Some preliminary data reveals that desertification petitions are also
being filed in the retail grocery store and poultry industries. Other unions
have advised REAP off-the- record, that they have had UFCW members contact
them to provide union representation.

A DECADE OF POOR BARGAINING

      The 1990s saw one of the greatest economic booms in the history of this
nation. Corporate America was making record profits, unemployment was at its
lowest point in decades and productivity was up. It should have been a great
bargaining climate for UFCW especially since they represented workers who for
the most part do not have to worry about their jobs being shipped to a
low-wage country.

      In reality however, the average hourly earnings in the meatpacking and
retail grocery store industries from 1990 through October 2000, showed
miserable results when compared to the average hourly earnings gain in U.S.
manufacturing and the highly non-union retail industry as a whole. UFCW
asserts great bargaining influence in meatpacking and the retail grocery
store industries. During this period of time, the average hourly earning in
U.S. manufacturing increased $3.70 an hour while average hourly earnings in
meat packing slaughter increased $2.34 an hour and $1.99 an hour in meat
packing processing. Again, during this same period of time the average
hourly earnings in the retail industry, which is less than six percent
organized, pulled ahead of the average hourly earnings in the retail grocery
store sector by six cents an hour. UFCW has many of the largest supermarket
chains organized and under contract.

      The real story on the wages in retail is that in 1980, the average
hourly earnings in the retail grocery store industry were $1.57 an hour or 32
percent above those paid in the highly non-union retail industry as a whole.
This difference has been completely wiped out.             If

      UFCW cannot make meaningful wage progress in good economic times what
will happen when the economy goes sour and the employers become aggressive at
the bargaining table for cut backs. Just look to the 1980s for the answer.
Mass giveaways via mid-term contract concessions, concessions at contract
expiration, substandard agreements and sweetheart deals were their stock and
trade at the bargaining table. They never saw a bad deal that they did not
think their members could accept. For those few in the organization who
dared to take another approach the leadership systematically purged such
trade unionists.

HEADS UP REMINDER

Large numbers of UFCW retail butchers may well lose their jobs as
supermarket chains convert over to purchasing case ready meat directly from
the packinghouses. Over the years box beef took a toll on meat cutter jobs,
now case ready meat may ultimately finish most of them off. Clearly,
low-wage UFCW contracts negotiated with some of the largest packing companies
will expedite case ready meat into the grocery stores. As for the clerks in
the stores, self-scanners are being introduced in several stores around the
country. Industry sources claim that ultimately one clerk will take care of
four self-scanner lines. A large loss of members in retail could send the
leadership into weak, panic bargaining in an attempt to preserve their dues
base.

WHERE THE UNION MEMBERSHIP STOOD IN 2000

      According to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Labor,
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percent of wage and salary workers in the
U.S. who belong to unions was 13.5 percent in the year 2000, or 16.3 million
members.   The percent of workers belonging to unionism 1999 was 13.9
percent. The unionization rate in 2000 for government workers was 37.5
percent. In the private sector the unionization rate was 9.0 percent. Among
the private nonagricultural industries the unionization rate for
transportation and utilities was 24.0 percent; construction 18.3 percent;
manufacturing 14.8 percent; retail trade 5.1 percent.

            Unionization among men stood at 15.2 percent with 11.5 percent for
women. Unionization rates among blacks was 17.1 percent; 13.0 percent for
whites and Hispanics stood at 11.4 percent. Workers 45 to 64 were more
likely to be union members than younger workers. Full-time workers were more
than twice as likely as part-time workers to be union members. In 2000,
union members had median usual weekly earnings of $696 compared with a median
of $542 for workers not represented by unions.

VISIT THE REAP WEBSITE AT: WWW.REAPINC.ORG

Yours In Solidarity