On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Labor Rights Elusive for Poultry Industry’s Chicken Catchers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13477/on_marylands_eastern_shore_labor_rights_elusive_for_poultry_industrys_chick/

Tuesday Jul 3, 2012 10:05 am


(Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images)

A wave of outsourcing by giant poultry producing companies is sparking new union organizing efforts on Maryland’s famed Eastern Shore, and in the adjoining chicken producing areas of Delaware and Virginia.

A small group of workers in Pocomoke City, Md., is currently negotiating a first contract with one employer, after a quick and decisive union election earlier this year. In that election, some 50 chicken catchers won representation by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, the nation’s leading labor organization for employees in the meat processing industry.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, UFCW Local 27 filed for an election Jan. 30 to represent the workers at Nipcam Group, a Georgia-based pesticide company that has recently entered the labor contracting business. A March 1 election produced an overwhelming 3-to-1 margin of victory for the union, and the win was certified by the federal labor agency March 14, NLRB said.

Ellis Staten, an organizer for Local 27, told Working In These Times that the workers are angry and determined to stand up for their rights. By outsourcing the jobs to Nipcam, meat processing giant Tyson Foods has slashed their income and all but eliminated any benefits. What were once good-paying positions with Tyson are now near-poverty-level jobs with an unknown out-of-state labor contractor, Staten said.

FULL story at link.