Arkansas Poultry Workers Fight Back With New Contract (3/12/10)

Petit Jean Poultry workers celebrate their new union contract.

When workers at Petit Jean Poultry, a deboning operation in Gums Springs, Arkansas, heard about a union decertification election suddenly being held inside the plant’s break room, it was the latest in a series of strange events at the plant. Their union contract was about to expire and management had been stalling on negotiating, a bizarre new bathroom break “policy” had been implemented, and now a decertification vote had been called, and the “election observers” were the company’s attorney and human resources officer.

“Instead of negotiating with the union, management decided they were going to hold an illegal, bogus election to get rid of the union!,” said Alabama and Mid-South Council representative James Shackelford.

The trouble started this fall, when a worker complained of being suspended for violating a strange new policy that management had instituted.

“A worker at the plant had been suspended for three days for taking her second bathroom break of the week,” said RWDSU Representative Randy Hadley. “Let me repeat: unbeknownst to us, management had created a policy that if you took two bathroom breaks during a one week period, you’d be suspended.”

When Hadley came to the plant to file a grievance and let them know that this policy was unacceptable, management said that in no uncertain terms would they listen to a grievance, or change the policy.

Shortly after that, management held their bogus election. However, the workers at the plant know the importance of having a union, and they know a fix when they see one. While the union filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, the attempt to decertify the union only received seven votes while everyone else refused to participate or voted for the union. Only then did the company agree to negotiate on a new contract.

“The plant manager saw that the workers were behind the union, and only then decided to come to the bargaining table,” Shackelford said.

Going into negotiations, management was pushing for a contract that reduced wages and slashed insurance benefits while jacking up costs. The negotiating team stood firm and won a new pact that includes wage increases each year of the contract, and protects the health care plan while keeping costs in check. Workers voted overwhelmingly to ratify the new contract in February.

As for the bathroom break policy, it was quickly changed back to something more reasonable, and the worker who had been suspended was restored with full pay for the time she was forced to miss.

 “The policy has been changed, and they can go whenever they need to, of course,” Hadley said.