Jennie-O punished for firing worker
Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 3:17 pm
In February Kadar Yusuf Haji Ali, a worker at the Jennie-O Turkey Store in Faribault, sat down for a cup of coffee with an organizer from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. He wanted to discuss the possibility of unionizing the plant. Roughly a week later the Somali immigrant was fired from the slaughterhouse.
Local 789 filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations board over the termination, alleging that the company had violated labor laws. In addition, state Rep. Frank Hornstein introduced legislation in March that would bar state agencies from purchasing any Jennie-O products until it “ceases all alleged unfair labor practices.” The bill never passed out of committee, but remains alive.
Earlier this month Jennie-O reached a settlement with the NLRB. It agreed to pay Ali all back wages, plus interest, and offer him his job back. (He declined.) It also agreed to post a sign at the slaughterhouse laying out in explicit detail workers’ rights regarding unionization, and to distribute the missive to employees.
Local 789 hopes to utilize the ruling as a means to jumpstart an organizing campaign at the Faribault turkey processing plant. In the past such organizing drives have not been successful. The union plans to run the NLRB posting as an ad in local newspapers.
“We’ll see what kind of a response we get,” says Bernie Hesse, director of special projects at Local 789. “It’d be kind of neat if all of a sudden we got inundated with interest.”
2 Comments
Comment posted July 23, 2009 @ 10:32 pm
As a member of this union, I’m happy that the anti-labor forces were opposed. This is the kind of situation that is happening more than most seem to care about. Hopefully the Employee Free Choice Act will pass will make this nonsense illegal.
Comment posted October 29, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
I believe my labor rights were violated as well when I had mentioned to a co-worker that I had acquired sore back muscle from an operation performed at the site of a previous employer that was dicussed for the purpoe of illustrating an example of poor ergonometry in which if continued could result in serious physical complications. The co-worker took that as meaniong I had had a back condition that I purposely failed to note on the medical questionare used at the beginning of employment. She went straight to the human resource department with this false interpretation and they immediately went through the necessary channels to terminate me simply going on the words of the co-worker without questioning me at all when in fact I was completely truthful on the questionaire although they wouldn’t listen to me at all saying it was too late, that the process was already complete, leaving four chidren at home without a paycheck for two and a half months (it was my second day of employment) and one with cystic fibrosis and weighing about sixty pounds at fourteen years of age iwhich was fed extra nutrients that insurance didn’t cver that helped him live more comfortably. I was just about in tears and on my knees asking if we could all get together with management and clear up the misunderstanding and confirm that it was simply muscle soreness that could have eventually become complicated if the employer faied to take necessary ergenomic action to tailor to the physical needs of their employees. Again, it was still too late, the ‘authoritative’ words of the co-worker stood, my words were never taken into consideration. I still to this day do not know if that was the scatter brained policy of Jennie O’s or if it was an example of abuse of standard policy. I felt like just another duck in the row or number on a page and I wept for several days after especially for my son who still suffers from not having his needs fully met on a nutritional basis(I’m still without employment) How can Jennie O’s get away with such an atrocity? (Irealizedthat I had offended the co-worker with something I had said which may have causedher to purposely twist my words, and of course the way it turned out she could’ve said anything she wansd since I was never questioned even once to arrive at the corrct interpretation of words. They then had me sign something which they interpreted to me was simply thay they had discussed the reason for termination with me without giving me a copy of anything.Isn’t it written somewhere to let every word be established by the word of two or more witnesses. And also that I should have the right to stand up and defend myself before being proven guilty? And how about my right to keeping personal medical information confidential and not have a co-worker(it was during a training session)running off and blabbering things to the human resource department. The way I see it, Jennie O’s is once again in violation of national labor laws and at the leastI should have my good name cleared and the assurance of something like this never happening to another unfortunate employee again, and at the most I should have my job offered back to me and all back wages paid back to me. Can anyone help point me in the right direction to make Jennie O’s once again be made accountable for their atrocious actions?
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