The smell from the factory lingers all day but is the strongest in
the mornings. The stench huddles over the city as men and women walk,
bike and drive to work. They disappear into the gate and trickle into
the main entrance. The trucks follow, hauling crates of live chickens,
their feathers blow forgotten in the road. A sign gleams too clean in
the daylight: Case Farms.
 Case workers’ history of struggle |
Case Farms Chicken is a poultry processing
plant located in the small town of Morganton, NC. Case Farms began as
Breeden’s Poultry Company, founded in the early 1950s by a town barber
as a weekend job. As the demand for poultry increased, so did the
company’s size and its need for workers. Due to a local economy that
thrived on higher paying furniture and textile work, Breeden’s Poultry
Company struggled to obtain an adequate number of employees. In 1988,
when Breeden’s became Case Farms, the labor shortage was solved. A
steady stream of displaced workers from a U.S.-backed political coup in
Guatemala provided cheap and reliable labor.
A factory with a history of struggle
As
the population of Latino workers increased in the plant, the working
conditions worsened. In May 1993, approximately 100 workers stood in the
cafeteria and refused to work unless the company addressed a list of
complaints, including inadequate bathroom breaks, increased speed of
the production line, lack of health benefits or first aid, poor working
materials and failure to pay for time worked. The plant manager
contacted the police and 52 workers were outrageously charged with
trespassing.
Two years later, in 1995, workers in the live bird
department stopped working to protest an inadequate number of bathroom
breaks. Three workers were elected to speak with upper management on
behalf of the workers. Manager Ken Wilson refused to speak with the
workers and instead had them arrested. In response to this outrage, the
workers walked out and a strike began.
After a two month struggle,
in July 1995, the workers voted 248-138 in favor of having the Laborers
International Union of North America represent them. Case Farms
contested the vote and refused to negotiate with them. After a long
struggle, LIUNA ultimately pulled out after failing to negotiate a
contract with the company. The workers, however, continued to fight for
better conditions, including a work stoppage to protest line speed-ups
and lawsuits over unfair working conditions.
A second attempt at
unionizing began in 2005. Workers walked off their jobs and submitted a
petition signed by more than 400 workers demanding safer working
conditions. By July 2005, 70 percent of workers had signed union cards.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, however, Case Farms imported a
six-member team of union busters to turn workers against the union.
Ultimately, increased pressure and intimidation by management led to the
union’s defeat. An official vote took place in September 2005. The
result was 296-225 opposed to the union.
Even with the push for
unionization in 1995 and in 2005, working conditions did not improve for
the workers at Case Farms. In 2006, workers participated in a walk out
in protest of the company charging them for safety equipment,
particularly gloves.
Still fighting today
Today workers are still
facing dangerous conditions at the plant. Some of the complaints
include elimination of knife sharpeners on the line, speed of the line,
denying bathroom breaks and inadequate breaks for pregnant women. As of
July 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has an open
complaint against Case Farms for a serious carbon dioxide violation.
While the workers do not have a union to support them, Western North
Carolina Workers’ Center has helped them in many ways. Founded in 2002
by the Interfaith Worker Justice organization, WNCWC became an
independent non-profit organization in 2005. Founded in Morganton, WNCWC
has spread to other cities including Asheville, Franklin and
Hendersonville. The center aids workers in organizing, education and
advocacy and serves as a partner to organizations in North Carolina
including the Farmworker Advocacy Network , AFL-CIO and many others. The
center supports legislation for workers particularly in the poultry
industry. WNCWC also provides education and informative sessions to
empower workers.
The South has historically been difficult to
unionize. The Southern landscape is dotted with workers killed by
unionizing attempts. In 1929, a strike at Marion Manufacturing, a mill
located in neighboring McDowell County left six workers dead.
The
workers at Case Farms are holding strong nonetheless. While their
attempts to unionize have failed, the WNCWC Center has provided a
community based support system to them. As the economy worsens, such
local community based organizations are essential to the workers’
struggle.
