One Mass-Firing of Poultry Workers Averted, Another Reversed

The Equal Justice Center, in July and August of 2003, worked with the Laborers’ Union Local 693 to avert a mass-firing of over 60 poultry processing workers in Bay Springs, MS, and shortly afterwards the EJC worked with the UFCW Local 1991 to win the reinstatement of hundreds of wrongly-fired poultry processing workers in Canton, MS.  Both instances occurred at plants owned by Peco Foods.  Both plants were covered by union contracts.  The unions’ immediate responses, however, proved decisive in determining the sequence of events.

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Elizabeta had recently returned to work at the Bay Springs Peco poultry processing plant after taking a two week maternity leave when her supervisor told her and nine other workers from the eviscerating line to report to the human resources office.  She thought of her five-week-old baby girl as she and the other nine immigrant workers from Latin America wound their way through the narrow plant passageways.  They were met by the company translator who told them there was a problem with their Social Security numbers that they had to fix before they picked up their pay check the following week. 

Over the course of the next week over 60 immigrant workers were called into the Human Resources office and told to “fix” their Social Security numbers “or else”.  Many workers were given less than a full work-week to contact the Social Security Administration before they would lose their jobs, and several workers report being approached by the assistant personnel manager with an offer to buy a new Social Security Number from him for $700.00.  Scared and confused, the Latin American workers spoke in their homes with Russ Cobb.  Cobb, a researcher from the University of Texas, had been sent by the Equal Justice Center to spend the summer in Mississippi working with the Laborers’ Union as a translator and assistant organizer and helping the predominantly African American union reach out to the hundreds of Latin American workers now laboring in the poultry plants.

Through the new relationships that Cobb had formed with the Latin American workers, the Laborers’ Union learned that Peco Foods had received a Social Security No-Match letter and was threatening to fire all the workers’ whose names appeared on the letter.  Charles Carney, the business manager of the Laborers’ Union was quick to consult with the Equal Justice Center and to work with Cobb in drafting a notice to Peco Foods warning the company that the letter from the Social Security Administration had nothing to do with an employee’s immigration status and that if workers were fired on the basis of their names appearing on the letter, the Laborers’ Union would file a grievance against Peco Foods.  A series of negotiations ensued pitting the company against the union and its attorney, assisted by the Equal Justice Center.  As a result of the grievance and these negotiations, Peco Foods rescinded its threat to fire the workers.

Just as the Bay Springs situation was being resolved, however, another Peco Foods plant in Canton, MS, 60 miles north of Bay Springs, fired 209 workers on August 9, 2003.  The firings made a big splash in the media, and county sheriff, Toby Trowbridge, threatened to round-up and deport all Hispanics in Canton.  Unlike in Bay Springs, the UFCW Local 1991 representing the Canton workers had not received notice from the workers of the potential firing.  Similar to the Laborers’ Local 693, the UFCW Local 1991 is a predominantly African American union that struggles to reach out to Spanish speaking immigrants.  This language barrier proved to be a critical factor in the union’s inability to intervene before workers were fired.  UFCW Local 1991, however, quickly took action upon receiving news of the firings and immediately filed a grievance against the company.  The Equal Justice Center consulted with both union and its attorneys to provide vital information concerning immigrant workers’ rights and their protections against termination based on the Social Security No Match Letter.  After four weeks of negotiations, Peco Foods agreed to reinstate the fired Canton workers. The EJC worked with local community leaders from Sacred Heart Catholic Church to find the fired workers and connect them with the UFCW to get their jobs back.  Staff from the EJC translated for the UFCW at the reinstatement meeting and helped explain to workers the benefits they could derive from being members of the union.  UFCW Local 1991 was successful in assisting more than 70 of the fired workers to get their jobs back, and the reinstatement agreement remains open to the remaining workers who have not returned to Peco Foods.

The efforts of the Equal Justice Center to connect workers and union organizers through the Social Security No Match crisis turned the unfortunate events into a positive opportunity for both groups.  For the Latin American immigrant workers, many of whom are unfamiliar with their employment rights or with union organizing, they had a direct experience working with a union to protect their rights.  Many of these workers signed up as union members after this positive experience.  For the UFCW and the Laborers’ unions, they not only gained union membership and created new relationships with immigrant workers, but they also started to develop deeper collaborative relationships with community advocates.  The Equal Justice Center helped consolidated these partnerships by bringing union organizers and community advocates together in an emergency response, day-long training session about how the Social Security No Match letters were being used to violate workers’ rights.