More than one hundred workers at Coca-Cola plants in Logan and Charleston have returned to work after going on a days-long strike.
Ken Hall - the president of Teamsters Local 175 - said workers have a list of grievances against the company, including using supervisors doing union members' work and failing to pay employees for work performed.
Hall said the workers decided they didn't want to inconvenience the customers who rely on them, and remain optimistic - despite little movement from a company whose gross profit totaled nearly $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
"They company just made another 23% profit in the first quarter," said Hall. "They're paying their CEO about $13 million as of last year, which is a significant increase for him. And yet they want to cut West Virginia workers out of their jobs and out of their pay."
In previously released statements, Coca-Cola Consolidated says it has provided the union a fair and competitive contract offer and remains committed to working with them on an equitable resolution.
Hall added that the local businesses that depend on receiving products from drivers are dismayed at the labor dispute.
"You see customers saying we don't want any deliveries that don't come from our drivers," said Hall. "They are fed up with the behavior protocol."
Coca-Cola also recently entered into an agreement with the gas station Sheetz to directly ship products from warehouses to Sheetz convenience stores.
Hall said the move bypasses the company's drivers, who were paid commissions for delivering those products.
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By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.
Broadcast version by Judith Ruiz-Branch for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration
Eighty-one percent of evaluated poultry workers were found to be at high risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders, a new study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. This risk is primarily driven by high piece rates, which is the number of animals or pieces of meat handled by each slaughterhouse worker. Nearly half of pork processing workers evaluated were also at high risk for injury.
On January 10, the department released the results of two studies, one on poultry workers and one on processed pork workers, that looked at the impact of line speed and workloads on worker health. The studies showed that piece rate was an important metric in determining workplace safety. While line speed is important, the number of people working on each line combined with line speed provides a more comprehensive risk analysis. Among surveyed poultry workers, 40 percent reported moderate to severe pain in the last year. Most did not report that pain to supervisors.
“These USDA studies reaffirm what we have long known – that poultry and swine slaughter poses serious risk to workers, regardless of line speed. We must take stronger action to protect these workers and ensure the safety of our food supply chain,” United Food and Commercial Workers International Union president Marc Perrone wrote in a press release.
According to United Nations FAO estimates, each day 206 million chickens and 4 million pigs are killed for food. The vast majority are raised on factory farms and killed and processed in meatpacking plants, where risks to workers such as amputation and severe falls are common.
The studies’ authors recommend lowering piece rates by increasing staffing, adapting workstations for better ergonomic practices and improving medical management within workplaces. According to data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, poultry and meat companies remain among the most dangerous to work for, in large-part due to injuries from keeping up with fast line speeds.
“Since the first term of Trump’s administration the problem of increasing the line speed and the decrease of the workforce have become some of the most important issues workers have been struggling with every day,” Magaly Licolli, executive director of Venceremos, an Arkansas-based poultry-worker advocacy group, wrote to Sentient.
“The findings of the reports are alarming, but not surprising to us because we’ve seen how for the past years, the industry has been putting workers’ health and safety at risk for the sake of their own profits,” wrote Licolli, who also called on the USDA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to pass standards to prevent increasing line speed.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration used federal legislation to declare meatpacking facilities essential, forcing workers to spend hours inside of buildings that would become hotspots for the virus. The Trump administration also granted poultry plants the ability to increase line speed, which some groups, like the Food Integrity Campaign, have been working to reverse through litigation. The studies released last week were a result of these lawsuits and pushback. During the height of the pandemic, as many as 269 meatpacking employees died and 59,000 workers tested positive for the virus.
“Industrial animal agriculture operates on a model of systemic exploitation to increase their profit margins at the expense of the well-being of animals, workers and rural communities. Today’s USDA studies on swine and poultry processing workers clearly show the human cost: life-altering injuries, painful work conditions and high risks tied to relentless production speeds and piece-rate pay structures,” Jessica Culpepper, executive director of FarmSTAND, a legal advocacy group, wrote to Sentient. “The incoming administration’s history of deregulating Big Ag and advancing policies that strip protections from vulnerable workers will only deepen these injustices.”
Nina B. Elkadi wrote this article for Sentient.
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Iowa is making $14 million available to take on the critical lack of child care in the state.
Many families said both parents want to work and would, if not for a critical lack of child care services. The funds will be used to build more than 870 new child care centers and expand existing ones in Iowa.
Jillian Herink, executive director of the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children, said while more buildings will help, the bigger problem is a critical shortage of qualified child care providers.
"A lot of that stems from the low pay for child care providers," Herink pointed out. "And many of the places have a lack of ability to offer benefits, as well."
The funds were awarded to 13 employers who said they will build or expand child care facilities, giving more parents the chance to go to work.
Iowa also recently launched the Childcare Solutions Fund program, which provides communities with money to raise wages and offer health benefits to child care providers.
Herink noted it is one of many compensation strategies the state is using to address a yawning wage gap between traditional classroom educators and child care providers.
"For an example, a child care provider with a bachelor's degree, on average, makes of $16 an hour, where a kindergarten teacher with the same degree is making $30 an hour," Herink outlined. "The discrepancy is very large in the state of Iowa."
In an effort to help working parents find child care quickly, Iowa also recently launched a website, called Iowa Child Care Connect, which allows people to see when and where child care is available in real time.
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The United Auto Workers union is negotiating its first union contract with Volkswagen at its Chattanooga plant, covering more than 4,000 members.
The union said its key demands include higher wages, affordable health benefits and retirement protections.
Steve Cochran, co chair of the bargaining committee, said the workers should have the same pay structure as the other automotive groups recognized in contracts with the United Auto Workers.
"Right now, at the end of the Big Three's contract, compared to what we have now is 24% higher," Cochran pointed out. "We're asking for right at about a 24% pay raise over the length of our contract, just to get us equal with the Big Three."
Cochran noted Volkswagen has offered a 16.5% raise over four years, leaving them several percentage points behind the current rates of the Big Three automakers. He added the cost-of-living raises are capped, unlike theirs. The Big Three -- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler -- were the first Southern autoworkers to unionize.
Cochran noted affordable health insurance is a key demand. His family plan costs around $400 a month, totaling $11,000 a year with deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, an amount he said is unaffordable for many workers. He added some UAW autoworkers have secured fully paid family coverage with low co-pays.
"Some of us have to make a decision based on, 'Am I going to pay for this doctor visit and get this treatment, or am I going to pay my mortgage?'" Cochran observed. "We've had several members take 401(k) loans out, for example, or they may even remortgage your house. We've had several had to file bankruptcy."
Cochran emphasized the company recently eliminated its attendance bonus, which offered 8% of quarterly wages for perfect attendance. However, the strict policy meant even missing a single minute would forfeit the entire bonus.
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