Photo courtesy of Voces de la Frontera
The settlement was announced at an Aug. 14 Voces de la Frontera press conference.
A collective sigh of relief was heard on Friday, August 14 when the Strauss meat packing company reached a settlement with unfairly fired workers. The year has been a tumultuous one, especially for the 29 employees who were fired from their positions at the Strauss meat packing earlier this summer. Employees requested proper PPE and sick days but were terminated instead on July 23, with the company citing a Social Security Administration no match.
SSA no matches are never reasons to terminate employment.
Since April, the Voces Essential Workers Rights Network has been fighting for adequate COVID-19 protections in various meatpacking plants, including Strauss. What happened at Strauss was blatant racism against Latinx employees and punishment for a perceived defiance of management. Twenty-eight line of the terminated workers were protected by a union agreement; in addition, one whistle blower supervisor who was fired was not in the union and so was unable to be part of the settlement agreement. His name is Deny Alvarado and has still not received justice. Voces filed a complaint with OSHA and the City of Milwaukee health department regarding the lack of information and protection from the infection and spread of COVID-19 at Strauss. That investigation is still active and to this date, the company has failed to implement the necessary protections to stop the spread of COVID-19 by not providing six feet distancing in the facility, for inadequate and arbitrary paid sick days for workers infected by COVID-19 and those exposed, and for not informing workers about who has been exposed to a positive case of COVID-19 at Strauss.
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Voices from the Community
Aug. 7 saw the workers’ final picket outside of the Strauss plant, preceded by one on July 27, following the terminations. The Strauss 28 had been tirelessly meeting with each other, as well as with former union steward Walter Garron who came on to assist with the fight. Testimonies and strategies were shared at these events, as well as encouragement from each other. Unity was in no short supply amongst them, and an iron will kept them going. Christine Neumann-Ortiz spoke on behalf of Voces de la frontera, assisting with effective organization.
A combination of voices from the community, local attention and sheer determination got the employees a settlement with which they were satisfied. A press conference was held outside of the Voces offices at 1027 S. Fifth Street, where some of the employees had a chance to speak, as well as announce the settlement. Among them was Maria Ramirez Vazquez, a single mom of four children fired from Strauss after working as a machine operator for 13 years. She was the first person to be infected with COVID-19 at the plant. Ariseli Cevallos worked as a line leader at Strauss for 15.5 years before she was fired. She was also infected with COVID at the company. Emilio Morales worked on the boning line at Strauss for 21 years before he was fired. He was recently diagnosed with cancer.
The cash settlement totaled $264,000 for 29 workers. Each worker gets four days of pay for each year they worked. Each worker also received their unused vacation pay for 2020 and their projected vacation pay for 2021. This was the final outcome of marching, protests, meetings and discussions. People working in meat packing are essential workers in our society. A lesson that could be learned from what happened at Strauss is that undocumented workers make up an enormous part of the labor force in America, and have been essential since the beginning.
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