Egg processer labor battle

Violence alleged on both sides

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The owner said they had a vote for a union and they lost, but the union won’t accept the defeat. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said that the actions by the company against the union supporters were so egregious that a fair vote was not possible. Now an administrative law judge will decide if the company must recognize the union.

The company is Deb-El Food Products, which has a plant located in Thompsonville, a few miles from Monticello. The plant produces egg products and has a workforce of about 60. An administrative hearing began at the government center on March 22 that will determine if the company must hire seven workers who were fired and negotiate with the union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 342.

Before the hearing, a number of groups held a news conference to lay out the case against Deb-El. Milan Bhatt, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Law Center, said that more than half of the employees signed cards in May 2009 indicating they wanted a chance to vote on union representation. He said after that happened, the company began to behave illegally and abuse workers.

Bhatt said there were: “reports of threats being issued against children and other family members of workers, a report of a worker being told to eat spilled egg products off the floor, reports that workers were deprived use of basic facilities such as public rest rooms and one worker was assaulted in the parking lot of his own home.”

This supports language used by the NLRB in seeking a federal court order to force Deb-El to rehire the workers. The board wrote, “The employer’s agents allegedly engaged in a sustained effort to discourage union support, threatening employees with dismissal and loss of benefits, telling them a union vote would be futile and asking employees to sign an anti-union petition.”

On the other side of the issue, the owner of the company, Elliot Gibber, said that representatives of the union were the ones causing the problems. He said, “The union paid people to sign petitions, to picket against us and to damage equipment. They harassed and threatened people. We have affidavits from people saying they were forced to sign the union vote cards.”

He said the company has filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit against the union in federal court.

As for the seven fired employees, he said the company had introduced some new automation in the plant that led to the elimination of the jobs.

The RICO suit is likely to be in the courts for some time, but the NLRB decision may be settled in a couple of months.