Teamsters representing 3,100 slaughter and processing workers voted to authorize a strike demanding better wages and improved benefits at Tyson’s beef processing plant in Amarillo, Texas. Teamsters Local 577 members voted by a 98% margin to authorize a strike.
“We are bargaining with one of the most repulsively greedy and amoral corporations in the entire country. Last year, Tyson’s CEO made 525 times that of the median worker,” says Al Brito, Local 577 president. “This facility is essential to the beef supply chain, but if Tyson’s corporate leadership doesn’t start demonstrating some basic humanity, we will be forced to take action.”
The union has filed a number of unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against Tyson for violating labor law. In the past month, management has harassed union stewards, coerced injured employees into dropping claims, illegally interrogated union members, and falsely told workers at the facility that if they engaged in a ULP strike they would lose their jobs.
“We’re not just fighting for more money,” says Keisha Carey, a member of the Tyson teamsters negotiating committee. “We’re tired of seeing people suffer. We’re tired of seeing people hurting. We’re tired of seeing the elites who run this company have no compassion for the workers who make them rich. We’re ready to strike this company if they don’t give us the deal we deserve.”
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