Tyson Settles for $32 Million in Unpaid Meatpacking Wages

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11993/tyson_settles_for_32_million_in_unpaid_meatpacking_wages/

Thursday Sep 22, 2011 3:30 pm

By Kari Lydersen

(Photo by Quinn Dombrowski on Flickr.)

The time it takes to put on and take off work clothes and safety gear may seem negligible—but when you multiply those daily minutes by years and by 17,000-plus workers at 41 plants in 12 states, it adds up. That’s why the huge poultry, beef and pork company Tyson Foods has agreed to pay $32 million as part of a settlement approved last week by a Georgia district court.

Payment for these minutes that are inarguably part of one’s workday become even more important both pragmatically and in principle when you work for a meatpacking plant where the pay is low and the work is grueling and dangerous. Tyson admitted no wrongdoing with the settlement, which resulted from a lawsuit filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The union says about 17,000 past and current Tyson workers will get about $1,000 each under the settlement, which also includes about $14.5 million in attorneys’ fees.

Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Labor settled a similar suit in an Alabama district court, as a 2009 press release from the department explains:

The federal department alleged that Tyson Foods did not keep accurate records and failed to pay production line employees for the time they spend donning and doffing safety and sanitary gear, and performing other related work activities. The violations cover the period from the year 2000 to the present and affect approximately 3,000 current and former workers at the plant ... The first jury trial, which began in February 2009, ended in a mistrial. The Labor Department chose to pursue a second trial in August 2009 to secure a ruling that Tyson was failing to compensate its employees lawfully.

In a statement, the UFCW heralded the recent settlement as a victory, saying:

Before these UFCW-initiated lawsuits began, meatpacking companies didn’t pay workers for time spent taking the gear on and off, adding up to thousands of dollars of lost pay over years of work … These payments will inject much-needed money into America’s rural economy and reward a hard-working and dedicated group of poultry workers … This lawsuit and the new pay practices in the meatpacking industry are just one way union workers raise standards for every worker in their industry, regardless of their union status.


FULL story at link.