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Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 9/22/08
More than 1,400 employees at Smithfield Foods' Denison, Ia. processing facility voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to reject the company's contract proposal, the United Food and Commercial Workers' Local 440 in Denison announced.
According to the union, more than 92 percent of employees voted down the company's proposal.
A major sticking point was the company's proposed increases in health care costs to employees, which the union said were steep enough that some percentage of its members would have to drop private health care coverage.
The union's bargaining committee also authorized the union's leadership to call a strike if a resolution can't be reached, saying it would give Smithfield 72 hours' notice of any strike action at the plant. The UFCW did not, however, offer a deadline by which the union and the company need to reach agreement in order to avoid a strike.
The Denison plant is part of Smithfield's Farmland Foods unit. Smithfield representatives were not available for comment Sunday night.
The UFCW covers some 7,500 workers at other Smithfield facilities, whose contracts are set to expire in the next six months.
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