Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 4/17/19

A near majority of the 1,800 workers at a Tyson Foods Inc. plant in Camilla, Ga., has ratified a new contract, an outcome that could affect poultry workers in other Southern states, according to the union and a local media report.

Ninety-seven percent of the employees at the facility represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) approved the contract, the union said in a news release. The three-year pact reduces health care costs to members, provides for annual wage increases and clarifies seniority, job bidding, layoff and recall rights and other provisions. Negotiations took eight months, the union said.

RWDSU also represents workers at regional Pilgrim’s Pride, Wayne Farms and other Tyson facilities in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. The latest ratification was one of what the union describes as “a string” of organizing and contract wins in the South and in locations that includes right-to-work states.

Edgar Fields, president of the Southwest Council of the RWDSU – which represents about 7,500 poultry workers in Alabama – told Al.com the contract will “automatically improve conditions for workers at non-union facilities.” Because poultry workers travel around for work, any gain for a poultry plant employee worker is “big,” he added. Alabama’s poultry industry employs more than 86,000 workers.

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