Aleta Johnsons was operating a bagging machine on the line at the Tyson Foods Processing Plant in Glen Allen, Virginia when she heard a co-worker yelling “Stop, stop, stop! Please help — stop the line!” Running to the conveyor belt, Johnsons – a shop steward for UFCW Local 400 -- saw five-pound bags of wingettes piling up and falling on the floor; she immediately pulled a switch and stopped the line. Just 10 days earlier, this would not have been possible; only managers had the power to stop the line. But thanks to a recently instituted reform worked out between Local 400 members and Tyson management, any worker now has the power to halt the entire production line if he or she witnesses a safety hazard. “There are (still) things we need to work on,” Johnsons says, “like better-staffed lines and an end to 10-hour work days—but it’s coming along. And our union has been so helpful in all of this.”
- adapted from a longer report on the UFCW 400 website; USDA photo by Alice Welch
- adapted from a longer report on the UFCW 400 website; USDA photo by Alice Welch