Workers at the Huhtamaki Plant Elect a Representative Committee

Workers at the Huhtamaki plant in Commerce, California last week elected a committee of representatives and again asked the local management to meet to discuss working conditions in the plant and agree not to retaliate against the workers – requests that management has refused to honor.

The elected worker representatives are: Herman Barnes and Arnold Moreno from Maintenance, Duane Calloway, Joseph Turner, and Nate Griffith from Warehouse, Ralph Murillo and Rosalva Ibarra from Forming, and Levi Ross, Manny Zendajas, Ernesto Rodriguez, and Ruben Gonzales from Printing.

The workers also filed unfair labor practice charges against Huhtamaki with the National Labor Relations Board. The charges assert that Huhtamaki interfered with employees’ right to organize by changing its no-solicitation policy and enforcing the policy in a discriminatory manner.

In a letter to the company, the workers cite several incidents of retaliation for their collective efforts. “Management has repeatedly spied on workers who support making change, both in the break room and discussions on the shop floor; management has forced us to sit in captive audience meetings where management representatives attempt to persuade us against supporting any union activity; management has posted a policy prohibiting us from speaking about or passing out materials supporting change at Huhtamaki, and; management has handed us and mailed us anti-union literature to our homes.”

Click Here to view a commerce delegation letter

Click Here to view the unfair labor practice charge sent to the NLRB