PORTLAND OREGONIAN

October 29, 2008

Beef Northwest workers vote Nov. 7-9 on union

BOARDMAN, Ore. -- In hopes of ending a bitter labor dispute, a ranchers' cooperative Tuesday scheduled a Nov. 7-9 election to give workers at three Beef Northwest feedlots a chance to decide whether to unionize under the California-based United Farm Workers.

Perhaps ironically, the union -- which has been trying for more than a year to unionize 80 workers at Beef Northwest feedlots here and in the Snake River town of Nyssa and Quincy, Wash. -- doesn't want the election. A union representative Tuesday invoked the name of Presidential hopeful Barack Obama to try to stop it.

The election is being organized by Country Natural Beef, a cooperative of 120 ranching families that last summer found itself in a crossfire between the union and Beef Northwest, the state's largest cattle feedlot. About 47,000 head of the cooperative's cattle are "finished" annually at Beef Northwest's feedlot near Boardman.

"You are the people who care for our cows. ... We want you to decide," said rancher and cooperative member Scott McLaren of Joseph. He was talking to more than 20 Beef Northwest employees during a lunchtime meeting while cattle bawled outside the feedlot lunchroom.

McLaren and ranchers John Boyer of Haines and Skye Krebs of Wallowa announced the election but declined to give their opinions whether the workers, 70 percent of whom are Latino, should unionize. Wes Killion , spokesman for Beef Northwest, said his company will remain neutral.

Because so few workers are bilingual, Beef Northwest employee Edgar Barrea translated during the brief meeting. Several non-English-speaking workers expressed frustration at not understanding whether the union would benefit them if they agreed to collective bargaining.

McLaren said ballots will be cast on succeeding days at the three feedlots and the results decided Nov. 10, based on the total votes of about 80 workers at all three sites. The election will employ secret ballots and voting booths and be overseen by Jeff Clark, a retired Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service employee, he said.

The ranching cooperative and Beef Northwest have pledged to abide by the vote.

United Farm Workers spokesman Eric Nicholson on Tuesday afternoon termed the planned balloting "an illegitimate, sham election." He said a majority of Beef Northwest workers signed cards in June indicating they wanted to join the union. And he said Obama on Aug. 4 sent a letter to Beef Northwest official John Wilson calling on the company to begin contract negotiations with the United Farm Workers.

"If it is good enough for who we believe to be the next president of the United States, why is it not good enough for them?" demanded Nicholson.

The conflict turned nasty last spring when the union began a campaign against Whole Foods Markets, the Austin, Texas-based national grocery outlet that is a customer of Country Natural Beef, said rancher Stacy Davies. He manages Roaring Springs Ranch near Frenchglen and is a member of the cooperative.

Whole Foods Markets is the cooperative's primary customer, selling about 70 percent of its beef after cattle are finished in the Beef Northwest feedlot near Boardman. The union has used pressure on the grocery outlet and Country Natural Beef "as leverage to pressure Beef Northwest," said Davies. The union has also called on consumers to avoid buying Country Natural Beef.

Whole Foods informed the cattlemen's cooperative last spring that it would not buy cattle finished at Beef Northwest until the labor dispute was resolved. Later, corporate officers at Whole Foods changed their minds.

The UFW doesn't want a private election, preferring instead a process that gives workers an opportunity to sign cards at barbecues, union gatherings or during home visits by union representatives saying they favor union representation.

But the union and Beef Northwest have never agreed on how to proceed with an election or a way to tally the votes. Both sides say the other's preferred election method would be used unfairly.

Nicholson of the farm workers' union said Beef Northwest has interrogated feedlot workers almost daily, and threatened and intimidated them, "making any so-called free and fair election impossible." He termed the company's tactics "a coercive process, much like the elections of the former Soviet Union."

Feedlot employees at Tuesday's meeting who were approached by The Oregonian told a different story. Several said they are treated well and have seen little of union representatives.

"I've worked for a lot of places, and these are probably the nicest people I've ever worked for, and the wages are above average," said feedlot worker Steven Short, 59.

Feedlot worker Bonnie Hamlin said union representatives get Latino workers aside from time to time and talk to them, but appear to avoid Caucasian workers such as herself. "Very little is known about the whole deal," she said of the effort to unionize.

"Ninety percent of them are voting and they don't know what it's about," said feedlot worker Dan Williams, 63, adding that he doesn't want the union.