A New Day at New Era

Last week, IWJ joined workers at the New Era Cap Company in Mobile, Alabama in a prayer vigil. Workers at the facility voted for union representation with the Teamsters Local 991 earlier this year. During the organizing campaign, 25 of the 111 workers lost their jobs. The workers were notified Thanksgiving week that 35 additional workers would be laid off. New Era workers in Mobile were joined by local clergy, representatives from the NAACP, and the Teamsters.

As the Working Families Network (WFN) puts it on their website:

In retaliation for workers' desire to choose a union in order to end racial discrimination and improve poverty-level wages at New Era's Mobile, Alabama, plant, New Era is terminating scores of workers. On Monday, November 19, New Era Cap Company Inc. will announce their decision to lay off 35 permanent employees at their Mobile Distribution Center. Out of the 35 to be laid off, only 15 will be called back to work. This kind of layoff is unprecedented at the Mobile facility, and comes in the midst of a critical labor dispute between New Era Cap and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Tell New Era to play fair with their employees. No holiday firings. Chris Koch - Global Vice President of Human Resources 716-604-9000.

Workers organize in Mobile

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been talking to some folks in Mobile, Alabama, about a campaign by 111 workers at a factory owned by New Era Cap Company. The workers organized a union in response to conditions they reported including low wages, forced overtime, and racial discrimination against the predominantly African American workforce. However, over the course of the organizing drive, 20 workers were fired, and the company is refusing to negotiate a just contract with the workers.

I’m amazed at the courage of these workers, who are continuing to organize despite this intimidation and harassment. Several ministers have already begun to get involved by showing up at the workers’ organizing committee meetings to offer prayers and support. I’m going down to Mobile next week to talk to other religious leaders and help organize a religious support committee. Stay tuned for updates.

Forthcoming...

On August 29th, our Executive Director, Kim Bobo, attended the annual shareholders meeting of Smithfield Foods, the largest hog processing plant in the world -- whose hugely controversial labor practices are at the target of a sustained organizing campaign. Kim has written a lively and illuminating account of the contentious meeting, which she calls "both interesting and disturbing," for the next issue of IWJ's print newsletter, Faith Works. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter and thus be sure to get Kim's report as soon as it's available.