[Antiracism] [Workers Rights] VOTE NOW for National JwJ Grinch of the Year!

Thu Dec 13 11:40:20 EST 2007

The winner of the Massachusetts Grinch is Paul Levy, CEO, Beth Israel
Deaconess Hospital. 

-----Original Message-----
From: jwjnational at jwj.org [mailto:jwjnational at jwj.org] 

HYPERLINK "http://www.jwj.org" \n 	

HYPERLINK "http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/-p3drLE1cPoL/"Vote Now!HYPERLINK
"http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/-p3drLE1cPoL/" \nVOTE NOW!!! 

Vote now in the seventh annual online Grinch of the Year election to
determine the national figure who does the most harm to working families.
This year's candidates are:

*	HYPERLINK \l "smith"SMITHFIELD Chairman Joseph Luter III 

*	VERIZON BUSINESS VP for Human Resources Bob Toohey 

*	BURGER KING CEO John W. Chidsey 

*	AMERICAN AIRLINES President and CEO Gerald Arpey 

*	WRITE IN your own candidate

VOTE NOW:  HYPERLINK
"http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/-p3drLE1cPoL/"http://www.jwj.org/grinch.html 

You can READ BELOW about why Smithfield, Verizon, Burger King, and American
Airlines were nominated. Choose from those candidates or write-in your own! 

SMITHFIELD TAR HEEL CHAIRMAN Joseph Luter III 

Smithfield operates the largest pork slaughterhouse in the world. Located in
Southeastern North Carolina, Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant employs 5,000
workers and kills and dismembers over 32,000 hogs each day. The plant
remains one of the most dangerous worksites in the United States, where
workers who have not been adequately trained are forced to work at
exceedingly fast line speeds while making repetitive hand motions in
processing the pork. Workers are injured, harassed, intimidated, and
threatened by Smithfield management.

Smithfield maintains an environment of fear and intimidation. For over ten
years now, workers at the Tar Heel plant have fought relentlessly for a
voice on the job. In 1994 and 1997, workers tried to hold a union election
but were met with the company’s coercive fist. After the vote count at the
1997 election, one union supporter and one union organizer were dragged out
of the plant, beaten, insulted with racial epithets, and arrested. 

Plant injuries have increased so dramatically in recent years that this
summer thousands of workers signed a petition that was delivered to Luter
and other Smithfield executives at the company’s annual shareholders’
meeting. Luter refused to look at the petitions, and instead lectured the
workers in front of shareholders and their religious community supporters on
the principles of “democracy.”

In many ways, 21st century meatpacking conditions in Tar Heel, North
Carolina, have changed little since Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle in 1906.
Tar Heel workers know that a union presence means no longer having to fight
endless struggles for bare minimum standards of workplace health and safety.
This spring, for example, workers in one department were forced to initiate
a months-long campaign for the company to make clean and drinkable water
available on the job. 

Joseph Luter III revels in the benefits granted to Smithfield’s upper
echelon. Even in retirement, he continues to bring in $83,333.33 each month
in consulting fees. He also receives cash incentives and is entitled to use
the company jet. Meanwhile the workers in Tar Heel are forced to bear the
burden of Luter’s indulgent lifestyle. 

Smithfield Foods has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Jobs with
Justice, the Change To Win (CTW) labor federation, and the union organizing
its employees in Tar Heel, NC, the United Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW). The suit is being filed under the RICO statute designed to fight
organized crime. The company’s RICO suit is ironic given the well documented
violations of state and federal law that the company has been found in
violation of. It seeks to stop all such campaigns in the future and is a
clear violation of the constitutional rights of all supporters of workers’
rights.

For these reasons, and many more, Joseph Luter III of Smithfield deserves
the title of Grinch of the Year. To learn more about the struggle, visit
HYPERLINK "http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/J13drLE1cPo_/"
\nwww.smithfieldjustice.org.

VERIZON BUISNESS' Bob Toohey 

Over the last few years Verizon has distinguished itself as one of the
Grinchiest companies on earth, squashing efforts by workers in its wireless
divisions to unite in unions, attempting to abandon rural (read: less
profitable) communities in New England, and threatening the health care and
retirement security of its unionized workers.
But the management’s behavior at its large account’s division -- Verizon
Business (VZB) -- really stands out.  In particular, vice president for
human resources Bob Toohey is among the Grinches at Verizon who has shown
exceptionally bad behavior by stepping on the democratic rights of VZB
workers.  It all started earlier this year, when a majority of VZB
technicians in the northeast signed cards to form a union.  In response,
Toohey (and friends) launched an anti-union campaign, spreading
misinformation about unions and holding "captive-audience" meetings.
At a mandatory meeting last March in Charlton, MA with Verizon Business
techs, Toohey said, “We are looking at offering another [health care] plan.
What we want to offer is a couple of choices to give you an option.”  When a
tech asked a question about the high cost for employees of VZB’s health care
plan, Toohey said, “The goal is to bring core (Verizon’s unionized core
telecom business) health care down to the VZB standard.”
Not long after that, the workers filed unfair labor practice charges at the
National Labor Relations Board because Verizon Business illegally interfered
with their freedom to form a union.  In two separate cases, the NLRB issued
formal complaints against VZB for violating federal labor laws by spying on
workers, suppressing free speech in the workplace and issuing illegal
warnings to union supporters.  

Join the brave techs at Verizon Business who are standing up to Grinches
like Bob Toohey.  Vote Toohey for Grinch of the Year!

BURGER KING CEO John W. Chidsey 

Farm workers who pick tomatoes for Burger King's sandwiches earn 40 to 50
cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has not
risen significantly in nearly 30 years. Workers who toil from dawn to dusk
must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50 in one day.

McDonald's, the largest restaurant chain in the world, and Yum Brands, the
largest restaurant company in the world (parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, &
Pizza Hut) have committed to guaranteeing improved wages and enforcing a
code of conduct for conditions in the fields. They have agreed to pay
workers a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked. But Burger King -- the
second-largest hamburger chain in the world -- has so far refused to work
with farm workers and heed the call to improve wages and working conditions
for those who pick their tomatoes.

AMERICAN AIRLINES President and CEO Gerald Arpey

American Airlines CEO Gerald Arpey asked employees to "Pull Together, Win
Together", and they did. Approximately 95,000 workers at American Airlines
agreed to deep wage and benefit concessions in 2003 in order to save the
company from bankruptcy.

Now that the company is making money again, how are the workers being repaid
for their sacrifices? They're not! 

Arpey awarded millions of dollars in bonuses to more than 800 of the
top-paid executives at American this year. Lining the pockets of the
top-paid executives while workers suffer is true grinch behavior! 

HYPERLINK "http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/-p3drLE1cPoL/" \nVOTE NOW

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