{"id":16658,"date":"2021-11-27T13:42:32","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T18:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/2021\/11\/27\/factory-workers-strike-against-poverty-pay-abuse-by-management-at-rich-products-plant-in-l-a-area-2\/"},"modified":"2021-11-27T13:42:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T18:42:32","slug":"factory-workers-strike-against-poverty-pay-abuse-by-management-at-rich-products-plant-in-l-a-area-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2021\/11\/27\/factory-workers-strike-against-poverty-pay-abuse-by-management-at-rich-products-plant-in-l-a-area-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Factory workers strike against poverty pay, abuse by management at Rich Products plant in L.A. area"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By EDGAR REYES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Santa Fe Springs, California, located in the Los Angeles area, a group of largely immigrant Latina factory workers is waging a high-stakes strike against the multibillion-dollar food manufacturing company Rich Products. Since November 3, the group of well over 100 strikers has been on the picket line at the Rich Products-owned Jon Donaire Desserts plant, demanding better wages, improved retirement benefits, and changes to the company\u2019s abusive, punitive point system, which provides workers with only three days of sick leave per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The striking workers are members of Local 37<\/a> of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers\u2019 International Union (BCTGM)\u2014the same union that has waged multiple strikes across the country against major multinational food manufacturing companies thus far this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a strong feminist component to the struggle at Rich Products. After years of being pushed around, disrespected, and hyper-exploited at the hands of the company\u2019s condescending male bosses, the disproportionately women workforce at the plant has taken a stand for dignity and respect on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people here that have been mistreated,\u201d points out Miguel Angel Perez, a worker in the plant\u2019s warehouse. \u201cAs you can tell, 80 percent of the workers here are female. Management doesn\u2019t seem to understand that it\u2019s a people-driven company, and the women workers are the ones that have been treated the worst. When workers want days off, or they have doctor appointments, or they have babysitting issues\u2014the bosses don\u2019t care about that. What management wants is just someone that\u2019ll be here at work\u2014and if they leave or miss a day, management will give them a half-a-point or a point. And once you get to seven points here, they fire you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of the demands for more sick days and alterations to the unacceptable point system, strikers are calling for better wages and improved pension and retirement benefits. Currently, many workers at the plant make less than $17 an hour\u2014a rate that is particularly offensive given the high cost of living in the Los Angeles area. In negotiations with the company, the union is demanding a fair increase in wages as part of a new three-year contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rich Products is a very large, privately-owned company. Based in Buffalo, New York, the company sells thousands of different types of processed food products in different countries across the world \u2013 everything from pizza crust to packaged barbeque meat to ice cream cakes. In terms of its production network, the company employs some 11,000 workers globally, with 7,000 of them working at more than 20 facilities in the United States and Canada, according to the company\u2019s website<\/a>. In the Los Angeles area, Rich Products has plants in Torrance and Santa Ana in addition to the struck plant in Santa Fe Springs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, on an international level, Rich Products also maintains production facilities<\/a> in Mexico and Brazil, as well as other countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The company ranked number 114 on Forbes\u2019s<\/em> list of America\u2019s Largest Private Companies for 2020<\/a> with management reporting some $4 billion in sales for the 2019 fiscal year. Thus the striking workers in Santa Fe Springs are engaged in a struggle with a massive, rapacious corporation that exploits workers all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Santa Fe Springs plant specifically, workers manufacture multiple varieties of ice cream cake that\u2019s sold at many different retail companies, including Baskin-Robbins, Cold Stone Creamery, Walmart, Safeway, and other major outlets. Notably, the Santa Fe Springs plant is the company\u2019s only manufacturing facility that makes this particular type of product, according to striking workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By all accounts, the production volumes normally maintained at the Santa Fe Springs plant are very high<\/em>. On many of the plant\u2019s conveyor-belt-style production lines, workers perform their work processes on dozens of cakes per minute \u2013 producing thousands of cakes in total per shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese conveyors are running at about 38 cakes per minute,\u201d explains Julissa Marquez, a shop steward that works on the cake decorating line, in an interview featured on a recent episode of the BCTGM Voices podcast<\/a>. \u201cOur decorating lines go \u2026 13 cakes per minute. Of course, when we were understaffed, [management] would sort of lower the conveyor speed. But it was still relatively fast, where anything that takes two people to do, one person would do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brutal pace of work inside the plant causes health issues and leads to repetitive strain injuries for many workers. On the picket line, many strikers are quick to tell stories of injuries they sustained on the job that required them to take time off from work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond this, another grievance that striking workers express on the picket line relates to mandatory forced overtime \u2013 an issue that has been at the heart of all<\/em> of the strikes waged by the BCTGM thus far this year. At the Santa Fe Springs plant, workers often work shifts of as long as 12 to 16 hours. While workers are technically scheduled to work eight-hour days, in actuality, shifts at the plant only end when workers meet the daily production quotas set by management. Needless to say, this situation makes it difficult for the many working mothers employed at the plant to balance their wage labor requirements with the social reproduction work that they perform at home in order to support their families and raise children. Combined with the low amount of sick days and the punitive point system, the mandatory overtime schedule puts many workers in an intolerable situation\u2014a factor that helped set the stage for the outbreak of the strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since workers walked off the job more than three weeks ago, the strike has significantly reduced production output at the plant. Out of 175 workers in the bargaining unit, only around 30 workers have crossed the picket line. Importantly, every single worker employed as part of the plant\u2019s sanitation crew\u2014the workers tasked with cleaning the production lines and machines that produce the ice cream cakes\u2014has supported the strike. As a result of this, striking workers observe that the lines are not being properly cleaned in accord with safety standards\u2014and, on multiple occasions, the company has had to throw away the pallets stacked with unsanitary cakes produced by scabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of the struggle, workers have maintained an around-the-clock picket line\u201424 hours a day and seven days a week\u2014in front of the struck plant. Despite the adversity that comes from being on strike, the workers\u2014who toil elbow-to-elbow beside each other on the plant\u2019s fast-moving production lines \u2013 have built a culture of solidarity and mutual support. Workers share meals and warmly welcome visitors that show up to the picket line to lend solidarity. On top of this, workers are receiving support from the broader Los Angeles labor movement. On November 15, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the BCTGM sponsored a rally<\/a> in front of the struck plant that drew dozens of supporters<\/a>, including members of multiple other unions in the area. Striking workers have also received international statements of support from workers in Argentina and Mexico. Notably, a group of three worker militants at the big Felfort chocolate factory in Buenos Aires recorded a video<\/a> declaring \u201call support to the struggle\u201d of the Rich Products strikers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe neighbors, they have been nothing but supportive,\u201d observes Marquez. \u201cThe people passing by, we tell them what we\u2019re here for; we ask them for some motivation. And we\u2019ve gotten it \u2026 We\u2019ve received food from a few [union] locals. We\u2019ve received donations \u2026 And we\u2019re all so grateful for it. It\u2019s keeping us motivated and letting us know that we\u2019re not alone\u2014that we will not be alone, and therefore we have more leverage against the company to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike at Rich Products is part of a broader uptick of strikes and struggles<\/a> waged by workers across the country\u2014what the mainstream press and the labor movement has termed \u201cStriketober\u201d and \u201cStrikesgiving.\u201d Within this broader trend, many of the most militant and important strikes have been fought at industrial bakeries and food manufacturing plants and led by the same union to which the Santa Fe Springs strikers belong\u2014the BCTGM. On top of the struggle at Rich Products, the list of strikes waged by the BCTGM thus far this year includes the hard-fought, nearly three-week strike<\/a> by members of Local 218 at the Frito-Lay snack foods plant in Topeka, Kansas<\/a>; the victorious strike<\/a> by some 1,000 workers at Nabisco factories and facilities in five states; and the ongoing strike<\/a> by 1,400 Kellogg\u2019s cereal production workers in four states. Beyond this, the BCTGM is currently waging a union drive at the Hershey\u2019s Chocolate plant<\/a> in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, which employs some 1,100 workers and manufactures various types of popular candy products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the country, workers in food processing plants\u2014and workers in manufacturing and other sectors more generally\u2014have grown sick and tired of low pay, deteriorating conditions, abuse by management, mandatory forced overtime, and never-ending speed-ups and hyper-exploitation at the hands of the bosses. The workers at Rich Products are one vital part of this growing struggle, and the entire labor and socialist movement has a duty to come to the support of these courageous workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to stand in solidarity with the Rich Products strikers, supporters can stop by the picket line in front of the struck plant at 12805 Busch Place in Santa Fe Springs. In addition, the union is now calling on supporters to boycott<\/a> products from Rich Products<\/a> and Jon Donaire<\/a>. Beyond this, supporters can follow the Rich Products strike on social media on the Rich\u2019s Union Members Appreciation Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, striking workers have started a Go Fund Me account to give strike supporters the opportunity to provide donations to sustain the strikers and their families for the duration of this important, inspiring struggle: https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/official-jon-donaire-strikers-gofundme-page?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reprinted from Workers\u2019 Voice \/ La Voz:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Factory workers strike against poverty pay, abuse by management at Rich Products plant in L.A. area<\/a><\/blockquote>