JBS 20th Anniversary BBQ a Success of Strength and Solidarity!
Just recently, your union held a BBQ in Brooks, AB, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of workers at JBS joining UFCW Local 401.
It was a wonderful day! The sun was shining, the burgers were sizzling, and the members were full of strength and solidarity.
More than 30 Shop Stewards from JBS were on hand to welcome members from both JBS and Safeway in Brooks to the BBQ. They were joined in solidarity by Shop Stewards from the Cargill and Olymel meatpacking plants in High River and Red Deer respectively.
Much of the discussion during the event focused on the affordability crisis and the importance of having representation from a fighting union like Local 401 in order to address that crisis.
“It’s the workers who are making these corporations successful,” said Cargill High River member David Ulysses Moreno. “At the same time, the workers can’t even make ends meet each month. You have families living together, carpooling to get to work, and struggling to buy food. Our union is holding these corporations to account. We need politicians to do the same.”
“Everyone is struggling as the cost of everything goes higher,” said Yogesh Bulatoo from Olymel. “That’s why we’re working through our union to figure out how we get past this. We appreciate that our President, Thomas Hesse, and everyone in our union are fighting to get us a three-dollar-per-hour affordability premium and increase our wages. That would make a big difference buying groceries and things like that.”
“I believe together we are stronger,” added Jean Wesley Armance from Olymel. “Events like this BBQ help to show everyone how strong we are, how much we can do when we work together. Bringing workers together at events like this and conferences to talk about what we can do together is how we can get the job done.”
Even members of the Local 401 Executive Board attended the BBQ to talk to members about how we can work together to Stop the Squeeze and make life more affordable.
“This event has been fantastic,” said Vice President from Lethbridge Tracy Matheson. “We’ve had MLAs come out. We’ve had Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, come out. We’ve had National President Shawn Haggerty come out. All to celebrate our members here in Brooks.”
“And the members have really opened their hearts to us,” added Matheson. “They’ve given us feedback and had important discussions about what’s going on in their lives and what we’re doing as a local union. In turn, we’ve opened our hearts to them and tried to give back. It’s been spectacular!”
“We’re here today talking to our members about the affordability crisis and about how we can work together to address it,” said Vice President from Calgary Nate LeBlanc Fortin. “We have some prizes that we’re giving away, trying to help our members with things like groceries and utility bills. And we’re telling them about our Executive Board’s campaign, Stop the Squeeze, where we’re trying to bring members together and ask, ‘Do you want to make life more affordable?'”
“It’s a work in progress and a discussion that we’re having with our members. We’re asking our members to join their Executive Board in figuring out and working on how we make life more affordable,” noted LeBlanc Fortin.
“The members were so amazed that we put this event on for them,” said Union Labour Relations Officer Adriana Salguero, who represents JBS members in the Brooks Plant. “The decision to join Local 401 in 2005 was very important for our members and it impacted people’s lives. To have that decision and the fight associated with realizing it remembered and celebrated left them feeling that they were important.”
“All the work and logistics that went into coordinating the BBQ were noticed,” added Salguero. “The members deeply appreciated President Thomas Hesse and Secretary Treasurer Richelle Stewart’s leadership in putting the event on, and they know that their union will keep fighting for them to make their lives better!”
“It’s always so special for us to come out and connect with our members at events like this,” reflected Secretary Treasurer Richelle Stewart. “Our members ARE the union, and events like this help us to remind every single member that they matter, that they have a voice, and that together we can be a force for good in this world, at JBS and Safeway here in Brooks, and across the province.”
“Brooks occupies a unique place in the history of our union,” noted Union President Thomas Hesse. “I spent many days, weeks, and months here in Brooks working with employees at what was then the Lakeside Packers Plant. The effort to organize this plant was very much a worker-led effort. The workers were fed up. The workers had had enough. The workers wanted a better life. Our union was there to help them achieve that life.”
“When I look around twenty years later, I know that things aren’t perfect. But they are very different and a great deal better,” concluded Hesse. “It is only by continuing to work together, in strength and solidarity, that we can keep building better workplaces and a better world. That is our calling, and it is our mission as a union.”
We will continue to stand side by side with our members in Brooks and all across this province to fulfill the dream that was captured so very well in the fight for fairness in Brooks twenty years ago and lives on in our local union to this day.
In solidarity,
Thomas Hesse, President
Richelle Stewart, Secretary Treasurer
UFCW Local 401
Posted on: September 24,2024