Efforts to end the Local No 1 Grain Millers strike against Teasdale Latin Foods in Hoopeston are continuing. A statement obtained by CIMG from Teasdale representative Providence Consulting stated that wage increases of 5 to 17%, a $500 return to work bonus, and assurances that striking workers will return to their old positions have all been proposed.
However, union spokesperson Don Woods says the proposed two-tiered system, where new employees would not have the same protections salary wise when it comes to up and down or lateral movements, remains a major point.
AUDIO: They did say that everyone could return back to their department, or something to that effect; so that’s good too. But the issue we still have is the two-tier system. That’s the problem.
Meanwhile, Woods told CIMG, and it was echoed when we spoke to union member Amanda Coon outside Teasdale Latin Foods Friday morning, that operations have been currently shut down for some major cleaning that was badly needed. Coon said the strikers were not surprised by this, because the actual cleaning crew has been joining them on the picket lines. So in their eyes, a shut down for cleaning was just a matter of time.
AUDIO: We kind of figured it would come eventually. Because our sanitation crew is out here. And next week will be three months since the plant has bad a good sanitation inside the building; with people that know how to actually get the equipment cleaned properly.
Teasdale’s statement via Providence Consulting, however, stated that the production shut down for cleaning was routine; and that “each of Teasdale’s six factories schedules periodic, generally quarterly, shutdowns to perform preventative maintenance on equipment and infrastructure.”
