ABOVE: UFCW Local 700 president Tracy Bartak welcomes visitors to Tuesday evening’s town meeting at David S. Palmer Arena.
A meeting Tuesday (Aug 26th) evening in a conference room at the David S. Palmer Arena about reported anti-union tactics at Viscofan brought about some interesting testimony, including from Tim Miller. He stated he was fired for an exaggerated situation where a casing supply was low, but still in existence. He won his job back from an arbitrator, but says Viscofan will not recognize the arbitrator’s ruling.
AUDIO: That was back in December of 24. So here was are in August of 25, and I still do not my job back, and I still don’t have my backpay.
Both former and current workers spoke about how, after numerous attempts to break it up, the union has been completely unrecognized by the company since May; leaving employees without the union’s health coverage, and therefore causing some extreme hardship. Mayor Rickey Williaiims, Jr was there, and says he certainly does not want this in Danville if these allegations are true. He advised the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 to work together with other local parties.
AUDIO: I strongly encourage the union to rally with DALMC (Danville Area Labor Management Council); that’s a group of union leaders and community leaders that we meet with on a monthly basis out at DACC.
(1st Picture) Tim Miller talks about not being allowed to return to Viscofan despite winning a case before an arbitrator. (2nd and 3rd Pictures) Tina Gonzalez Vega interprets as Victor talks about having to leave his family to renew his work visa, and then not being allowed to have his job back.
UFCW international representative Tina Gonzalez Vega served as an interpreter for Victor, who lost his job after being told in May of ’24 he had to travel back to Mexico to renew his work visa, but then came back to find his job had been terminated. Gonzoles Vega says Viscofan never intended to allow him to come back, and dismissed him because he brought up safety concerns.
AUDIO: What I found the most outrageous out of the entire situation is that the union received a termination list on June 12th of that year; terminating him the day that they sent him on that plane, and put him on that plane back to Mexico. So it was very disheartening for me to experience, first hand, a worker literally being human trafficked by a company.
UFCW Local 700 president Tracy Bartak says this fight can be won, but the entire community must get involved. And the first step is getting the union recognized once again at Viscofan.
AUDIO: And we’re involved in litigation to try to get them back to the table. But we all know how that can kind of drag out and take a long time.
State Rep Brandun Schweizer was there, and told CIMG he has already spoken with Viscofan, and hopes to speak with them again after taking in what he heard Tuesday night.
AUDIO: We’re trying to figure out what the next steps are. That’s why I came here, and then we’ll be talking with them as well.
A CIMG attempt to contact Viscofan was not successful.
