The 160,000 SAG-AFTRA striking members are already causing waves in the entertainment industry, with major productions shutting down since the very first day of the strike. What does this strike have to do with the meat and poultry industry (MPI), you might ask? Well, let me answer that after first providing some industry statistics.

In 1983, 20.1% of the US work force was unionized, but by 2022 that had shrunk to 10.1%, according to the Department of Labor's (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to Forbes, meat packing unionization rates have shrunk from 90% in the 1950’s to 18% in 2020. Interestingly, the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) claims that 60% of the meat packing and processing industry, exclusive of poultry employees, is estimated to be represented by the union. (Source: AMI Fact Sheet, 2012)

With nearly 500,000 employees, our MPI has always been a majority immigrant and minority work force, as exemplified by these recent statistics. The overall US hourly work force is 63% white compared to 34.5 in the MPI. Within the last few years, US Latinx employees have risen to 16.8% and 34.9% in total and in the MPI, respectively. Additionally, Mexico is the country of origin for 27.6% compared to 46.9% in total US and MPI workers, respectively, as reported by the Economic Policy Institute.

Are you starting to see how statistics for unionized and nonunionized employees skew in industries across America and in the MPI specifically? Believe me, unions see this and will stalk those industries where they think they can find willing and ready employee candidates for organization attempts. And the MPI seems to stand out as a prime target.

MPI scrutiny reveals that the average annual medium level executive compensation is $258,837 or $124/hour. This compares to $33,580 annually or $16.79/hour for the average M&PI plant employee, according to DOL. The average executive is making 7.7 times more than the average plant employee. Such a disparity may become future fodder for unions attempting to organize MPI workers.

Are the SAG-AFTRA, WGA strike and the impending threatened 340,000 UPS worker walkout precursors to an inflection point in US worker unionization? Will we see more organizational attempts in general across the US and a resurgence of MPI organizational efforts? The statistics presented above would say yes.

With the predominance of immigrant labor in MPI plants, a low current union representation and a history of unions infiltrating under-represented industries like MPI, there is probably a pent-up demand for some sort of compensation leveling in our MPI.

What can or should we do about it, if anything?

Very briefly, I can tell you what I did when the National Labor Relations Board presented a petition to me on my very first day as a new meat processing plant manager, informing me that 25% of the plant’s employees had signed cards wanting to be represented by a union, in this case the UFCW, forcing a vote of all plant employees. We had six weeks to convince the employees to reject that union by winning the vote. I immediately gathered all the first line supervisors and told them that, as of that day, we were changing how we managed that plant. We would begin immediately by treating all employees as we ourselves would want to be treated, altering a “my way or the highway” management/employee attitude imbalance. Six weeks later, we won the vote and defeated the union’s organizational attempt.

Some eight months later, I got wind of another organizational attempt, this time by the Teamsters. Again, I called in all plant first line supervisors asking them what had gone wrong and instructing them to meet that day among themselves to figure out what we weren’t doing and what had to change. They came back to me a few hours later that night with a plan similar to our first one, with a promise to never let the old “we” versus “them” mentality surface in the future. And, fortunately, it didn’t, and we defeated that union, too.

What advice do I have for you to get ready for any impending union organizational attempts at your MPI company? Simple: Treat all employees like you want to be treated.

Get ready, meat and poultry industry: The unions are coming!

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