Union Members in Nebraska and Across the Country Earn Significantly More Than Non-Union Workers. Over the four-year period between 2004 and 2007, unionized workers' wages in Nebraska were on average 13.7 percent higher than non-union workers with similar characteristics. That means that, all else being the same, Nebraska workers that join a union will earn 13.7 percent more--or $2.40 more per hour in 2008 dollars--than their otherwise identical non-union counterparts. [Unions are Good for Nebraska's Economy, 2/18/09]

• Higher Wages & Benefits Help U.S. Economy by Giving Workers the Ability to Purchase More Goods & Services: According to the Center for American Progress Action Fund report, unionization is good for the economy overall and "putting more money in workers' pockets would provide a needed boost for the U.S. economy." Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich stated that higher wages and higher benefits would give workers the purchasing power they need to buy more of the goods and services that this economy produces. [Center for American Progress Action Fund, "Unions Are Good for Workers and the Economy," 2/18/09]

First Contract Negotiations At Millard Processing Services Didn't Even Start Until Nearly Three Years After Workers Joined a Union. In 1995, the Omaha World-Herald reported, "The NLRB has alleged that Millard Processing Services Inc., 13076 Renfro Circle, has refused to bargain with Local 271 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Workers at Millard Processing voted in August 1991 to be represented by the union, and the first contract talks started March 23, 1994. The local said it represents about 500 workers, most of whom are Hispanic." [Omaha World-Herald, 10/16/95]

• Management Agreed to Pay Back Wages Rather Than Face NLRB Hearing on Unfair Labor Practices. In October 1995, Millard Processing Services and the United Food and Commercial Workers union reached a settlement, leading to the cancellation of a planned NLRB hearing on union charges of unfair labor practices. "Among other things, the settlement calls for the company to pay thousands of dollars in back pay to at least 91 workers, with back pay to an additional 24 workers hinging on the outcome of an NLRB review... An administrative law judge was to have heard the complaints Monday, but the hearing was called off when MPS, without admitting it violated the law, agreed to: Restore an annual 30-cent-per-hour wage increase to at least 91 workers and give them back pay dating from July 18, 1994." [Omaha World-Herald, 10/21/95]


• Millard Processing Paid More Than $34,000 in Back Pay. In March 1996, the Omaha World-Herald reported, "Millard Processing Services Inc. is scheduled to pay $ 34,322 in back pay to 112 employees involved in a labor dispute, the National Labor Relations Board said Thursday. Leonard Bernstein, regional attorney at the board's office in Kansas City, Mo., said the amount is subject to some final adjustments or claims but otherwise would be carried out under an earlier board order. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 271 had sought the wages, alleging that the company halted normal pay increases in retaliation for workers supporting the union." [Omaha World-Herald, 3/14/96]

Union Officials Alleged 32 Labor Violations During Campaign at Nebraska Beef. In the summer of 2001, Nebraska Beef workers rejected union representation by a vote of 452 to 345, but an NLRB officer recommended that the full board order a new election. "The hearing officer, Francis A. Molenda of Tulsa, Okla., recommended that the full board void the Aug. 16 election, which was won by the company... In September, the union asked the labor relations board to order another election, saying that Nebraska Beef officials committed 41 violations of federal labor law. The number of objections, later reduced to 32, became the basis of six days of hearings by Molenda in October." [Omaha World-Herald, 1/3/02]

• Workers at Nebraska Beef Said They Were Afraid of Losing Their Jobs If They Supported a Union.During the course of the unionization drive at Nebraska Beef, the NLRB "issued a complaint against the company for allegedly firing seven workers" because they led a protest complaining of unsafe conditions. Worker Jose Juan Robles "said workers are 'yelled at and reminded that they are dispensable.' Many Nebraska Beef workers are 'kept from the restroom,' he said through an interpreter. 'And many times we are not sure if we are paid for the entire time we put in because we have no time clock, and we are at the mercy of what supervisors decide.'" [Lincoln Journal Star, 8/12/01]


• Union Officials Said Nebraska Beef Workers Earned Up to a Dollar Below the Prevailing Wage at Other Plants. In August 2001, the Lincoln Star Journal reported, "Union officials say the Nebraska Beef plant in a red and white industrial structure north of Omaha's L Street arterial between 35th and 36th streets operates below the norm in terms of wages and working conditions. They estimate the average production line and kill floor wage at $8.50 an hour, as much as a dollar below the prevailing wage at competing plants." [Lincoln Journal Star, 8/12/01]


• Alleged Worker Intimidation by Nebraska Beef Included Added Security By the Company and Increasing the Size of the Bargaining Unit To Lessen the Union's Chance of Success. Testifying in front of the NLRB judge, "Anselm McCrimon, a Nebraska Beef employee and union supporter, said the company parked four semitrailer trucks near the plant entrance. That action, the union said, restricted access to the plant and intimidated workers... The trucks had never been parked that way before, McCrimon said, and were removed two or three days after the election. Newly hired security guards also showed up on election day, McCrimon said, with one driving a car with flashing lights in the area. The union also contends that Nebraska Beef hired people before the election solely to increase the size of the bargaining unit to lessen the union's chances of success." [Omaha World Herald, 10/12/01]


• Four Years After the Contested Election, the NLRB Ruled In Favor of Workers and Ordered a New Election Held at Nebraska Beef. "On April 6, 2005, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered a new election at Nebraska Beef after citing the company for violating workers' rights in an August 2001 election, after UFCW had filed charges on behalf of the workers. The NLRB upheld a hearing officer's findings that the company used a broad range of intimidation tactics to deny workers a voice on the job in the 2001 election." The second vote never occurred. [UFCW Press Release, 5/18/05; Lincoln Journal Star, 12/29/08]