By Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register
AI-assisted summary
- A new national contract for JBS workers includes the first pension plan offered by a meatpacking employer since 1986.
- The contract covers 26,000 workers at 14 JBS facilities and increases wages to an average of $23-$24 per hour.
- Additional benefits include paid sick time, increased vacation and leave, and safety committees at each plant.
Workers at JBS meatpacking plants in Iowa will see the restoration of pensions for the first time in in almost 40 years under a just-approved United Food and Commercials Workers Union contract.
The first-ever national contract covers 26,000 JBS workers at 14 facilities, including pork processing plants in Marshalltown and Ottumwa.
In addition to creating a pension fund managed by the union and JBS — the first offered by a meatpacking employer since 1986 — the contract raises wages, including retroactive pay and a ratification bonus, bringing meatpacking workers’ average weighted wages to $23 to $24 an hour. It also provides paid sick time; increases paid vacation and leave; creates a policy for safety and ergonomic committees at each plant; and requires a designated walking steward on all shifts at each facility to enforce contract provisions, including safety measures such as line speed.
“After nearly 40 years, JBS workers will have a pension retirement plan, giving them a path to a secure financial future,” Mark Lauritsen, a UFCW International vice president, said in a statement. “Every employer in the meatpacking industry should follow JBS’s leadership and reintroduce pension plans for the hard-working men and women who keep America fed.”
Thelma Cruz, a union steward who’s worked for 10 years at the JBS plant in Marshalltown, said the increased pay and pension is welcome.
“Everything right now is very expensive, and it’s hard to save money for retirement, so this gives us security,” said Cruz in a statement. “With pensions, raises, bonuses, earned sick pay, and improvements to paid funeral leave, this contract won’t just help my husband and me, but also a lot of families.”
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