‘Can’t afford not to work.’ Tri-Cities food workers say union vote delay worsening COVID risks

Workers at Twin City Foods in Pasco continue to be put at risk of COVID-19 as the company fights efforts to unionize, employees say.

Twin City Foods is not offering additional sick leave or adequate safety protocols as coronavirus infections are increasing, according to a statement from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1439.

“Since the beginning of COVID, Twin City Foods has not taken matters seriously,” Alejandra Galleano, a general laborer at the plant, told the Tri-City Herald in Spanish, with a union official interpreting. “They do not think of us as the essential workers that we are.”

Workers say the company allows people to work even if they are sick or if they have been exposed and are waiting for test results, putting other workers at risk.

And they say the company has not done enough to protect them from the coronavirus, despite the death of two workers early in the pandemic, a community protest and a work stoppage.

The Benton Franklin Health District has confirmed that two workers at the plant died of complications of COVID-19. However, the company has said there is not information to link the infection of those employees to their work at the plant.

Ballots for a union election are set to be counted Friday, Dec. 18, after a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board agreed that a vote could be held.

However, Twin City Food has appealed the decision to the full National Labor Relations Board and ballots may be impounded rather than counted.

“We have appealed because the union wants to exclude over 70% of the employees who work for us at the Pasco plant,” Twin City Foods said in a response from Virgil Roehl, chief financial officer of the company. “We do not agree with this approach and want all our employees to have a say not just a select few.”

About 200 employees at the plant who work year round are eligible to vote on the union based on the initial ruling of the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.

In total about 600 people work at the plant, although many are seasonal, Twin City Foods said.

The company, based in Stanwood, Wash., has been processing frozen vegetables — including peas, corn, carrots and lima beans —since 1943. The Pasco plant is one of four in Washington state and Michigan.

The seasonal workers are not currently at the plant to the knowledge of union officials, with many of them coming to the United States from Mexico to work at the plant only during the harvest season.

COVID concerns

Laurel Fish, a union organizer, said there is overwhelming support among year-round workers to unionize.

They are particularly concerned about a lack of sick leave. They say workers get just six days of personal leave a year, which has to cover both illness and allow them to attend important events, such as a child’s graduation.

“I was exposed to COVID through a family member and I haven’t been feeling well these last couple days, but I can’t afford not to work,” said a machine operator at the plant in a statement provided by the union. “I already used the few sick days I had when I had to quarantine earlier this year.”

Maria Coria, a laborer at the plant, told the Tri-City Herald that she was diagnosed with COVID more than three weeks ago. She remains weak and tired and unable to return to work, she said in Spanish, with a union official interpreting.

The company has paid her the remaining 28 hours of paid time off she had for the year. She did not qualify for a state mandate that food processing workers receive paid leave because it expired in mid November just as she became ill and the company would not pay her voluntarily, according to Local 1439.

“I am behind on all my bills,” Coria said. “I’m behind on my rent and I am buying food on my credit cards.”

Galleano said the company does not quarantine people who are exposed and that physical distancing can be difficult in the plant, including when workers punch in to start their shift. The plant has not been shut down for a thorough cleaning and sanitization, she said.

Recently as many as 10 people have been off work at once, with union officials believing the majority are ill with COVID and others are quarantining.

“Every day the company delays the union vote is another day we go to work without protection,” Galleano said.

“We need the company just as much as they need us and we’re the ones trying to bring money home to our families and pay the bills,” Coria said.

COVID precautions taken

When the company finds out that employees have tested positive for COVID-19, they are not allowed to work during their quarantine period, according to the company statement.

Workers are screened each day, including having their temperatures taken as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, the company said.

It disinfects daily and has separated shifts by at least 30 minutes so that employees no longer interact during shift change.

Early in the pandemic Twin City Foods struggled to find and purchase personal protective equipment, as did many companies, it acknowledged.

Overall the ratio of those at the plant who have been diagnosed with COVID is at or below the same ratio for the general population, it said.

“We have a task force of all of our top executives and manager and discuss how we are doing in all of our plants regularly,” the company said.

“This team is to be commended for all the hard work they have done to protect our employees and without their efforts we would probably not have been able to balance the needs of keeping all of our employees as safe as possible while also being a critical infrastructure employer which produces healthy, safe, high quality vegetables to the world,” it said.