Workers at a Pasco, Washington, potato-processing plant rejected a decertification effort in March. In April they ratified a new three-year contract.
The effort to remove Teamsters Local 839 from the Lamb Weston plant failed 142-330, with 70% voting to stay union.
“Our contract’s been there for 50 years, so for someone to come and try to take it out — it wasn’t that easy,” Local 839 Business Agent Yanet Rodriguez told the Labor Press.
One of the world’s largest producers and processors of frozen french fries, Lamb-Weston had $6.5 billion in revenue last year. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
The decertification petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in January, after workers rejected a proposed contract.
“Then management got involved,” Rodriguez said. “Once they heard the de-cert was happening, they brought corporate, they brought union-busters — they were full force at work to try to get the union out.”
Rodriguez said misinformation circulated, with some workers believing the decertification petition was about rejecting the 12-hour shifts or replacing their union stewards.
The union took the same contract proposal to members for a second vote a week after it was first rejected, but the outcome was the same.
The new contract raises wages 4% — to between $18.48 and $24.53 per hour, retroactive to July 2024. It also replaces workers’ 8-hour shifts with 12-hour shifts. Workers will get overtime pay for the last two hours of each 12-hour shift.
In a statement provided to the Labor Press, Lamb Weston said the Pasco decertification vote failed, but workers at other Lamb Weston facilities have decertified unions in the past.
Rodriguez said Lamb Weston refused to meaningfully bargain while the decertification petition was pending.
Once it was clear a majority of workers wanted to stick with Local 839, substantive bargaining resumed. In the additional bargaining, the company added a ratification bonus of at least $750 for each of the roughly 600 workers and put an end date of 2030 on a scheduling system that allows the most senior workers in each bid job to avoid weekend work, while other employees have to rotate weekend shifts.
Rodriguez said workers were unhappy about their shift going from 8 to 12 hours, but the union told them it was unavoidable. Workers approved the new contract 177-42, or 80%, on April 22. It runs through July 9, 2027.
AND THAT’S NOT ALL…
A class action lawsuit alleges that Lamb Weston failed to provide rest periods and meal breaks from January 2022 to January 2025. As reported by the Tri-City Herald, the suit is for nearly $5.7 million in lost wages, an equal amount in damages, plus nearly $3 million in attorney fees.
