Your Foster Farms Bargaining Committee, made up of rank-n-file members just like you, had 10 bargaining session with the Company in 2024, and we met on these dates with the Company in 2025: 1/14/25, 1/15/25, 1/28/25, 1/29/25, 2/25/25, 2/26/25 and 2/27/25 to discuss the workplace issues and benefits that matter to you most. Some of the items being covered in our bargaining discussions with the Company range from your health & safety, wages & benefits, to how you are treated on the job by management.
After several months of bargaining with the Company, slight progress has been made on a handful of issues, but we are still lacking in progress on most of the bargaining items that are critical to you and your family such as wages; benefits; safety; treatment by supervisors; changing of policies such as attendance, resulting in some of our members being terminated that are still out of work today; among others.
Additionally, your Local Union Bargaining Committee’s position is that the Company failed to implement your 2023 contract wage increases that were agreed to in the previous contract. The Local has filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge challenging the Company on the missing wage increases, that were withheld from you and your coworkers, and that issue is being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, along with other ULP’s filed by the Local against the Company. We know how important wages increases are to you, and your family, and we share your frustration with not receiving the wage money the Company promised, as part of the last contract you ratified. As you can imagine, since the Company failed to provide promised increases for the previous contract in 2023, that makes our wage discussions more difficult in our current bargaining for a new contract, since it must include what is owed from the previous contract, in addition to new wage increase money for a new contract.
You have earned and deserved a strong contract that rewards your hard work and lifts you up, and, simply put, we are not there yet. While your bargaining team has future bargaining dates with the Company set, with not enough progress being made at the bargaining table we believe it’s necessary to hold a membership meeting with all Foster Farms Union members to call for a ULP strike vote authorizing the bargaining committee with the authority to call a ULP strike, in the event future bargaining discussions and progress at the bargaining table breaks down. We know how much each of you cares about your coworkers and your ability to support your family, and we take your concerns seriously and acknowledge that things at Foster Farms Farmerville need to change. We are not calling for a ULP strike, at this time, but only authorization for the bargaining committee.
Your bargaining team, made up of workers just like you, is fighting hard for you and your coworkers and needs your support. We urge you and your coworkers to attend the membership meeting on the March 12 at 6pm at the Willie Davis Jr. Rec. Center, 116 Cox Ferry Road, Farmerville, LA 71241, and make your voices heard, and authorize your bargaining committee with the ability to call a ULP strike, if necessary.
Working together, we can and will make Foster Farms in Farmerville a better place to work.
In Solidarity,
Your Foster Farms Bargaining Committee & Local Union President Brandon Hopkins.
To view the Foster Farms Meeting Notice, click the link below and be sure to attend and vote and make your voice heard.
To get to know your bargaining committee better, please click the link below.
