NEW: Teamsters Organize Workers at Daniele Foods in RI

The Teamsters Local 251 have announced that they have organized the shipping and receiving departments, as well as drivers, at Daniel Foods in Pascoag, RI.

"There's 23 people," said Teamsters Local 251 organizer Mike Simone. "The vote took place today, fifteen to seven. The next step is that the election has to be certified by the National Labor Relations Board, at the regional office in Boston. We expect that to happen in the next four to five days."

Simone noted that the organizing process had been in the works for several weeks.

"It started It was started by one of our members who delivers propane there. They knew he was a member of our organization, and he put us in touch with one of their employees," said Simone. "Danielle is huge -- they just put on a $61 million addition. Their revenue is $135 million a year. These employees average $12 an hour, no retirement, no paid sick or personal time, and that's the reason they came to our local."

Daniele issued the following statement on Tuesday.

"Daniele has been a Rhode Island employer since 1976. We value and respect all of our staff. We look forward to negotiating in good faith to reach an agreement with the employees in our shipping and receiving department," said Daniele spokesperson Dyana Koelsch.

Labor Practices Alleged

Simone noted that in the course of the past several weeks, the Teamsters have filed a number of unfair labor violation practices filed against Daniel.

"They date back 3 weeks, and there are more to be filed," said Simone. "[Workers] were told they couldn't wear union pins because they work with food -- which isn't true, these employees work with the packaged product. They wear necklaces and other jewelry, so we filed the unfair labor practice probably about a month ago now. Statements have been given, it's still being investigated."

"If there was a policy that they had uniforms, and couldn't wear jewelry, then I could see the company had a right.. They wear sweatshirts and boots," said Simone. "As far as I'm aware, there's never been policy where they couldn't pin anything to their clothing."

"This is the first crack at it," said Simone of the unionized workers, pending approval, at Daniel. "There's a possibility of 230 [more] employees in production."



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