Labor Update: Iowa Families Picket Roquette Company In Sub-Freezing Weather

AFL-CIO Joins Global Unions in Call for UN Global Compact to Hold Roquette Company Accountable for Treatment of Workers in Iowa

In Keokuk, Iowa, a French-based corn milling plant has locked out 240 workers, members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers BCTGM/Local48G, from their jobs for over two months in an effort to force them to accept company proposals that would cut wages, eliminate or reduce key benefits and undermine employee rights to bargain over other important terms and conditions of employment.  The AFL-CIO has joined the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers'Unions (ICEM) in a global call to action urging United Nations Global Compact to hold Roquette accountable for failure to comply with fundamental principles of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.

In September 2009, the CEO of the Roquette Company, Guy Talbordet, signed the UN Global Compact and committed to support the principles of the Global Compact which apply to respecting human and labor rights, the environment, and fighting corruption. According to Iowa union members, their actions directly violate that compact.

The company’s “last best and final” contract proposal included: the right to hire temporary workers at less than half the wages of the permanent workforce with no benefits; a two-tiered wage system that threatened senior employees; a gutting of the seniority provisions of the contract; the elimination of sick, personal and maternity leave; the end of the company pension scheme, forcing employees into a 401k; and a 4-year wage freeze.

In a letter to George Kell, Executive Head of UN Global Impact, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said,“We believe that Roquette Frères' actions undermine the legitimacy of the Global Compact:  a company should not be able to claim in international fora that it supports the Global Compact while in reality it is systematically violating fundamental human rights.”

In response to the Roquette’s lockout, working families in Keokuk, Iowa are maintaining an informational picket 24 hours a day in sub-freezing weather.  

~Tracy Kurowski has been active in
the labor movement for ten years, first as a member of AFSCME 3506, when
she taught adult education classes at the City Colleges of Chicago. She
moved to the Quad Cities in 2007 where she worked as political
coordinator with the Quad City Federation of Labor, and as a caseworker
for Congressman Bruce Braley from 2007 – 2009.