Employees stop working in dispute at Case Farms plant

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer
Staff Writer

More than 125 workers at a Morganton poultry plant abandoned their jobs Friday morning but refused to leave the factory in a dispute over a new policy and working conditions.

Employees at Case Farms, a chicken processing plant, refused to continue working after being told about a new policy that would charge workers a fee for using more than three pairs of rubber gloves on each shift, said Francisco Risso, director of the Western North Carolina Workers Center in Morganton.

The center helps low-income workers, mainly immigrants.

Workers said they were told they would be required to pay 75 cents for each set of gloves over the three-pair limit, Risso said.

"That was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back," he said.

Risso said workers have expressed long-standing concerns with wages, health conditions and safety at the factory.

Case Farms representatives did not return several calls.

The strike affected only one department at Case Farms, which employs more than 500 workers in Morganton.

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