{"id":2888,"date":"2024-02-14T14:54:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T20:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2025-02-24T17:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T23:00:10","slug":"meatpacking-child-well-being-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota&#8217;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>February 14, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Madelia, MN<\/strong>\u2013United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, who represents 5,000 essential meatpacking workers across Minnesota, held a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XVLDBN3Yzi8\">Zoom press conference<\/a> with Unidos MN to call on meatpacking employers to establish a child well-being fund. Union members of UFCW Local 663 are currently in negotiations with Tony Downs Foods in Madelia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Marbel Bruno<\/strong> has worked at Tony Downs Foods Madelia for 16 years. When he learned that children were working at the plant, he remarked, \u201cThese children should not be working, they should be going to school. It\u2019s sad that parents bring their children to the U.S. and then I see the children working here. These kids should be studying because I wouldn\u2019t want my children at that age working. They overcame so many fears to come here and become something. Studying is what is going to give them a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fund establishes up to $50,000 per year to help kids in the community. UFCW will work with community partners to determine what would be appropriate to build in their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Edgar<\/strong>, a leader with Unidos MN, addressed the dangers of working in meatpacking. He previously worked at HyLife in Windom, which closed down last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI worked for a pork processing company called Hy Life where I hurt myself not once but several times, my last injury was in my back, limiting my ability to carry out all types of activities from sitting, to the simple fact of being able to walk without pain, which means I can&#8217;t even carry my kids again without it causing pain in my back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meat processing plants are not safe places for our children and adolescents, not only because of the risks that this entails, but also because it interrupts healthy physical, psychological development and health in general, our children must be studying and preparing to continue building and generating better opportunities not only for them, but also for the community and the well-being of all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BACKGROUND:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch Press Event on YouTube here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XVLDBN3Yzi8\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XVLDBN3Yzi8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UFCW Local 663 members at Tony Downs Foods in Madelia have been working without a union contract since October 2023. UFCW has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against Tony Downs Foods for violating workers\u2019 rights such as surveillance, interrogation, interrogating employees about their immigration status in response to employees participation in protected concerted activity, bad faith bargaining, and unilateral changes to working conditions. The current offer by the company includes $1.65 total over a proposed four year contract. UFCW hopes to come to a tentative agreement through good faith bargaining soon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>UFCW Local 663 represents more than 17,000 hard-working retail, meat packing and processing, food preparation and manufacturing, healthcare, and other workers in Minnesota and Iowa. We strive to improve the lives of our members and of all working families by fighting for economic, political, and social justice in our workplaces and communities. UFCW Local 663 is part of the 1.3 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 14, 2024 Madelia, MN\u2013United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, who represents 5,000 essential meatpacking workers across Minnesota, held a Zoom press conference with Unidos MN to call on meatpacking employers to establish a child well-being fund. Union members of UFCW Local 663 are currently in negotiations with Tony Downs &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Minnesota&#8217;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[298,15],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Minnesota&#039;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund - UFCW 663<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minnesota&#039;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund - UFCW 663\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 14, 2024 Madelia, MN\u2013United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, who represents 5,000 essential meatpacking workers across Minnesota, held a Zoom press conference with Unidos MN to call on meatpacking employers to establish a child well-being fund. Union members of UFCW Local 663 are currently in negotiations with Tony Downs &hellip; Continue reading Minnesota&#8217;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UFCW 663\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-14T20:54:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-24T23:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/UFCW663_logo_sizedforblog.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"UFCW Local 663\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"UFCW Local 663\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/\",\"name\":\"Minnesota's Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund - UFCW 663\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-14T20:54:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-24T23:00:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b7ca0eecf8ad3f8d807f7b61ec5b46\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Minnesota&#8217;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"UFCW 663\",\"description\":\"A Voice For Working America\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b7ca0eecf8ad3f8d807f7b61ec5b46\",\"name\":\"UFCW Local 663\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c04f16fc232710db4ef4933308588a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c04f16fc232710db4ef4933308588a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"UFCW Local 663\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/author\/local653\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Minnesota's Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund - UFCW 663","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Minnesota's Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund - UFCW 663","og_description":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 14, 2024 Madelia, MN\u2013United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, who represents 5,000 essential meatpacking workers across Minnesota, held a Zoom press conference with Unidos MN to call on meatpacking employers to establish a child well-being fund. Union members of UFCW Local 663 are currently in negotiations with Tony Downs &hellip; Continue reading Minnesota&#8217;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/","og_site_name":"UFCW 663","article_published_time":"2024-02-14T20:54:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-24T23:00:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":270,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/UFCW663_logo_sizedforblog.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"UFCW Local 663","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"UFCW Local 663","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/","name":"Minnesota's Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund - UFCW 663","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-14T20:54:53+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-24T23:00:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b7ca0eecf8ad3f8d807f7b61ec5b46"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/14\/meatpacking-child-well-being-fund\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Minnesota&#8217;s Essential Meatpacking Union Calls On Employers To Establish Child Well-Being Fund"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/","name":"UFCW 663","description":"A Voice For Working America","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b7ca0eecf8ad3f8d807f7b61ec5b46","name":"UFCW Local 663","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c04f16fc232710db4ef4933308588a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3c04f16fc232710db4ef4933308588a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"UFCW Local 663"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.ufcw663.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/author\/local653\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2891,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions\/2891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufcw663.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}