After the decertification of the United Food Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, another union at the Mountaire Farms Inc. Selbyville, Delaware plant will be up for a certification vote this year.
In a statement from Mountaire Farms on March 4, “the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that employees at the Mountaire Farms processing plant in Selbyville who are members of the Teamsters Local 355 will get the chance to vote to decertify the union on March 17, 2022.”
The Teamsters Local 355 union has 230 employees and is the only union at the Selbyville plant. It is also the only Mountaire Farms plant that has a union.
The UFCW union was decertified in December after members filed against the union for charging members to new hires with a 30-day grace period. The campaign against the union was backed by the National Right to Work Foundation (NRFW) which is a legal aid nonprofit that works to weaken and eliminate unions.
There is no information currently on a specific reason that members filed for a decertification vote. But their letter to Mountaire Farms management stated, “we are writing to express our interest in no longer being represented by Teamsters Local 355. We are tired and simply want them out of our lives since they serve no purpose. We trust that our company will do the right thing.”
“These employees have been patiently waiting for this opportunity to remove the union, and we’re happy they finally are getting that chance to have their voices heard,” said Phillip Plylar, President of Mountaire Farms.
The vote will be overseen by the NLRB and will be held in person.
Mountaire Farms, according to the WATTPoultry.com Top Companies Database, is the sixth largest broiler company in the United States, having processed 57.39 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2019. The privately owned company employs nearly 10,000 people at facilities in Arkansas, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina.
