Workers, Backers Protest Plastic Plant’s Union Snub
More than 40 workers and supporters demonstrated Tuesday outside of Serrot Corp.’s headquarters to protest what they said is the plastics company’s refusal to recognize a union representing 90% of its employees.
The protest is part of a larger effort by the Union of Electrical Workers to organize plastics workers in Southern California, which has the nation’s largest concentration of such workers, said David Johnson, an organizer from the union’s office in Los Angeles.
“Plastics is fast-growing, high-profit, low-paid and 99% immigrant labor,” Johnson said as he stood outside Serrot’s offices.
Serrot, with annual sales of more than $23 million, manufactureres, installs and repairs plastic linings in toxic waste dumps and open-pit mines. Johnson said the company’s 250 workers are mostly Latino immigrants who are generally paid minimum wage. The work frequently exposes them to toxic chemicals, he said.
In April, Serrot employees voted to unionize and formed three bargaining units: for warehouse workers, truck drivers and plastics workers. Serrot refused to recognize the plastics workers’ group, which makes up 90% of the company’s work force. The plastics workers are in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The company has challenged the validity of the plastics workers’ election to the federal National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles. A decision is due within days.
Part of Serrot’s response to its workers was to hire Armando Estrada, the company’s first personnel director, two weeks ago.
“We have due process, that’s all, there’s nothing we are doing that’s underhanded,” Estrada said. “Whatever the (NLRB) ruling, we will abide by it in good faith.”
Serrot was founded in 1978 by Guillermo Torres, a native of Cuba. In 1986 and 1987, the company was listed in Inc. magazine’s annual ranking of the 500 fastest-growing privately held companies in America. The company’s sales grew from $9.3 million in 1986 to $23.1 million in 1988. Sales figures for 1989 were not available from the company.
Last year, the UEW launched an effort to organize plastics workers. Employees from dozens of companies from around the Southland responded by lending their support, Johnson said.
In April, Serrot workers formed an organizing committee and elected officers. When the company refused to negotiate, workers staged a two-day work stoppage in May. In July, workers voted to join the UEW.
Johnson said plastics workers especially must have a say in working conditions. They have reported back injuries, falls and work boots that are worn through.
Estrada declined to respond to specific allegations made by the union.
Tuesday’s protest involved most of the 15 Serrot workers who are at the Huntington Beach headquarters, Johnson said, and supporters from the janitors and hotel and restaurant workers unions. He estimated that 75 people joined the protest; Estrada put the number at about 40.
