CROMWELL, CT – Striking workers were joined by union and political leaders outside of iHealth’s corporate headquarters on Monday to demand that the company rehire union members who were terminated during the strike, and improve working conditions for all warehouse employees around the state.
According to Ruby Clarke, organizer for Teamsters Local 671, warehouse processors and quality assurance technicians at DSM Firmenich, the parent company of iHealth in Enfield, voted to join the Teamsters union nine months ago. Clarke said that following the vote, DSM began to force substantially longer days, substantially longer work weeks, including mandatory work on holidays.
She said work days were increased from eight to 12 hours, work weeks were extended from five to six days, and workers were required to work on Memorial Day.
Workers went on strike a week ago to protest the changes as unfair labor practices, alleging that their employer forced a unilateral change in working conditions in retaliation for their workers voting to unionize. Eleven workers were fired last Tuesday in a text message, which stated that they were being terminated for failing to show up to work for two consecutive days. The union contends that firing the employees is illegal.
Efforts to reach iHealth officials for comment Monday were unsuccessful.
Cromwell Mayor James Demetriades, who is also a labor and employment attorney representing unions across the country, said that the union employees and their supporters were rallying to stand together and fight back against mistreatment by corporations.
“We’re here today with our brothers and sisters from the Teamsters union to speak out about an injustice,” Demetriades said. “Workers deserve two fundamental things, dignity and respect, and our brothers and sisters at the Teamsters have been denied those two rights. They have been terminated prior to the holidays for exercising a concerted activity, their right to negotiate a free contract that respects them and their families, their time, their efforts and their dignity, and we cannot stand for that.”
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, called the striking workers heroes who are standing up for working people across the country by exercising their right to strike and facing unfair consequences.
“They’ve been fired for standing up for their rights, for striking,” Blumenthal said. “There’s a lot of potential illegal practices here, but what’s most important is the cause of standing up for decent working conditions, safe and secure workspaces, and fair pay and compensation. You’re talking about what every American expects, every American is due, which is basic safety and humane working conditions on the job. iHealth is denying safe working conditions to these men and women, and they are standing up for their rights, not only for themselves, but for workers across the nation.”
Blumenthal said he was co-sponsoring the Warehouse Workers Protection Act to demand fair, safe working conditions and pay. He also announced that US Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, had offered his support to the bill, which Blumenthal hopes will help get the bill through the Republican controlled Senate in the future.
“Josh Hawley is a pretty reliable Republican,” he said. “He’s close to the administration. I’m hoping that gives us momentum because, you know, this new administration, the president-elect, has talked a lot about helping and protecting working people. And we’re going to support working people.”
Lawrence Sanchez, a senior quality technician working at the iHealth warehouse, said that management at DSM Firmenich initially said that they supported the worker’s efforts to unionize in accordance with their own handbook, but that their behavior never matched their words
“During the second day of our strike, they decided to illegally fire everyone, three weeks before Christmas,” he said. “So how can they say they respect our rights now when they have done that, clearly not following their guidelines of what they’ve been stated? During the union campaign at DSM, they have repeatedly discouraged, coerced, and frightened workers in a concerted effort to bust the union. Instead of engaging in good faith bargaining, the company chooses to break the law and do anything it takes to break the will of the workers, but we will not break.”
Justin Donahue, a processor at the same factory, described how the increased hours and lack of time off led to an injury.
“During the mandatory overtime, we were forced to perform work we don’t typically do for much longer than we typically do it,” Donahue said. “A couple months ago, from excessive mandatory overtime, I strained my shoulder from doing the same repetitive action over and over again. To this day, I can still feel it flare up and now the company is trying to claim that it wasn’t work-related. The unrealistic production standards at iHealth, coupled with intense pressure from the company on a daily basis, leads to workplace injury.”
Rocco Calo, the secretary-treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local Union 1150 in Stratford, was at the rally to show support and offer a realistic yet hopeful message for the striking workers.
“You’re out here trying to make your lives, your family’s lives, the lives of the folks in the community a little bit better. There’s nothing more honorable than that,” he said. “During the course of a strike, you’re going to have ups and downs. More downs than ups. But you’ve got to pick each other up. You’ve got to stay united. And I want you to know that the Connecticut Teamsters, the Teamsters of this great council that encompasses all of New England, and the 1.3 million members that we have across this country, we’ve got your back.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ruby Clarke’s first name was listed incorrectly in the original version of this story.