A Minnesota labor victory

From Paul Demko's Live Nude Weblog:

Workers at the Minnesota Beef Industries plant in Buffalo Lake voted to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 today. The margin was 53-46 in favor of unionizing.

It was the second time in recent months that the roughly 125 slaughterhouse employees, the vast majority of whom are Hispanic, have voted on the issue. In May, the workers rejected unionization by a margin of 67-32. But the plant was orderd by the National Labor Relations Board to hold a new election after it was determined that the company violated labor laws by threatening to fire or deport union supporters.

To me, the initial failure at organizing is a classic example of why card check organizing should be the workplace standard. The Employee Free Choice Act, which would formalize card-check as national law, is still (as far as I can determine) languishing in committee. As Luke pointed out to me, John Kerry's support for this legislation is a firm pro-worker plank in his campaign, and really it looks like this election will decide whether EFCA lives or dies. You know what to do.