The organizing drive took six to seven months, according to District Council 2 Secy. Fred Correll. Then negotiations with the employer took another 18 months, he reported.

Tomatek packages products including salsa, ketchup, and pizza sauce. Local 388M workers print the packaging in which the processed tomato products are packaged.

"We found that the food processing industry is a natural extension of the flexible packaging industry. As many flexible packaging plants closed down around our ears," Correll said, "we've found that many of those plants didn't go offshore – to China, Mexico, or other countries. That equipment was purchased by the food processing industry, and they commenced printing packaging on site. The work is still being done – just by lower-paid workers in a different industry."

Leaders in District Council 2 constantly look for plants to organize.

Regarding one of his locals organizing a plant that some local leaders may consider atypical, he said: "The tendency is for us to go up the coast in the more traditional plants. Down the coast, we're even in a nuclear valve plant and an abrasive wheel plant. We've always taken a very diversified view of who we represent. We've found that 'you don't have to pick cotton to represent cotton pickers,'" Correll said.