On Wednesday, October 30, UE Local 115 member Licinia Ochoa, who was terminated last summer in retaliation for her leadership in the union, returned to work at the Refresco bottling plant at her same machine, seniority, and pay. The local had circulated a bilingual petition demanding her reinstatement which was signed by hundreds of people, including both workers in the shop and supporters from the community and around the country.

Ochoa has worked at Refresco for over 25 years and was one of the key leaders of Refresco workers’ multi-year struggle [1] to organize with UE and win a first union contract, which they ratified in June of 2023.

The company had been using internal immigration audits to intimidate their mostly immigrant workers. Last spring, the local negotiated an agreement with the company [2] requiring advance notice to the union prior to implementing the audit. However, the company had refused to sign it, and were not following the agreement to place affected workers on unpaid leave instead of firing them, or giving workers the proper notification of an audit. Ochoa was fired after the company “lost” her immigration paperwork.

Due to Local 115’s organizing, the company agreed to reinstate Ochoa and another worker who was fired for having an expired work authorization. The company also finally signed the agreement it negotiated with the union last spring. The local protected almost all of the original language in the agreement and won an extra 20 months of protections for employees with immigration document discrepancies.