2006

Immigration, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS SEEKS FEDERAL INJUNCTION TO END ATTACKS AGAINST WORKERS IN MEATPACKING PLANTS

Dec 12, 2006

Washington DC—The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is seeking an immediate injunction in federal court, today, on behalf of workers employed by Swift and Company packing operations in Texas, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

The workers were subjected to a wholesale round up, including detention, by Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

“Essentially, the agents stormed the plants, many of them in riot gear, in an effort designed to terrorize the workforce,” said Mark Lauritsen, director of the UFCW Food Processing, Packing and Manufacturing division.

The UFCW represents workers at the Swift and Company plants, as well as other major packers around the country.

“This kind of action is totally uncalled for,” said Lauritsen. “It’s designed to punish workers for working hard everyday, contributing to the success of their companies and communities. They are innocent victims in an immigration system that has been hijacked by corporations for the purpose of importing an exploitable workforce.”

For years, the UFCW has called for comprehensive immigration reform—reform that provides an orderly immigration process that protects worker rights, ensures good wages and benefits for all workers, and recognizes the contributions immigrants make to our society.

“We are advising all the detained workers to exercise their right to an attorney and remain silent until they confer with counsel. These actions today by ICE are an affront to decency.”

Giant, Press Releases, Retail Food, UFCW Industries

COAST-TO-COAST GROCERY WORKERS STICK TOGETHER FOR CAREER JOBS WITH HEALTH CARE

Nov 22, 2006

(Washington, DC)—Across the country, grocery workers want career jobs with affordable health care and are standing together to achieve their goal.  Supermarket workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) have launched a national store-to-store movement of workers supporting each other through in-store actions, a website and other support-building activities.

UFCW members at supermarkets across the country will wear stickers to work on November 21-26th, to demonstrate unity in showing their appreciation for the loyalty of the customers and communities that they serve.

The stickers are part of a larger, nationwide effort to bargain for better jobs for grocery workers. Nearly half a million UFCW grocery workers’ contracts are up for negotiation over the next 18 months, including 70,000 UFCW members in Southern California and in stores across the country and in Canada.  The website, www.groceryworkersunited.com offers workers and supporters downloads of store flyers, videos, photos and news from bargaining tables across the country.

Last month, grocery workers all along the West Coast wore stickers expressing their need for affordable, quality health care.  Now, in-store action is spreading across the entire nation as grocery workers wear this month’s sticker, which reads: “Serving Customers, Serving the Community.”

“The customers have been very supportive of the stickers,” adds UFCW Local 21 member and Safeway employee Vee Maksirisombat of Seattle, Washington. “It lets them know that we support our communities.”

“We’re all working for the same things: better benefits, better wages and job security.  If we all work together, with the support of the community, to fight for the things we need, we’ll be stronger when we bargain,” said Leroy Gardner, UFCW Local 400 member and an employee at Giant Foods in Bethesda, Maryland.

Economic Justice, Press Releases, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

PETITION DRIVE DEMANDS PROTECTIONS FOR BROOKS AND ECKERD DRUGSTORE CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES

Nov 15, 2006

An intensive one hundred city and town petition drive is launching today aimed at customers and workers affected by the proposed purchase of Brooks and Eckerd drugstores by Rite Aid.  The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and UNITE HERE are concerned that the purchase will result in store closings that could negatively impact people who rely on these drugstores for employment and for access to prescription medication.

Leafleting and petitioning activity will take place Wednesday, November 15, 2006 in front of Brooks and Eckerds drugstores located in your community.  Call media contacts for locations of activities.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that transactions like this have an immediate impact on people’s lives.  The goal of the petition is not to block or permit Rite Aid from buying other drugstores.  But the proposed transaction is likely to have an impact on customers, and that impact should be reviewed by state-based officials to make sure that retirees, the disabled, and other vulnerable drugstore customers and workers are not harmed by this transaction,” said Joe Hansen, UFCW International President.

“We believe Brooks and Eckerd’s customers and employees are concerned about their stores being bought.  This petition gives them an opportunity to voice that concern. They are constituencies that we hope the Attorneys General will take steps to protect from the potential impact of store closings or sales,” said Bruce Raynor, president of UNITE HERE.

The transaction is already being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission, the federal agency responsible for reviewing the antitrust impact of business combinations in the retail drugstore sector.  The petition [attached] calls on the state Attorneys General to open their own investigations to add a more local level of review to the Rite Aid transaction.

State Attorney Generals’ offices often conduct parallel antitrust investigations to their federal counterparts.  In 1996, four states announced their opposition to a larger transaction that Rite Aid had proposed on antitrust grounds, effectively blocking the purchase.

Rite Aid announced on August 24, 2006 its intention to purchase over 1,800 Eckerd and Brooks drugstores for $3.4 billion from the Jean Coutu Group, Inc., a Canadian corporation.  The transaction as proposed would make Rite Aid the dominant drugstore chain in many markets throughout the eastern United States.