June, 2008

2008 Presidential Election

>This is Our Moment, Our Candidate

Jun 04, 2008

>Barack Obama officially became John McCain’s opponent in the 152-day dash to the White House Tuesday. Obama’s historic run for and winning of the Democratic nomination was marked around the world, but now it’s time to work.

Senator Obama’s candidacy reflects our nation’s progress, but more importantly it represents the promise of a better tomorrow. A tomorrow in which all workers have their rights protected and their hard work respected; a tomorrow that brings affordable health care, real retirement security, economic prosperity, national security and worker safety.

For the past five months, the UFCW has mobilized its 1.3 million members across the country to support Senator Obama’s candidacy, and his message of hope and change has struck a chord with UFCW members of all ages. The UFCW will continue to mobilize, organize and energize our members to support Senator Obama and fight to regain the rights and protections that America’s workers have lost under the Bush Administration.

Obama said Wednesday he spoke with New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and he is confident the party can be brought together. Many Clinton supporters are revisiting the “Dream Ticket” rumors from a few months ago, pushing for Obama to name Clinton as his running mate. Privately Clinton has said she’d be interested in the VP slot. There are many othere potential running mates listed here, let us know who you think would be the best veep.

Senator McCain welcomed the Illinios Senator to the race by criticizing Obama’s inexperience and attempting to woo Clinton supporters onto the straight-talk bandwagon.

The past seven years of the Bush Administration have been a hard road to travel for America’s workers as they struggle to cope with the high cost of housing, health care, food, fuel and education. The fragile state of the economy, coupled with a sense of national foreboding, has led many Americans to believe that they will never achieve the American Dream of owning a home, providing their families with health care coverage, or retiring comfortably.

“This is our moment,” Obama said Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

Can we capitalize on it? Yes We Can!

2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, Economic Justice, Elections, Health Care, Politics, Press Releases, UFCW Values

Change and Hope for America

Jun 04, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Last night’s victory by Senator Barack Obama was not only a magnificent moment for our nation, but an historic opportunity for working men and women to reclaim the American Dream.

Senator Obama’s campaign shows us the power that we have to change the direction of our country, and reminds us of our responsibility to reclaim our government on behalf of the hopes, dreams and aspirations of workers and their families across this great nation.

As he stands on the threshold of becoming the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, Senator Obama’s candidacy reflects our nation’s progress, but more importantly it represents the promise of a better tomorrow. A tomorrow in which all workers have their rights protected and their hard work respected.  A tomorrow that brings affordable health care, real retirement security, economic prosperity, national security and worker safety.

For the past five months, the UFCW has mobilized its 1.3 million members across the country to support Senator Obama’s candidacy, and his message of hope and change has struck a chord with UFCW members of all ages.  The UFCW will continue to mobilize, organize and energize our members to support Senator Obama and fight to regain the rights and protections that America’s workers have lost under the Bush Administration.

The past seven years of the Bush Administration have been a hard road to travel for America’s workers as they struggle to cope with the high cost of housing, health care, food, fuel and education.  The fragile state of the economy, coupled with a sense of national foreboding, has led many Americans to believe that they will never achieve the American Dream of owning a home, providing their families with health care coverage, or retiring comfortably.

While Senator John McCain now tries to distance himself from President Bush, his economic, health care and trade policies celebrate the Bush legacy of giving big tax breaks to corporations, increasing health care costs and reducing benefits, and supporting trade agreements that have devastated the economy and sent good, middle class jobs overseas.

America’s workers cannot afford another four years of a leader who values corporate interests over the well being of America’s workers and their families.  The UFCW will continue its fight to restore the American Dream by ensuring that Senator Obama becomes the next president of the United States.

 

Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Health Care, Press Releases, Retail Food, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

UFCW Launches Campaign in Britain Against

Jun 04, 2008

One of America’s biggest unions, the 1.3 million-strong United Food and Commercial Workers union, today launched a UK campaign to expose “The Two Faces of Tesco.”"

At a Westminster press launch chaired by Jon Cruddas MP, the union said that it is stepping up a campaign already begun in the United States to shame Tesco to talks on union recognition and employee pay and benefits.

The UFCW seeks to represent some of the lowest-paid and least secure retail workers in the USA, more than half of whom are women, and has been seeking talks with Tesco for two years since the world’s third-largest retailer announced its entry into the US grocery market. All attempts have so far fallen on deaf ears, and Tesco launched its chain of Fresh & Easy supermarkets in 2007 as non-union stores.

UFCW says that it is seeking the chance for dialogue, to build the same constructive partnership that Tesco enjoys in the UK with the shop workers’ union Usdaw, but Tesco refuses to meet.

So UFCW has brought the campaign to Britain. It believes that its new report – The Two Faces of Tesco – is a damning indictment of how Tesco operates different principles at home and abroad. The report also highlights what UFCW believes are stark contrasts between what Tesco says and what it does.

Speaking at the launch Jon Cruddas MP said:

“British companies which operate in the global marketplace should apply the highest standards in dealing with their workforce, both at home and abroad. What this dossier exposes about Tesco’s practices in the United States, in my view not only undermines Tesco’s reputation, but will also affect how people think about the fairness of British companies in general. I urge Tesco to put its stated principles and policies into practice and to start talking to these important stakeholders.”

The launch was also attended by UFCW member Jackie Gitmed, a cashier from a rival, unionised supermarket, and by UFCW’s campaigns director, Emily Stewart, who said:

“We were genuinely excited at the prospect of building a partnership with Tesco, so we are doubly appalled at the way it is behaving towards us and the many community groups which have tried and failed to meet with it.

“Tesco has a great reputation for employment rights and corporate responsibility in the UK, but this is a reputation which, in our view, is sullied by its behaviour in the USA.

“Our dossier exposes Tesco’s two faces, and we intend to campaign in Britain to show Tesco’s other face to British people, British investors and British politicians, in the hope that they will influence Tesco to stop and think again about how they conduct their business in America. We are asking for nothing more than Tesco already does here.”

Jackie Gitmed, a cashier from Ralphs Supermarket in Encino, California, with 32 years’ experience in unionised stores, added:

“We’re never going to be rich working for a grocery store, but we all deserve a shot at earning a living wage and health insurance we can afford, as well as the peace of mind to know that we won’t be let go at a moment’s notice.

“In my 32 years working with the protection of a union agreement,  I have enjoyed job security and union-negotiated healthcare and pensions benefits. Our colleagues at Tesco’s Fresh & Easy stores don’t have this. I have flown from LA to London because this campaign is important. I hope it will make Tesco pay attention, so that my fellow workers in Tesco’s US stores can enjoy the benefits and opportunities they deserve.”