Shaquana Battle and George Miles both work for Martin’s Food Markets, which, along with Giant Food, Peapod, and Stop & Shop, is owned by the Dutch company Royal Ahold NV. The two Martin’s employees arrived in Amsterdam to attend the multi-national grocery retailer’s annual shareholders’ meeting, where along with other labor activists, they had the chance to confront Ahold’s CEO Dick Boer and the members of the Supervisory Board. The workers seized this unique opportunity to address the shareholders in attendance. Their message? That Ahold, as a multi-billion dollar company and 8th largest food retailer in the U.S, must end its double standard policy and afford all its employees the same rights, no matter where they work. While two out of three Ahold workers in the U.S. enjoy the benefits and protection of a union contract with the UFCW, the company denies the same right to Shaquana and her coworkers at Martin’s/Giant Carlisle.

Unfortunately, Shaquana and George’s words were met with “denial and evasion” from the corporate owners, according to an In These Times article. Shaquana, who has worked at Martin’s for five years now, noted that Mr. Boer replied to her statement very indirectly. She also was met with a similar response last year, when she attended the 2012 shareholders’ meeting. She has not however, let this discourage her: “they know we are here, and that we are not going away till we get a union,” she said of the Board of Directors.

Shaquana’s determination to protect workers’ rights is what makes her a great leader in the push of her coworkers to organize at Martin’s, and, partnering with the UFCW, she has helped to push back against Ahold’s aggressive anti-union initiatives.

As Ahold continues to grow, it has expanded further into the U.S and Europe. However, instead of continuing to foster a mutually beneficial relationship with workers like it does at its largely unionized Netherlands grocery chain, Albert Heijn, or at its unionized stores in the U.S., the company is investing in non-union stores, at the expense of its employees. The effect of the non-union store expansion is pressure on union stores to reduce pay and benefits of their workers, since their union contracts have allowed them to bargain for good wages and benefits.

An unfortunate example of this race to the bottom strategy was seen last year, when a large unionized distribution center in Jessup, Maryland was shut down in order to transfer the work to non-union sites, where the company can pay workers less.  This type of anti-union action was not an isolated event. This past march distribution center workers with the Dutch union group Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV) went on strike against Albert Heijn, because of the chain’s decision to now use temporary, non-union workers.  The use of the temp workers not only hurts the union workers, but has also led to mistreatment of the temp workers, who are often submitted to substandard working conditions. Ahold’s anti-union activity was again seen in the U.S. this year, when Stop & Shop recruited strikebreakers in order to scare the striking members of five UFCW locals in New England to make healthcare concessions.  Despite the chain’s attempts to bully its union workers, the striking workers stood together and bargained for a new contract, which protected their rights.

For George, frustration comes from his store managers in Richmond, who have discouraged him and his coworkers from joining the UFCW.  Having been a union member at his previous place of employment, George says “I know what a union is, and what a union does, so I don’t need these guys to tell me.”

According to George, a majority of his coworkers would like to join the union. George and Shaquana, along with many of their coworkers, know that a union gives them a voice and enables them to protect their rights as workers.

That’s why this was the third year that Shaquana has attended the shareholders’ meeting.  Shaquana and her coworkers are standing their ground and making their presence known, to tell Ahold that they are being closely watched and that the workers at Martin’s/Giant Carlisle will not rest until their rights to freedom of association are respected.

After lengthy and difficult negotiations in which management proposed dozens of givebacks and workers reached out to customers and the community, the contract contains no concessions affecting current or future members of the bargaining unit.

“Our members’ activism and solidarity is why they won one of the best collective bargaining agreements in the supermarket industry,” said UFCW Local 400 President Tom McNutt. “Whenever management tried to push us into making more sacrifices, our members made clear on the floor of the store and everywhere else they were willing to do whatever it takes to get a fair deal. They stood back to back, shoulder to shoulder more than I’ve ever seen, and that is why this contract improves their economic standing and health and retirement security.

“It’s especially impressive that we were able to obtain one of the only contracts in the country with a Maintenance of Benefits provision requiring Giant and Safeway to contribute whatever it takes to our health and welfare plan to pay all health benefits,” McNutt said. “No matter what, our members will receive comprehensive health coverage without having to pay a penny more out of pocket.”

The bargaining sessions were attended by more than 20 rank and file members, all of whom urged their co-workers to ratify the contract. “I sat across the table from management, I asked the company for a fair contract, and I told them I would do anything to get it,” said Satheria Duvernay, an advisory committee member who works at Giant #773 in Herndon, Va. “I protested the companies’ hiring ‘replacement’ workers, handed out buttons and got pledge cards signed. Now we’ve got a good contract that gets us the fruit of our labors. It took an army of activists to get this done.”

Advisory Committee member Sam Abed, who works at Safeway #945, said “I’m happy with the outcome of this contract. It’s fair and we are glad to have our union team on our side.”

“Our president did something different this year,” said Michele Hepner, an advisory committee member who works at Giant #243 in Stafford, Va. “He invited rank and file members to attend negotiations. I sat across from Giant’s lawyer. Our president stood strong and he protected us. We kept our pension, we kept our premium pay on Sundays and we got our raise. It took a lot of hard work by union members. I think it’s a wonderful contract.”

Key contract provisions include:

• Across-the-board wage increases effective April 1, 2012, that exceed increases in the cost of living for most members. This is one of the few contracts in the supermarket industry where all pay increases are provided in higher hourly wages rather than a one-time bonus.
• Full funding of health benefits with no increase in members’ out-of-pocket costs and improved coverage in areas such as HPV vaccinations and endodontic care (root canals).
• Continued retirement security with all current pension benefits maintained and new steps to resolve funding issues for at least the next 10 years.

Concessions demanded by Giant and Safeway that were defeated by Local 400 included creation of a new wage tier for new hires, an increase in health care co-payments, an end to health care Maintenance of Benefits, and treatment of Sunday as part of the regular work week.

The collective bargaining agreement takes effect retroactively on April 1, 2012 and ends on October 31, 2013. Its 19-month duration is due to the uncertainty around implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on the health and welfare plan covering Giant and Safeway workers. By the fall of 2013, most unanswered questions about the new law should be resolved.

“Pleased as we are with the agreement our members enthusiastically ratified today, we view it as a foundation for further improvements in the next round of bargaining,” McNutt said. “We’re going to sustain and build our member activism over the next 19 months, we’re going to organize tenaciously and work to unite grocery workers throughout our region, and we’re going to enter negotiations stronger than ever.”

UFCW Local 400 represents 40,000 members working in the retail food, health care, retail department store, food processing, service and other industries in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Workers will vote on whether to ratify the agreement on Tuesday, April 1st.

The members of Baltimore-Washington area UFCW Local Unions 27 and 400 had the support of community and religious leaders, shoppers, sister unions and UFCW members nationwide in their effort to maintain affordable health care coverage and fair wages.

The coordinated effort in Baltimore-Washington is part of a UFCW nationwide unity bargaining program. By supporting each other regionally and nationally, as well as engaging customers and community members in their struggle, grocery workers are improving grocery industry jobs for themselves and their communities.

To learn more about other bargaining campaigns, go to: www.groceryworkersunited.org.

Supermarket giants Safeway and Ahold, owner of Giant Foods in the metro Washington, D.C. area, are refusing to provide access to affordable health care and living wages their employees have earned. This race to the bottom hurts communities who often have to bear the impact from greedy corporations that force hard-working families onto social services for basic needs.

Workers are taking action and reaching out to customers at Safeway and Ahold-owned stores coast-to-coast today, from Southern California and the Puget Sound to Chicago and along the East Coast.

UFCW members at Safeway-owned stores, Dominick’s and Genuardi’s, and Ahold-owned Stop & Shop stores are concerned about the companies’ bargaining agenda and how it could hurt the industry.

“Safeway and the other big grocery chains already reached agreements with workers in other parts of the country that provide affordable health care and decent wages.  It’s really important that these companies treat all of its employees fairly,” says Melissa Champion, UFCW Local 21 member and Seattle Safeway employee.

Caitlin Lawson, UFCW Local 328, works at Ahold-owned Stop & Shop in Massachusetts.  She said, “When we were fighting for health care and decent wages for part-timers, the workers in Baltimore and Washington took a stand with us.  Now I’m proud to let my company know that I’m still in this fight for a fair contract for all supermarket workers.”

The contract covering workers in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore expires on March 29, 2008.  Over the past 18 months, UFCW members have mobilized in unified actions to support supermarket bargaining.  The central website, www.groceryworkersunited.com, has been a focal point for solidarity actions and coast-to-coast UFCW member solidarity.

Just this week, a grocery worker from Chicago posted a message to UFCW members on the East Coast encouraging solidarity.  Jeff, a UFCW Local 1546 member, wrote, “Remember you are fighting not only for your contract talks, but for the rest of them across the nation. We will be watching here in Chicago because we will be starting grocery talks with Safeway near the end of the year.”

The actions today are the latest steps in the national unity bargaining movement among UFCW members working in the grocery industry.   The UFCW represents 1.3 million workers, with nearly one million in the grocery industry.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)-represented grocery workers in the Puget Sound area improved grocery jobs for workers and communities when they recently ratified a fair contract with their employers. These UFCW members joined members in Southern California, Texas, Toledo, and Detroit, and New England in recently ratifying good contracts with affordable, quality health care, retirement security, and wages that pay the bills.

Puget Sound grocery workers in UFCW Locals 21, 81, and 44 overwhelmingly approved their three-year contract agreement with three national grocery chains: Safeway, Supervalu (Albertsons) and Kroger (Fred Meyer and QFC).

The new three-year contract agreement includes:

An affordable, improved health care plan, with no-cost preventative care, coverage for same-sex couples and reduced waiting period for children’s coverage, wellness incentives for employees, and lower prescription costs;

Wage increases of up to $1.30 an hour over the term of the contract;

Improvements in sick leave and scheduling practices; and

Pension plan secured with no cuts for the life of the contract.

“The terms of this contract—especially the medical benefits, give me the feeling of great relief,” said Eleanor Knight, a UFCW Local 21 member working at Issaquah’s QFC. “My son and I need good health care benefits. This new plan will make a big difference in our lives.”

“From the beginning, we set very clear goals,” said Dave Schmitz, President of UFCW Local 21. “We met those goals—and more—without taking any steps backwards. There are solid wage increases, a groundbreaking health care benefits package that means better care at lower costs for members and progress on sick leave and scheduling practices.”

Community support and UFCW solidarity was instrumental in securing a fair contract. Over the past five months of negotiations, grocery employees received an outpouring of support from grocery store customers, workers, and community members throughout Puget Sound as well as throughout the country. Tens of thousands signed a pledge saying they would stand up for grocery workers, and religious leaders and elected officials showed up at stores to bolster support for workers.

“”The community stood with these workers because it was the right thing to do,” said Steve Williamson, Director of Strategic Campaigns for UFCW Local 21. ”Standing with grocery industry workers who are struggling every day to make ends meet is critical to the future of our middle class.”

The Puget Sound campaign, representing 20,000 grocery workers in Puget Sound, is part of the Grocery Workers United unity bargaining campaign. Grocery Workers United is a national movement of over 400,000 UFCW-represented grocery workers joining with each other and with community members across the country and in Canada to improve jobs in the grocery industry–one contract at a time.

To find out more about Puget Sound and other grocery negotiations, log on to www.groceryworkersunited.org, or www.sharethesuccess.org.

For more information, please contact press@ufcw.org.

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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.

The sale of its New York and Pennsylvania Tops stores will affect nearly 11,000 UFCW members.

The UFCW will continue to aggressively represent our members and enforce all union contract provisions while the company seeks a buyer for its Tops stores. We will actively engage with and impress on all potential buyers the necessity that UFCW members working at Tops stores maintain their union voice and good union wages and benefits.

UFCW members working at Ahold supermarket chains are some of the best and most productive workers in the industry, making Ahold’s U.S. operations, especially Giant and Stop & Shop, the crown jewels of the company.

Supermarkets operate to serve customers and serve communities.  Grocery jobs with good wages, affordable health benefits and job security – like those that come with a union contract – are good for the local communities and economies in which they operate.

If Ahold attempts to sell its Top stores without regard for what becomes of the workers and the community post-sale, the company risks tarnishing its reputation at every banner operating in the U.S.

The UFCW is ready and eager to work with any potential buyer, one that knows and understands the dynamics of the supermarket industry.

We will not sit idly by and watch what happens and hope for the best – we will actively support the best situated and most enlightened bidders to actively engage in the bidding process for the betterment of the company, its future shareholders/owners, and for the more than 84,000 Ahold employees represented by the UFCW.

The UFCW intends to protect all Tops’ employees and the community members that make up Tops’ customer base by ensuring that their interests are well served.

UFCW local unions with members working under Ahold banners up and down the East Coast are united to take action in solidarity to support UFCW members employed by Tops.

“We had hoped that when considering the Fair Share bill, Gov. Ehrlich would be big enough to get beyond his cozy relationships with Wal-Mart and other Big Business backers, and side with the majority of people in the state,” Local 400 President Jim Lowthers said. “But it appears that the governor is turning his back on working families.”

A poll released in January showed that nearly 8 in 10 Maryland voters agree that businesses with 10,000 employees or more should be required to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health care insurance, which is what the Fair Share legislation would require. Maryland lawmakers answered the public’s call, passing the Fair Share bill with overwhelming support.

Lowthers pointed out that Maryland’s Fair Share law has been widely praised nationally, and that legislators in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin have introduced similar legislation. “We believe the people’s representatives in Maryland will override the veto when they convene next year,” he said, “but it’s a shame that Gov. Ehrlich has chosen to throw up this roadblock on behalf of Wal-Mart.

Gov. Ehrlich’s decision to announce the veto in Somerset County at the site where Wal-Mart plans to build a new distribution center, and in the presence of a top Wal-Mart executive, is a political ploy that may backfire, Lowthers warned.

“Ehrlich will say that this is about jobs, but it’s really about taking advantage of taxpayers,” he said. “Even with Fair Share, Wal-Mart was forging ahead with its plans to build the distribution center because it can’t afford not to, considering the sweet deal the Ehrlich administration has handed this billion-dollar company.”

Maryland not only is contributing $500,000 to improve infrastructure to facilitate access to Wal-Mart’s planned distribution center, but the state also is paying almost half of the cost to purchase the 178-acre site, according to published reports. In addition, the company is being handed $5.7 million in tax credits.

“Maryland taxpayers are going to paying for these jobs for years to come, particularly since most of the employees, like other Wal-Mart workers, won’t be able to afford the company’s health care plan and will apply for public assistance,” Lowthers said. Wal-Mart employees eligible for the company’s plan must hand over about a fifth of their paychecks to cover Wal-Mart’s premiums, often more than $200 a month per worker – a steep price considering most earn between $8 and $10 an hour.

Wal-Mart appears to be the only large employer that falls below the minimum 8 percent, although Wal-Mart claims the difference is minimal. Research by the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, however, indicates that Wal-Mart spends as little as 2 percent to 3 percent of its payroll on health care, draining $30 million a year from our local economies in tax-supported benefits.

Meanwhile, some of Maryland’s other largest employers, like Giant Foods and Northrop Grumman, are already paying their fair share. These companies, each of which employ more than 10,000 workers in the state, pay well above the 8 percent of their payrolls to provide decent health coverage. In the case of Giant Foods, a competitor of Wal-Mart’s, “doing the right thing puts Giant at a disadvantage and gives Wal-Mart an unfair advantage in the grocery business,” Lowthers said.

Pointing to a recent $1,000-a-head fundraising dinner for Ehrlich hosted by Wal-Mart, Lowthers challenged the governor to explain how he would solve a health care crisis that is aggravated by the employment policies of his political benefactor.

“Maryland legislators answered the call to fix our health care system, taking a good first step by passing the Fair Share bill,” Lowthers said. “Ehrlich, however, has chosen to ignore the health care needs of Maryland’s working families while agreeing to subsidize the poster child for bad corporate citizenship.

“Marylanders have every right to ask themselves whose side Ehrlich is on,” he said.

UFCW Local 400 represents approximately 40,000 workers in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

In a ten-day period, Wal-Mart compiled a virtually unmatched public record of abusive, illegal and irresponsible conduct involving women, children and taxpayers. These most recent reports come on top of Wal-Mart already facing the largest sex discrimination lawsuit in history, court convictions for forcing employees to work without pay, and government complaints for the illegal firing and intimidation of workers for exercising workplace rights. In Canada, Wal-Mart is closing a store and taking away the livelihoods of almost 200 workers rather than comply with the law providing a fair and impartial process to reach a contract with workers.

So what does Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott do?  He delivers a speech attacking the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

In his speech delivered in Los Angeles yesterday, Scott glibly ignored the company’s very public record of shameful conduct; blamed the UFCW and other critics (the “guppies” according an earlier Scott pronouncement) for his problems; and, created an alternative reality where low wages, unaffordable benefits, the massive export of U.S. jobs to overseas sweatshops, the suppression of worker rights and taxpayer subsidies for the giant retailer have somehow made the world a better place.

The Scott speech continues a public relations offensive launched several weeks ago to prop up the company’s sagging image, pump up stagnate stock prices, and sidestep holiday season reports that competitors from Sears to Best Buy offered lower prices. The speech contains the same willful distortions and Orwellian double-talk as the company’s ad campaign. Repeating a lie does not make it true.

Scott brags, as did the ads, about the number of full-time employees– except full time in Wal-Mart speak is about 30 hours a week, not 40 hours as in the rest of reality. Scott proudly proclaims that Wal-Mart’s average wages are about twice the minimum wage. He ignores that Wal-Mart uses its enormous political clout– the largest political giver in 2004– to keep the minimum wage in real terms at its lowest level in decades.  Even at the supposed Wal-Mart average wage, a family with a Wal-Mart income is still left scraping the poverty line. Scott cites Wal-Mart health insurance as a positive, but fails to mention that 700,000 Wal-Mart associates do not have the company’s health insurance, and that those who do, pay more on average than employees of other major companies.

In instance after instance, Scott contorts the facts to serve his own purposes. He cites the lack of opposition to his company in communities across California, and declares opposition to Wal-Mart is limited to urbanized areas– except the overwhelming majority of Californians live in those urbanized areas. He talks about company tax payments, but doesn’t mention the tax costs the retailer imposes on states and communities with its low wages and lack of affordable health benefits.

Despite Scott’s protestations, Wal-Mart is not just a simple retailer. Wal-Mart is the largest single economic force in history. It is the largest private employer in the country, and the largest corporation in the world. Walton family members comprise five of the ten richest people in the world. About one percent of the wealth of just one of the Walton richest five would provide affordable health insurance for all Wal-Mart workers in the U.S.  Wal-Mart is about high profits, not low prices.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has 1.4 million members working in neighborhood supermarkets, retail stores, meat packing and food processing plants. UFCW retail members work for major retailers such as Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons.

Residents of Inglewood, California, stood up for American values – they said “”No,”" to the Walmartization of their community. They said “”No,”" to the Arkansas retail giant’s low wage, low benefit jobs. They said “”No,”" to a store the size of 17 football fields that would have decimated local businesses.

Voters rejected a referendum by Wal-Mart by voting 65% against a proposed Supercenter in Inglewood. Wal-Mart forced voters to the polls by refusing to accept rejection of their expansion plans by Inglewood City Council earlier this year. Wal-Mart abused the citizen referendum process by hiring people to collect signatures and force a ballot initiative – an effort that ignored zoning regulations and skirted traffic and environmental reviews. Wal-Mart was trying to buy the local political process but voters made it clear: you can’t discount democracy.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members held the line in Southern California for nearly 5 months fighting back demands by the supermarket employers that would have eliminated health benefits for workers. Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons used Wal-Mart’s low-road benefit package as an excuse to lower the standards for supermarket workers in California. Customers stood behind the strikers throughout the work-stoppage and now those same people sent Wal-Mart the message that they are willing to fight for good jobs with good benefits.

“”Wal-Mart’s arrogance blinded them to the fact that voters and consumers will not accept a giant retailer cramming low-wage, low benefit jobs in every community. Voters in Inglewood told Wal-Mart to respect their laws, their environmental standards and elected officials,”" said UFCW International President Joe Hansen.

“”Wal-Mart is undermining living standards across the country and tried to undermine the democratic process itself,”" Hansen continued.

UFCW members in Inglewood joined with a broad citizen’s coalition of local and statewide elected officials, community organizations, and religious leaders to mobilize voters against Wal-Mart’s back-door bully tactics.