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Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Organizing, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

Workers at Guitar Center Unionize!

May 28, 2013
Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo

Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo

Last week, 57 workers at Guitar Center’s flagship store in Manhattan voted to form a union with UFCW/RWDSU.

The union victory at the Manhattan store will help ensure that workers will enjoy better working conditions and will put a stop to declining wages.  Several other New York City Guitar Centers are expected to organize as well, with the potential for other store locations across the country to follow suite, according to Rolling Stone.

Workers at Guitar Center began organizing for union representation late in 2012, when they began to see decreased wages, and many struggled to make ends meet.  Big name rockers like Tom Morello and Ted Leo took notice and were among the many supporters of the workers campaign to unionize.

Some workers noted that, by supporting good jobs and working conditions at Guitar Center, the union is also supporting the music, since many of the new union members are in bands themselves.

 

Corporate Responsibility, Organizing, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

Target Violated Federal Labor Law, Workers’ Rights According to NLRB Decision

May 08, 2013

On April 26, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overturned the results of a union election based on Target’s worker rights violations at their store in Valley Stream, N.Y. during the campaign last year. Additionally, the NLRB found that the company systematically violated the rights of workers nationwide by maintaining illegal work rules designed to keep workers from speaking out for change at work.

The UFCW released the following statement about the decision:

“For years, Target has broken the law to suppress its employees’ fundamental right of association. Those days of illegal worker intimidation and suppression are over. The right to stick together at work is a basic American value.

“In this case, despite Target’s legal maneuverings to avoid responsibility, the retailer has been held accountable for suppressing the rights of the Long Island workers and for the company’s nationwide policy to silence all their workers.

“This is not just an isolated instance and Target is not an isolated employer. Too often, major employers get away with systematically silencing millions of American workers from speaking out about their jobs. To stand against freedom of speech like Target did is not just wrong, it’s un-American.”

Organizing, Press Releases, Retail

Target Violated Federal Labor Law, Workers’ Rights According to Sweeping Labor Board Decision

May 02, 2013

WASHINGTON – On April 26, 2013, the National Labor Relations Board overturned the results of a union election based on Target’s worker rights violations at their store in Valley Stream, New York during the campaign last year. Additionally, the Board found that the company systematically violated the rights of workers nationwide by maintaining illegal work rules designed to keep workers from speaking out for change at work.

The following is a statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union on the decision:

“For years, Target has broken the law to suppress its employees’ fundamental right of association. Those days of illegal worker intimidation and suppression are over.  The right to stick together at work is a basic American value.

“In this case, despite Target’s legal maneuverings to avoid responsibility, the retailer has been held accountable for suppressing the rights of the Long Island workers and for the company’s nationwide policy to silence all their workers.

This is not just an isolated instance and Target is not an isolated employer.  Too often, major employers get away with systematically silencing millions of American workers from speaking out about their jobs. To stand against freedom of speech like Target did is not just wrong, it’s un-American.”

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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.