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Community Partnerships, Press Releases, UFCW Values

STATEMENT FROM JOSEPH T. HANSEN, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS UNION ANNOUNCING UNION-WIDE RELIEF FUND FOR HURRICANE SANDY VICTIMS

Nov 02, 2012

Nation’s largest retail workers’ union providing funds and support for members impacted by the catastrophic storm

Washington, D.C. – The following is a statement issued by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union President Joseph Hansen:

“Inspired by President Obama’s declaration that we will get through this together, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has established a Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Fund to provide vital financial support for the nearly 200,000 UFCW members living in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and surrounding areas.

“Hurricane Sandy’s impact on our members was catastrophic.  Homes were destroyed or severely damaged by flood waters.  Many have not had power to their homes or businesses since Monday and it may be many more days before electricity is restored.  The UFCW is deeply concerned for the physical safety and well-being of our members in New York and New Jersey.

“Apart from the physical stress of keeping their homes and families safe, workers in the region’s grocery stores, retail stores, food processing facilities and other private industry are suffering from the loss of income from missed hourly wages as their stores and worksites are unable to open for business.  I am calling on UFCW local unions across the U.S. and Canada to open their hearts and checkbooks and donate to the UFCW Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Fund.”

Contributions can be mailed to:

UFCW Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Fund
c/o UFCW International Union
1775 K Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006

OR

Donate here.

 

For further updates, please visit www.ufcw.org

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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.

Community Partnerships, Corporate Responsibility, Packing and Processing, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Walmart, Workplace Safety & Health

Warehouse Workers’ 6-Day Pilgrimage Culminates in L.A. City Hall Rally

Sep 19, 2012

Yesterday, the 6-day long journey taken by striking Walmart warehouse workers, in protest of working conditions, came to a close as they reached their 50 mile destination in Los Angeles.  The trek went out with a bang, as the more than 30 workers were joined by hundreds of supporters in front of L.A. City Hall.

At the rally, warehouse workers, exhausted from the journey and the 103-degree heat, took the opportunity to express to the crowd that, although the pilgrimage was tiring and hard to endure, it was nothing compared to the conditions they are forced to work in at the Inland Empire warehouse, a subcontractor of Walmart.

These warehouse workers are not protected by a union, and, by taking a stand to highlight the abuses they have endured, they have risked everything.  But the risks are worth it to these workers, who work in 120-degree warehouses with no fans, which often results in vomiting and nosebleeds. Not only is the heat unbearable, but they are no given clean water or regular breaks, and the equipment they use is unsafe. Does Walmart, who controls the working conditions of the sub-contracters, think that putting workers in terribly unsafe environments and then not paying them enough to make a decent living, is okay?

It simply isn’t.  

The strike has brought well-deserved attention to the unacceptable conditions at Walmart warehouses, and drawn many supporters to the workers’ cause.  Warehouse Workers United, health professional volunteers, and countless supporters have helped in the effort, and speakers at the rally on Tuesday included Rep. Judy Chu, California Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, City Councilman Ed Reyes, National Farmworkers Association co-founder Dolores Huerta, California Secretary of Labor Marty Morgenstern, and LA County Federation of Labor secretary-treasurer Elena Durazo.

Despite widespread community support for workers, Walmart and its sub-contractors haven’t offered to meet about improving the situation at all.  In fact, a Walmart spokesman has claimed that Walmart officials regularly tour the locations of their subcontractors, and the conditions are “ambient.”

Despite the lies and blatant denial of those responsible, workers have taken a stand and a national spotlight is shining on the unjust treatment they receive.  Once they return home, the warehouse workers plan to continue to picket outside the facility in Mira Loma where they work, in the hopes that even more workers will take a stand to decrease the amount of worker injuries due to unsafe working conditions, to fight for respect, and to force corporations like Walmart to be responsible.

For more information on the warehouse workers’ pilgrimage, and to see great photos from their journey and the rally, click here.

Community Partnerships, Feeding the Hungry, Food Access

Growing Food Insecurity Not Acceptable

Sep 12, 2012

A recent report by the USDA’s Economic Research Service has rekindled the constant concern that some people in our country don’t know where their next meal will come from. The report found that the percentage of American’s with very low food security increased last year, from 5.4 % to 5.7%, according to an article by Meatingplace.com.

UFCW Feeding the Hungry

Although more than three quarters of our population have a steady, secure supply of food, a growing percentage of people suffering from food insecurity, or in other words, a limited access to food due to a lack of money or other resources, is simply unacceptable.

That is why UFCW Partnerships with groups like Feeding the Hungry are so important. The good jobs unions help provide allow us to live well, and put food on the table for our families, but there are many Americans whose jobs don’t allow them to make ends meet. Food should not be a something that someone should have to sacrifice, it is a human right.

The work we do in our communities, like holding food drives, can make a difference, and so can standing together, to achieve a voice for what’s right. It is also important to make sure we vote to keep President Obama in office this November, so government programs that help feed families and individuals who don’t know when their next meal will be won’t disappear.

We must keep sticking together for good jobs that pay people enough to keep themselves and their families fed, because letting people starve is not an option.