“Maximus Coffee workers in Houston are simply trying to protect middle class jobs and their benefits after working hard to make their company profitable,” said UFCW Local 455 President Bill Hopkins.  “I hope this strike sends a strong message to the company and moves the negotiation process to a successful conclusion.”

“I’ve worked at this plant for 41 years and for Maximus Coffee since 2006 when they purchased the plant from Maxwell House,” said Robert Barnes.  “I haven’t gotten a real raise since 2009, and don’t know how I’ll be able to support my family if my wages and benefits are reduced.”

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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, http://www.ufcw.org/, or join our online community at http://www.facebook.com/ufcwinternational and https://twitter.com/UFCW.

Gray’s veto comes just two days after the Fair Political Practices Commission in California announced that it would be investigating whether Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson had a conflict of interest in a vote on a big box bill due to charitable donations he solicited from Walmart and the Walton Foundation.

Kimberly Mitchell, a Macy’s employee and lifelong Ward 7 resident:

“I am incredibly upset, disappointed, and angry that Mayor Gray has decided to stand with Walmart and other large corporations instead of with the residents of this city. Mayor Gray has made is clear who he stands with and it’s not with me, my neighbors or the residents of DC. We are now counting on the City Council to do the right thing, stand up with DC residents, and override this veto.”

“Mayor Gray had the opportunity to stand up for the residents of this city, but instead he allowed large, out of town companies, like Walmart, to threaten him and ultimately dictate the policies of our city. By vetoing this bill he has further eroded the ability of DC residents and workers to earn enough money to take care of themselves and their families while remaining in the city.”

Reverend Graylan Hagler, of Plymouth United Congregational Church of Christ and Faith Strategies:

“Unfortunately, the Mayor’s decision is hardly surprising because this is exactly what Walmart’s lobbyists said would happen.  The Mayor’s office and Walmart have been working together to defeat this bill from the start.”

“If we cannot demand higher wages and good jobs from the nation’s and world’s largest corporations DC will not be able to remain a diverse and vibrant city. We strongly urge the city council to override this misguided veto.”

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“I’m proud of the union contract that we negotiated,” said Araceli Flores, Cosmo’s Food worker. “This contract will mean more security for our families.”

The agreement provides $1.30 in wage increases over the life of the contract. In the negotiations, the bargaining committee focused on securing guaranteed hours and seniority rights that will provide workers with greater job security. The contract also guarantees seven paid holidays each year and between one and three weeks of paid vacation for the workers.

“From the beginning, this has been about respect. The relationship between workers and supervisors at Cosmo’s really changed when management had to sit down at the bargaining table with us and negotiate,” said Cosmo’s Food worker Guadalupe Muñoz.

UFCW Local 371 Cosmo’s workers celebrate signing their first contract that increases wages, and improves job security.

Cosmo’s Food Products, Inc., produces a variety of antipasto specialties under the Cosmo’s brand and for private labels.

Reposted from Making Change at Walmart

It’s been an exciting week and it’s not even Labor Day yet!

This week, low-wage workers of all varieties have gone out on strike to stand up for an American economy that works for working people.

Earlier this week, port truck workers went out on strike in Los Angeles. Today, fast food workers went on strike in more than 50 cities nationwide. And if Walmart doesn’t respond to workers calls by Labor Day, Walmart workers say we’ll see intensified actions nationwide on September 5^th.

These dramatic actions come at a time when working people find themselves in a difficult situation. According to USA Today:

Jobs paying less than $14 an hour in fast food, retail, home health care and other fields made up one of every five jobs lost in the recession, but they account for three of every five new jobs in the recovery, according to NELP.

Many of them are held by adults, some of whom were laid off from much-better-paying positions during the recession. Eighty-eight percent of workers in jobs paying less than $10 an hour are older than 20, and a third are older than 40, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Or as President Clinton’s Secretary of Labor Robert Reich would put it, “The good news as Labor Day approaches: Jobs are returning. The bad news: Most of them pay lousy wages and provide low, if not nonexistent, benefits.”

While everyday Americans continue to struggle with an uneven recovery and more than 7% unemployment, many companies continue to post record profits. Again, according to Reich referencing a NELP report:

…most low-wage workers are employed by large corporations that have been enjoying healthy profits. Three-quarters of these employers (the 50 biggest employers of low-wage workers) are raking in higher revenues now than they did before the recession.

Despite the challenges of the current American economy, low wage workers have dug deep and found the courage to stand up. If you’ve like to stand with Walmart workers, please sign their petition here.

image via Working Washington

Recently, fast food and retail workers alike have come together into tell their employers that they deserve respect on the job, and that they will no longer stand for wages that don’t allow them to make a living. Going on 1-day strikes in cities across the country, these workers have ignited conversation and action surrounding the issue of a living wage.

What began as a 200-person strike in NYC last November, this growing movement is set to gain even more momentum tomorrow, with low-wage worker strikes set to take place in 35 cities across the country–with thousands of workers expected to take part. Employees at establishments such as McDonald’s and Macy’s will make their voices heard by walking off the job, as they call for the right to unionize and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. These strikes come as America gets ready to celebrate Labor Day–a time in which workers are meant to be honored and recognized, yet many who will participate in the strikes must work on this holiday.

For the workers, most of whom are grown adults, often with families to support, $7.25 doesn’t cut it.  It’s not enough to both feed their children and themselves, or to pay for both healthcare and rent at the same time. These low wages are especially unacceptable when the companies they work for rake in billions of dollars a year, and the CEO-to-employee pay ratios only increase each year, by gigantic amounts.

That’s why, experts say, this is just the beginning of the movement. Workers at Church’s Chicken, Victoria’s Secret, Dunkin Donuts–you name it–are taking action because they have the energy and passion to change a vicious fast food  and retail economy, that rewards the executives up top, but does little to reward those who make the companies successful.

Some of these strikes in recent months have led to wage increases in places like Chicago, and the strikes have caused stores in cities like Seattle to close down for the day due to lack of manpower. This is just an example of how workers can make or break the company’s success–they need to be compensated accordingly.

For more information, click here. Also, be sure to keep an eye on Twitter, Facebook, and even out in your community tomorrow to see all the action unfold!

Hundreds of grocery workers will hold informational pickets at 38 grocery stores across the Seattle region to fight for workers’ rights.

Grocery workers from UFCW Locals 21, 367 and Teamsters Local 38 will be joined by co-workers, elected officials, and community supporters in informational pickets held across the Seattle region. Today, workers from Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC, and Albertsons will hold actions at 38 different grocery locations to draw attention to their fight for fair treatment, fair pay, and fair benefits.

Grocery store workers have been in contract negotiations since March. Despite more than 12 bargaining sessions and a first round of informational pickets in July, the companies have continued to stick to proposals that would stop providing health care coverage of employees working less than 30 hours a week, deny workers paid sick days, and cut pay including for those who work on holidays. A potential strike vote is set for the end of September depending on the progress of negotiations.

However, although more policymakers are agreeing that its time to focus on the economic challenges of the middle class, we are failing to fix the key problem that is hurting so many working-class Americans. Despite steadily increasing productivity, wages have remained stagnant or have even deflated for the majority of blue and white-collar Americans throughout the past decade.  Right now, overall growth is actually benefiting the richest households in the country, and companies that make billions of dollars annually, like Walmart and McDonalds, continue to make their executives unfathomably rich, while the workers who make such businesses flourish, earn starvation wages.

This data was recently presented in the newest report by the Economic Policy Institute.

Growing income inequality in America must be reversed. The economy cannot recover if the rich continue to become richer, and the poor only poorer. That’s why a raise in the minimum wage is essential. In the case of large retailers, whose CEO’s rake in staggering amounts in earnings and bonuses each year, there is no excuse to not pay their employees enough to live on, or to provide basic benefits.

In June, members of the OUR Walmart sent civil rights movement–style caravans of workers from around the country to Walmart’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Bentonville to protest the retail giant’s  practice of retaliating against workers who speak out for change.  Citing Walmart’s $16 billion in profits every year, OUR Walmart members called on the company to publicly commit to raising wages and increasing access to full-time hours so that no worker at Walmart makes less than $25,000 per year.

Please sign a petition asking Walmart to respect workers’ rights and pay a living wage by visiting http://action.changewalmart.org/page/s/ARealWage.  For more information about OUR Walmart, visit http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/.

Bringing Attention to Illegal Retaliation and Low Wages,

WALMART WORKERS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES, CALL FOR BETTER JOBS IN NATION’S CAPITAL

Thursday: March for Good Jobs at Walmart DC Office

WASHINGTON, DC—Following an aggressive uptick in illegal retaliation against workers speaking out for better jobs at Walmart, a group of current and recently fired Walmart workers are in Washington, DC this week to share their experiences and call for changes at the nation’s largest employer and company.  The workers, part of the national organization OUR Walmart, are speaking with local residents and elected officials, Members of Congress and their staff and national leaders who are supporting their efforts.

“We’re here to make sure DC residents and our nation’s leaders know the truth about what’s going on at Walmart stores across the country,” said OUR Walmart member Jovani Gomez from Lakewood, CA.  Gomez has worked at Walmart for nearly six years before being fired for going on strike in June. “Walmart is the largest employer in the country, but the jobs that Walmart is creating are holding back American workers and families.”

With hundreds of DC-area residents supporting them, the group plans to rally outside Walmart’s DC offices to try to get Walmart to publicly commit to increasing wages that the company pays, which have been under debate since DC City Council passed a bill requiring large, profitable retailers to pay a minimum hourly wage of $12.50 an hour.  Prior to the rally, a group will visit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) where they will highlight the public support for the Board to continue its investigations of the aggressive retaliation that workers have been facing.

“With $16 billion in profits for the company and the wealth of 42% of American families combined in the pockets of the Walton family, Walmart can and must do more to create good jobs,” Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “With its size and wealth, Walmart could be making an impact in strengthening and growing our middle class, but instead, Walmart workers are forced to rely on food stamps and other public supports to cover the basics.”

Calling for Walmart to publicly commit to paying full-time work at a minimum rate of $25,000 a year, OUR Walmart’s concerns are gaining support from workers, community leaders and shareholders.  At this year’s annual shareholder meeting, OUR Walmart member Janet Sparks, joined by 100 striking workers from across the country, spoke about the insufficient hours, low wages and short-staffing that are hurting customer service at stores. Additionally, Walmart employees are some of the main recipients of food stamps, Medicaid and government support.

But rather than provide good jobs that American workers need and deserve, Walmart is spending its time and money trying to deny a decent day’s pay and trying to silence workers who are standing up with their co-workers to live better.  Since the prolonged strikes in June, Walmart has illegally disciplined nearly 80 workers, including 20 worker-leaders who have been fired.

“We’ve had enough is enough of Walmart’s lip-service and lies,” said Lucas Handy of Fort Dodge, IA.  “We need full-time hours, we need better wages, and we need our jobs back with the promise that the retaliation against OUR Walmart will stop.”

On Wednesday, the group plans to visit Members of Congress to thank them for a recent letter to Walmart CEO Mike Duke calling for an end to the illegal activity, and to ask Members to sign onto the Worker Anti-Retaliation Act introduced by Rep. Alan Grayson in July.

OUR Walmart, Organization United for Respect at Walmart, formed just two years ago when 100 Walmart associates came together to voice their concerns about the company.  The group, organized the first strikes in company history last year and helped bring more than 30,000 supporters to protest at stores on Black Friday in 2012.

Follow the conversation and see photos at @ChangeWalmart, #WalmartStrikers and ChangeWalmart.org/Tumblr

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 LEGAL DISCLAIMER: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

Reposted from Making Change at Walmart

Walmart’s second quarter sales report shows the continuation of negative same store sales. In response, OUR Walmart member Larry Born, who has worked at Walmart in Crestwood, IL for over three years, issued the following statement:

“Today’s numbers make it clear that Walmart’s labor practices aren’t just hurting workers like me—they’re also hurting business. Instead of listening to employees who raise concerns about working conditions and their impact on sales and the company’s reputation, Walmart has tried to suppress our fundamental right to speak out for better jobs by firing and disciplining many of us who simply want what’s best for our families and for the company.

“Now major investors are divesting from the company as a direct result of its labor practices, and Walmart’s urban expansion efforts are facing resistance from cities like Washington, DC that don’t want to bring Walmart values into their communities. Until Walmart shows a real commitment to creating good jobs that can support a family and strengthen local economies, the company will continue to face roadblocks in this key part of its business strategy.

“Similarly, while associates struggle to support their families as a result of erratic and inadequate hours, Walmart is receiving the lowest customer satisfaction scores compared to other supermarkets,thanks to the empty shelves and long checkout lines caused by understaffing. At the international level, costs related to Walmart’s violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act are sky-high, and the company’s reputation with the public and with investors has been seriously damaged by its refusal to join other retailers in committing to improve safety at supplier factories in Bangladesh, where Walmart was found to have procured clothing as recently as 2012 in the factory collapse that killed over 1000 garment workers.

“If Walmart wants to reverse these trends, the company should start by listening to its associates. With $16 billion in profits every year, Walmart can easily afford to increase pay and access to full-time hours so that we can make our stores great places to shop and so that every Walmart worker can support their family—without relying on public assistance. These commonsense changes will help repair the company’s image, lift its bottom-line, and strengthen our entire economy.”

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LEGAL DISCLAIMER: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publicly commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

In response to Walmart’s increased attempts to silence employees who spoke out at the company’s June shareholder meeting about retaliation against those who call for better jobs, this week Walmart associates and their supporters are fighting back with an unprecedented wave of actions on the ground and online. At the same time, warehouse workers in California have gone on strike to protest the extreme intimidation, spying, and retaliation they have experienced since they exposed dangerous and unsafe working conditions at a Walmart-contracted warehouse in Riverside County.

Thousands of people nationwide are taking the calls for an immediate end to the company’s suppression of workers’ basic freedom to speak out for better jobs directly to Walmart Board members online, at their homes, and at their offices.

With their calls for the creation of better jobs at Walmart resonating widely, workers assert that the company feels threatened and has doubled down on its suppression of associates. In the past few weeks alone, Walmart has illegally fired 19 workers and disciplined 40 more for taking part in the legally protected strike. The striking workers were calling on the Board for an end to Walmart’s retaliation against and attempts to silence those who speak out about issues such as the company’s labor mismanagement under CEO Mike Duke’s leadership, which has led to under-staffing and unsafe conditions in stores, warehouses, and at suppliers.

“We fear that every day we go to work could be our last,” said Heidi Baizabal, who has worked at a warehouse in California for five years. “We are followed, watched on camera, forced into individual meetings, and harassed daily. We need Walmart to see what’s happening inside its contracted warehouse. We move Walmart suitcases and we want safe, good jobs.”

“In this country, we believe that when we work hard, we should have the opportunity to get ahead.  We believe that everyone has the fundamental right to join together with coworkers to improve their job and to speak out to improve their life,” said Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of American Rights at Work/Jobs with Justice. “Our country’s largest employer should be promoting these values by creating good, steady jobs and careers. Instead, Walmart is creating a reality for American workers that is built on part-time work, few benefits and illegal retaliation for those who speak out for something better.”

This isn’t the first time Walmart has tried to bully workers. According to a white paper recently released by American Rights at Work, Walmart associates who have come together to address concerns about working conditions have increasingly faced harassment, threats, changes to their jobs, and retaliatory discipline—including termination—for speaking out.

Standing up with workers like Barbara Collins, a mother of two who was fired after protesting Walmart’s illegal treatment of workers who speak out about not getting enough hours to support their families, workers picked up the pace this week with protests occurring in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas, as well as other states, after previous protests calling on Marissa Mayer at Yahoo meetings last week. Workers plan to continue taking their message directly to Walmart Board of Directors members at their offices, homes, and public events in the coming days and weeks. Demonstrations are also taking place at stores across the country.

“I have been working hard at Walmart to support my family amidst changes to my hours and schedules, increases in the cost of healthcare, and not enough people to keep the shelves stocked,” said Barbara Collins. “We have to have a conversation about the problems with under-staffing and the jobs at Walmart, and we will not stop speaking out even as Walmart illegally threatens and even fires us. Together, we’re going to win back our jobs and make changes at this company.”

Nationally, a growing number of community and elected leaders have joined workers’ call on Walmart to immediately reinstate workers who have faced firings and discipline for striking to protest Walmart’s attempts to silence and retaliate against workers who speak out. Meanwhile, a petition directed at the company and Board members has already received more than 152,000 signatures.

Walmart keeps its associates without enough hours, without healthcare, and struggling to get by on poverty wages. As a result many employees can’t even support their families without relying on government support. As a result, a recent report found that taxpayers pay nearly $1 million to subsidize Walmart’s race-to-the-bottom business model at a single store.

In early June, Walmart workers went on strike nationwide and joined the “Ride for Respect,” a week-long, nationwide caravan to Walmart’s shareholders’ meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas, to call for an end to retaliation against workers and voice the direct impact that Walmart is having on their lives and the economy. The company has responded by cracking down on associates’ right to speak out – even firing some workers.

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UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

Members from UFCW Locals 21 and 367 join the Teamsters and fight for good contracts for grocery workers in the Pacific Northwest.

Thirty thousand  members of UFCW Locals 21 and 367 and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 38 in Washington state are covered by contracts at grocers Albertsons, Safeway, Fred Meyer and Quality Food Centers and many other local independent stores that are up for bargaining this year. As the companies have proposed elimination of healthcare, cuts to pay, and denied paid sick days, UFCW and Teamsters members have responded with more solidarity than ever.

In the month of July, hundreds of members of the three union locals were joined by hundreds of community supporters at informational pickets in front of stores in more than ten communities to seek the support of customers as they try to reach a fair deal. The next week, they leafleted thousands of fans at “Union Solidarity Night” at the Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field.

“All we’re asking for is fair pay and benefits for our hard work,” said Barbara Rhodes, a UFCW Local 21 QFC deli worker and member of the bargaining team.

“That lets us focus on caring for our families and taking care of the customers that depend on us.”

By mobilizing the customers they serve every day and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their union brothers and sisters and community supporters, members of the locals are hopeful they will be able to build a better future for all grocery workers in the Pacific Northwest.

RWDSU Local 338 members and community supporters protest the opening of a Walmart Neighborhood Market to protect the local economy, small businesses, and jobs.

On June 12, RWDSU Local 338 joined dozens of Long Island community and labor organizations to protest the grand opening of a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Levittown, the first of its kind in the Long Island region. Protestors claimed that another Walmart opening on Long Island would hurt the local economy and small businesses, and said that the store’s opening on the same site of a previously unionized Waldbaum’s supermarket added insult to injury.

“This store was proudly represented by RWDSU Local 338 and it saddens me that what used to be a great supermarket that took care of its workers with good wages and strong benefits, as Waldbaum’s did, is now hosting a Walmart Neighborhood Market.  The residents and workers of this community deserve better than the bottom barrel wages and unaffordable benefits that Walmart jobs bring. A Neighborhood Market sends the wrong message here on Long Island,” said John R. Durso, President, RWDSU Local 338.

Over 100 RWDSU Local 338 members, community activists, and labor allies called on Walmart to change their business and labor practices and held signs that read “Shame on you Walmart, Workers Deserve Better Wages.” Protests at the store will continue until Walmart practices change and workers are provided with fair wages and affordable benefits.

Adapted from Making Change at Walmart

Last week, Washington D.C.’s City Council voted 8-5 to approve a living wage bill despite threats by Walmart. The bill requires large retailers in the District, like Walmart, to pay their employees no less than $12.50 an hour.

While the bill enjoyed the support of a majority of the members and many district residents, Walmart threatened at the last minute to cancel the construction of three stores slated to open in the District if the bill became law. Interestingly, the company made this threat after publicly stating that it would pay District Walmart employees $13 an hour if the stores were approved to be built.

While many are shocked by Walmart’s clear hypocritical stance, groups like OUR Walmart and Making Change at Walmart have shown that Walmart is a company that likes to say one thing but do another. Walmart has a history of making promises but then reneging.

Not only are Walmart’s promises empty, but when they are held to their commitments they threaten the communities who hold them accountable. Walmart comes into communities, says one thing and does another. If they don’t get their way they threaten and bully communities the same way they bully their workers. Walmart proclaims to embody and promote American values, but when those values become inconvenient to their bottom-line they do everything in their power, including firing workers and reneging on promises, to get their way.

The DC Council sent a powerful message to not only Walmart but to companies that choose to do business in the city: you must fulfill your promise and treat DC residents with dignity and respect, while paying them a wage that allows them to care for their family. The living wage bill comes at a time when a family of four living in D.C. needs over $88K a year just to get by, according to a recent study.

With so much at stake, D.C. workers need your help to make sure the bill gets finalized. Please click here and send an email to D.C.’s Mayor Gray, asking him not to veto the bill.

In stark contrast, more than 75 corporations from 15 countries, including the United States, have signed the binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety negotiated with Bangladeshi and international unions. The Accord has rules to make real improvements in the safety of garment workers.  Workers, unions and worker rights organizations negotiated this agreement with employers and integrated worker safety efforts by governments and the International Labor Organization (ILO).  The AFL-CIO and Change to Win,  along with global unions IndustriAll and UNI and numerous organizations representing Bangladeshi workers, also endorse it. The AFL-CIO and Change to Win reject the Walmart/GAP plan as a way to avoid accountability, limit costs and silence workers and their representatives.

Rather than sign the binding Accord, Walmart and Gap are pushing a weak and worthless plan that avoids enforceable commitments. The Bipartisan Policy Center, which has clear financial and political connections to Walmart, is releasing the document, which is the product of a closed process and has been signed only by the same corporations that produced it.

The Accord departs from the broken system of voluntary corporate responsibility in supply chains that has so often failed to protect workers. It makes a clear commitment to worker safety and rights, and to transparency. It expresses values that most countries uphold.

The Accord has been endorsed by the United Nations, the ILO, the government of Bangladesh, both the parliament and commission of the European Union, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Members and leaders in both houses of the U.S. Congress have also endorsed the Accord.

In the last eight years, more than 1,800 Bangladeshi garment workers have been killed in preventable factory fires and building collapses while producing mostly for European and U.S. markets.  This tragic loss of life requires more than a wink and a nod from two of the richest corporations in the world. It means taking responsibility for the safety of workers by entering into a legitimate, binding process that will save lives.  Seventy-five brands have taken that important step.  It is time for Walmart and GAP to join them, rather than trying to undermine those efforts and maintain a system that has a long and bloody record of failure.

Statement online here: http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/Joint-Statement-by-Richard-L.-Trumka-AFL-CIO-and-Joe-Hansen-ChangetoWin-on-the-Walmart-and-GAP-Bangladesh-Safety-Alliance-Weak-and-Worthless

For the latest udates, follow @AFLCIO and @RichardTrumka on Twitter.

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A decision by the Quebec Labour Standards Commission recognized – for the first time – Target’s responsibility to Zellers workers and their communities by ruling that Target needs just cause to deny former-Zellers workers employment in the rebranded retail locations.

The spokesperson for the Labour Standards Commission, Jean-François Pelchat announced that all former Zellers employees who had applied for a job at Target, and whose application was turned down, had 45 days from the date of the denial notice to file a complaint with the Commission for dismissal without just cause.

As far as UFCW Canada is concerned, the Commission’s decision clearly recognizes the employment relationship between former Zellers employees and their new employer – Target.

“It’s an important day for Zellers employees. At last, their labour rights are being recognized and Target will have no choice but to respect them. We encourage all the men and women who suffered another setback from Target to file a complaint with the Labour Standards Commission. The more employees who file a complaint, the clearer the message will be that the company is not above the law and that it cannot use unethical ploys with impunity. Even if these workers are not union members, UFCW will support them all along the process,” says Antonio Filato, president of UFCW Canada Local 500.

To see the original announcement from UFCW Canada, click here.

source: Farmland Foods

Workers at Smithfield Foods and Smithfield-owned brands like Farmland and Eckrich recently learned that a Chinese company, Shuanghui , has announced plans to buy the entire Smithfield family of companies. Shuanghui is China’s largest pork processor.

Over 16,000 workers across 14 different states work for Smithfield Foods and have a UFCW union contract. A few folks who work at Farmland Foods and are members of UFCW Local 440 in Denison, Iowa, sat down with USA Today and talked about what it’s like to work in a pork processing plant. They say that the work in the plant is demanding but workers are able to earn good wages and make a decent living for themselves and their families. Many of them talk about how having a job at Smithfield has meant they’ve been able to put their children through school, live in good communities, and earn good wages along with opportunities for advancement.

The kind of wages and benefits they’re describing are thanks to their union contract. Working union means living better. It’s called the union difference.

While some are apprehensive about a foreign company buying Smithfield, the transaction may provide an opportunity for the company to grow. Pork processing plants in the United States are exporting more pork to China to meet the country’s growing demand for the ‘other white meat’. Workers say that this might lead to more work, more shifts, and more jobs at plants in their communities – something our economy desperately needs.

Both Smithfield and Shuangui announced that they plan to continue to honor union contracts. With a union contract, jobs at Smithfield are safe and secure. No matter who owns Smithfield, the UFCW will continue fight for the kind of wages and benefits that the UFCW Local 440 workers are describing – at Smithfield workplaces, and at packing, poultry, and food processing worksites all over the country.

Watch the video of UFCW Local 440 workers talking about their union jobs and what the future could hold for them.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) today threw its support behind H.R. 2311—the Worker Anti-Retaliation Act—which would penalize large employers for illegally targeting workers for trying to improve their job conditions.

Earlier this month, Walmart workers went on strike nationwide and caravanned to the company’s shareholder meeting in Arkansas to call for an end to retaliation. In response, Walmart last week illegally fired nearly a dozen strikers and disciplined others without cause. This comes on the heels of a report released by American Rights at Work that details Walmart’s extensive and systematic efforts to silence associates who are speaking out for better jobs.

The Worker Anti-Retaliation Act—authored by Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL)—would expressly prohibit this type of retaliation against workers and give victims the right to back pay, damages, and other civil penalties.

“Walmart is reinventing labor retaliation in today’s economy, the latest chapter in the retail giant’s appalling record on workers’ rights,” UFCW International President Joe Hansen said. “Congressman Grayson’s bill would protect workers from targeting and send a message to all employers that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.”

“This legislation provides necessary protections to low-wage workers, particularly those employed by Walmart, one of the nation’s largest retailers,” Grayson said. “My bill will protect workers from retaliation by their employers, and provide victims of retaliatory actions with legal relief. Employees of Walmart have little control over their working conditions. They are not unionized, and Walmart has used every trick in the book to prevent them from protesting dismal working conditions and unfair treatment. In fact, Walmart recently fired one of my constituents, who dared to speak out against Walmart’s employment practices. It’s time to put an end to Walmart’s abhorrent mistreatment of its employees—and let workers know that their rights to organize and protest will be protected.”

Grayson’s constituent, Vanessa Ferriera, worked at Walmart for 8 years, until she was fired in May. Ferriera was frustrated with the inability of Walmart to provide the wages and benefits she needed to support her family. So she stood up and spoke out about her concerns. She started meeting with her fellow associates—as part of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart)— to assist in the effort to get Walmart to publicly commit to improving labor standards. Rather than responding to the valid concerns of Ferriera and others, Walmart management began targeting her for speaking out. She was unfairly disciplined for minor errors and interrogated by management whenever she participated in concerted activities with other associates. Walmart claims to have fired Ferriera for taking “extended breaks” but never provided any documentation or evidence of its claim.

Ferriera’s story is the tip of the iceberg. All across the country, unscrupulous employers are actively squashing and suppressing workers who are collectively seeking improvements in their workplaces. These aggressive and unlawful efforts must be stopped and the Worker Anti-Retaliation Act would put in place the safeguards to do so.

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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.

On eve of Marissa Mayer’s first shareholder meeting as Yahoo’s CEO, Workers Protest Walmart Board Member Marissa Mayer After Being Fired for Speaking Out for a Better Life and Improved Working Conditions

Sunnyvale, CA –Yesterday, recently fired Walmart Associates who were illegally terminated by the company in an attempt to suppress their rights to speak out and join together with their coworkers for a better life held a dramatic protest at Yahoo Inc. headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, leading to five arrests. The actions taken by the workers were to bring attention to Marissa Mayer’s, Yahoo’s CEO and a board member of Walmart, silence as the retail giant bullies its employees. As a Board member at Walmart, Mayer has a responsibility to ensure that Walmart does not violate the freedom of speech of workers who speak out for better jobs, said Walmart workers.

The dramatic sit-in and march at Yahoo’s headquarters took place a day before Yahoo’s annual shareholders meeting and follow recent protests at Yahoo’s campus and Mayer’s Four Seasons penthouse in San Francisco. For months, Walmart workers and community members have raised concerns about her position as a board member at Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, which is facing pressure both from its employees and community groups over the company’s business practices at home and overseas.

Since June 2011, Walmart Associates have been organizing as a group known as the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). That organizing resulted in a series of strikes nationwide leading up to Walmart’s June annual shareholder meeting. Now, just days after that meeting, Walmart has responded by firing and disciplining workers who participated in the OUR Walmart protests and strikes in an illegal effort to suppress workers’ freedom of speech. Their efforts are being met by an outcry from community and elected leaders at the national, state and local level who are calling on the Board of Directors to take control of the company’s behavior to ensure that the law is followed and basic American values are respected.

“As a working mom, I thought Marissa Mayer would understand why I’m standing up to create a better life for my family,” said Walmart associate Marie Roberty, who was recently fired for speaking out. “I was wrong. We’ve been reaching out to Ms. Mayer for months now, but so far she’s remained silent. I joined with my coworkers in publicly calling for Walmart to improve in the hopes of keeping food on the table, a roof over our heads, and having a regular schedule that allows me to be there for my kids. Instead, Walmart fired me – and I’m here today to hold Marissa Mayer accountable for this, and I’ll keep speaking out until Walmart ends its illegal retaliation against me and my coworkers.”

The workers’ calls for change come as Mayer and other members of Walmart’s board have remained silent even as the company contends with widespread protests against its treatment of its workers, plummeting customer service ratings and weak store sales due to understaffing, and preventable tragedies in the supply chain.

OUR Walmart members and supporters nationwide have been calling for the company to end retaliation against employees and publicly commit to providing full-time work with a minimum salary of $25,000 a year so workers don’t have to rely on taxpayer funded programs to support their families. As the nation’s largest private employer, a change of course at Walmart would have a direct impact on millions of working families and the economy as a whole.

Workers and their supporters also delivered a card signed by hundreds of progressive journalists, activists, and other supporters at last week’s Netroots Nation; that card asks Mayer to meet with Walmart workers and support their calls for change at the company.

“Walmart’s outrageous suppression of its workers’ freedom of speech shows just how far out of step this company is with American values of freedom and respect for hard work. It’s unacceptable that a company with $16 billion in profits is bullying working families just trying to make ends meet and keep food on the table,” said Terry O’Neill, President of the National Organization for Women (NOW). “We’re not going to stand for it – we’re going to stand up to Walmart’s illegal behavior until they stand down and respect workers’ rights to speak out.”

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LEGAL DISCLAIMER: UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

Former Zellers worker Angela Rankine

My name is Angela Rankine, and for thirteen years, I worked at Zellers in Toronto. But when Target took over the store leases two years ago, I lost my job, along with 25,000 other workers just like me.

When Target came to Canada, they had the opportunity to be a responsible neighbor and help build up our communities. Instead, Target chose to build at the expense of the community.

Target could have chosen to let us keep our jobs. Instead, the company has made workers, with over a decade of experience serving the community, re-apply for entry-level jobs. Those workers who did manage to get their jobs back have lost the pay and benefits that they earned over years of service.

Everybody knows about Walmart’s poor track record of disregarding their workers’ rights. But when it comes to Target’s record on workers’ rights in Canada, the company fares way worse than Walmart, and that’s a pretty scary situation.

Last week, I traveled to Denver, Colorado to ask Target executives to rehire Zellers workers. With the support of Denver-area union members and community allies, I spoke out at Target’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Over one hundred supporters cheered me on as our allies and I walked into the meeting.

I know that we still have a long fight ahead before we will get our jobs back, but I also know that we’re not fighting alone. My union brothers and sisters had my back in Denver, and together, we will keep on fighting.

Members of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) could not agree more. Today, these brave men and women are taking a stand at Walmart’s annual shareholders’ meeting to protest the company’s practice of retaliating against workers who speak out for positive change in the workplace. Citing Walmart’s $16 billion in profits every year, OUR Walmart members are calling on the company to publicly commit to raising wages and increasing access to full-time hours so that no worker at Walmart makes less than $25,000 per year.

Walmart can and should lead the way in making sure that retail jobs are good jobs—the kind that come with good benefits and wages for all workers. If Walmart would listen to—and respect—its workers, it could not only reverse the downward trends that have plagued the company, it could also help to rebuild our country’s economy and strengthen America’s middle class.

For more information about OUR Walmart, visit http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/.

Now, the group of associates, former associates, and supporters are in Bentonville at Walmart’s headquarters, and are making their voices heard.

Tonight at 4:30 PM PST/7:3O PM EST there will be a public forum with a panel discussion on retail jobs, and jobs in the retail supply chain, including warehousing and global suppliers. #Walmartstrikers and allies with be there, and the event will be live streamed so that those of us not in Bentonville can hear from them about why Walmart must stop attempting to silence its workers when they speak up about issues on the job.

OUR Walmart leaders have been canvassing the local Bentonville community and inviting them to the event as well.

Share this image on facebook or with friends to show your support!

Tune in HERE to watch! Speakers will include:

-Aimee Castenell, Color of Change

-Terry O’Neill, National Organization for Women

-Rob Wohl, SumOfUs

-Kim Bobo, Interfaith Worker Justice

-Kalpona Akter, Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity

-Tsehai  Almaz Scott, OUR Walmart leader from Crenshaw, CA

-Dr. E Faye Williams, National Congress of Black Women

-Vanessa Ferriera, recently fired associate from Orlando, FL

“We just want respect. We’ve always asked for it; we’ve never gotten it. That’s why we’re doing this,” said Anzures.

RWDSU Jomar Car Wash workers in New York City strike to help their co-worker return to work.

Anzures’ firing was the latest incident in what workers say is a campaign of harassment that began before employees overwhelmingly voted to join the RWDSU. While Jomar workers used their new union voice to help their co-worker, they are still demanding their employer negotiate a fair union contract.

Jomar workers say co-owner and manager Jose Pires has taken a range of actions against workers and their efforts to organize and bargain a contract. Anzures pressed charges against Pires, who was arrested and taken to the police precinct.

The NLRB is investigating previous complaints from union members. Union lawyers are also preparing a complaint over this latest assault.
Six car washes across New York City have voted to join RWDSU since last July. Hi-Tek car wash in Queens, New York, ratified a contract, and is the first car wash east of Los Angeles where workers have a union contract.

Citing Walmart’s $16 billion in profits every year, OUR Walmart members have called on the company to publicly commit to raising wages and increasing access to full time hours so that no worker at Walmart makes less than $25,000 per year. Though Walmart has paid lip service to workers’ concerns since the historic Black Friday strikes last fall, the company has yet to take meaningful action to address the problems plaguing associates and customers at stores across the country.

“While the Walton family has the wealth of 42 percent of American families combined, many associates like me can’t even support our families without relying on government support,” said OUR Walmart member Mary Pat. “In addition to low pay, the company’s scheduling practices leave many of us with inadequate and erratic hours—making it impossible to afford even basic necessities or even find a second job.”

Several days before the shareholder meeting, “Ride for Respect” caravans will leave from cities across the country, including Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Orlando and Baton Rouge, among others. As OUR Walmart members make their way to Bentonville, Ark., they will hold actions at Walmart stores, talk to associates about OUR Walmart, and also stop to meet with local unions and supportive community organizations.

OUR Walmart members in Florida supporting Lisa Lopez as she delivers her strike letter.

Los Angeles Walmart worker Tsehai Almaz said that she and other OUR Walmart leaders were inspired to follow the example of the 1961 freedom riders. “I feel like we’re facing many of the same issues,” said Almaz, “it’s about respect, and being able to feed our families, and having good working conditions.”

“Walmart Board Members like Rob Walton and Greg Penner of the Walton family, Marissa Mayer and Aida Alvarez can do so much more to be leaders in this company and to help change the way Walmart treats workers. We’re telling them that silence is no longer an option,” said OUR Walmart member Colby Harris.

Calls for a change of course and leadership at Walmart have grown in recent months, as the company faces allegations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations abroad and scrutiny in the U.S. over empty shelves and long lines caused by inadequate staffing.

For more information, visit http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/

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.

While the EPA’s action is a step in the right direction, the comments pointed out that the settlement agreement failed to include the people who are closest to the problem – the workers who operate and maintain the refrigeration systems.

UFCW members work in almost 900 different facilities across the country that use anhydrous ammonia for refrigeration. Although these refrigeration systems are covered by very strict environmental and safety standards, many of them fail to comply with these standards. The UFCW Occupational Safety & Health Office has an educational program available for any interested Locals to help determine if plants are in compliance and to help develop an action plan to protect members.

The UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Office will continue to fight for workers and their representatives to be included in the process of improving and evaluating Tyson’s ammonia safety program.

Survivors of the Tazreen factory fire pointing out clothing at Walmart made by workers in Bangladesh

Many people would be surprised to know that garment making is quite possibly the most dangerous job “outside of war zones,” as Washington Post writer Harold Meyerson puts it in a recent article about the dangerous cycle that is the garment industry.

The death toll from last month’s building collapse in Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Bangladesh, has climbed to over 1100. Bangladesh comes second only to China in clothing and garment exports. The scale of this tragedy is immense, and heartbreaking, but it is by no means an isolated incident, or even the most recent event to have claimed the lives of workers in Bangladesh for that matter. Since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory, which was structurally unsound, a fire that broke out in another facility last week, claiming eight lives. Another fire at Bangladesh’s Tazreen factory killed over 100 workers in late 2012. In most cases, workers cannot escape the fires due to a lack of fire doors and stairways, which are supposed to be in place.

Now, the major retailers that are supplied by Bangladesh garment factories are being forced to face the facts and take responsibility. Some companies have admitted to inadequate safety inspections, where inspectors made sure there were on-site fire extinguishers and things of that nature, but failed to ensure “the structural soundness” of the buildings.

Thanks to pressure by unions and activists around the world, a number of these mega-retailers have agreed to adhere to a plan to finally make working conditions for workers in garment factories safer. As per the plan, these companies have agreed to pay for renovations of these factories as well as “independent inspections” that will ensure the new safety measures are maintained.

Although H&M, the  biggest buyer in Bangladesh, as well as companies like British-owned Primark have agreed to the plan, only one American company has done so. PVH, which is the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and Izod, have taken this step towards responsible business, major American companies like Gap and Walmart have so far refused, and don’t show any signs of doing the right thing.

Why can’t the Walton family, with their $116 billion fortune, commit to these measures when others have readily done so? The value of human life is greater than cheap clothing, but that doesn’t seem to be the way these companies see it.

Meyerson notes that it is not Bangladesh that is the problem- the industry has faced many hurdles surrounding safety since its existence. But incidents like the triangle shirt-waist factory fire have taught us how to change for the better. But instead of taking these lessons about worker safety and using them to do good, companies like Walmart have taken the problem “to a new level.”  Meyerson continues:

“By depressing wages at its retail outlets and at every point along its supply chain, [Walmart] has helped create an underpaid buying public compelled to shop for discount clothing. Everyday low wages create a demand for everyday low prices — a downward spiral that hits bottom in the deathtraps of Bangladesh.”

This trend in the retail industry affects all Americans, but it hits very close to home for many UFCW members. In a statement issued about the pact to improve workplace safety in Bangladesh, UFCW President Joe Hansen stated:

“Thousands of UFCW members work in the retail industry, including at H&M, and the UFCW will continue to honor the workers who died or were injured in Bangladesh by supporting workers here and abroad who are struggling to protect their basic rights, and by calling on other retailers that have a strong presence in Bangladesh—such as Walmart—to do the right thing and sign this agreement.”

It’s time for these retailers to take action.

Washington, DC-

“Usually I work 36 hours a week but they cut hours…sometimes I even get only 26 hours and I am supposed to be fulltime,” said Chicago native and OUR Walmart member Rose Campbell, who is featured on the site.  “I’ve even had 19 hours.  I’ve got bills and none of that changes…you have to make do.”

ReallyWalmart.org includes testimony from Walmart employees, community activist and even Actor/Activist Danny Glover.  The site also includes footage from elected officials, including President Obama’s keynote address to the Unite Food and Commercial Workers Union in 2008.  Also featured is exclusive footage from labor activist and former Bangladesh garment worker Kalpona Aktar.

“We might not have millions of dollars to pay for TV ads, but we have the stories to share that Walmart doesn’t want the public to hear,” said OUR Walmart member Charlene Fletcher.  “The truth is that Walmart is a company that puts profits over people and employs tactics and strategies that keep employees like me in jobs that don’t let us provide for our families.  Even while Walmart’s profits are going up, my coworkers and I have to rely on food stamps just to cover groceries.”

Citing nearly $16 billion in annual profits and a CEO earning 1000 times the average employee, Walmart employees and communities across the globe are calling for a change of course at the company.  Making Change at Walmart is calling on the company to raise wages, an end to retaliation against employees who speak out as well as increased access to full time hours so that employees make a minimum of $25,000 per year.

Additionally, the group is also calling on Walmart sign a binding agreement on fire and building safety to help prevent tragedies like last month’s Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh which caused the death of more than 1,000 garment workers.

Over the course of the last year, Walmart has seen its reputation and business practices questioned amidst bribery allegations, tragedies in its supply chain and turmoil amongst its workforce including strikes launched last year for the first time in the company’s 51 year history.  Since 2011 Walmart has seen a decline in its reputational index rating, while its competitors have seen an increase during the same period and support for changing course at Walmart has been growing.  Last fall, more than 30,000 supporters joined striking workers on picket lines around Black Friday and since then a number of actions have taken place at Walmart stores across the country including last month when hundreds of OUR Walmart members and their supporters called on the company to correct scheduling problems within stores.

The new website highlights stories from various Walmart employees including those who have called on the company to change course and leadership.  Additionally, it features stories of Walmart employees who receive public assistance and those work along the supply chain.

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UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

Thousands of UFCW members work in the retail industry, including at H&M, and the UFCW will continue to honor the workers who died or were injured in Bangladesh by supporting workers here and abroad who are struggling to protect their basic rights, and by calling on other retailers that have a strong presence in Bangladesh—such as Walmart—to do the right thing and sign this agreement.

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.”

source: http://bit.ly/18pwlBC

The Retail Justice Alliance stands with our sisters and brothers in Bangladesh who were told to report to work in a building that had severe structural cracks and lost their lives.  As the death toll continues to rise in Bangladesh after the collapse of a building that housed garment factory workers, it’s clear that cheap apparel comes at too great a human cost.

Workers everywhere deserve a safe place to work, and those corporations that exploit workers for profit and put them in danger must be held accountable. The Retail Justice Alliance will continue to honor the workers who died or were injured in Bangladesh by supporting workers in the retail industry who are struggling to protect their basic rights – including safe jobs, workplace fairness and collective bargaining.

Washington, D.C

“As the death toll continues to rise in Bangladesh after the collapse of a building that housed garment factory workers, it’s clear that cheap apparel comes at too great a human cost.  UFCW members in the U.S. and Canada working in retail stores and many related industries stand with our sisters and brothers in Bangladesh who were told to report to work in a building that had severe structural cracks and lost their lives.

“Workers everywhere deserve a safe place to work, and those corporations that exploit workers for profit and put them in danger must be held accountable. Thousands of UFCW members work in the retail industry, and the UFCW will continue to honor the workers who died or were injured in Bangladesh by supporting workers here in the U.S. and around the world who are struggling to protect their basic rights – including safe jobs, workplace fairness and collective bargaining.”

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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 http://www.ufcw.org/, or join our online community at http://www.facebook.com/ufcwinternational and https://twitter.com/UFCW.

Please find a link to LabourStart’s action alert here: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1813

ONTARIO, Calif

Rodriguez, along with Warehouse Workers United, filed formal federal charges today to protest the illegal firing.

“Walmart is committed to one thing, looking the other way when workers in its supply chain are abused,” Rodriguez said. “Just look at the factory collapse in Bangladesh this week or the fire that killed 112 last year. Just look at the conditions inside the warehouses in Southern California.”

Supporters launched a petition calling on Walmart to ensure Rodriguez’s reinstatement Friday and plan to deliver the signatures to Walmart officials Monday in Downtown Los Angeles. (Local reporters, see event details below.)

Rodriguez and his coworkers have repeatedly demonstrated that Walmart does not hold its contractors to its own standards. Warehouse workers, who are required to work inside dark, hot, metal shipping containers with little ventilation or water, under pressure to meet high quotas in the face of frequent injury, filed a complaint with the state agency responsible for workplace conditions last summer.

Though Walmart initially dismissed workers’ concerns, in December, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) cited NFI Industries, which is contracted by Walmart to operate the warehouse, and one staffing agency, tens of thousands of dollars in health and safety violations.

Earlier this month Walmart supply chain workers from the National Guestworker Alliance, Warehouse Workers United, New Labor, Warehouse Workers for Justice and Jobs with Justice convened to respond to Walmart’s claim that it holds its suppliers to its “Standards for Suppliers.” Workers offered their own set of core principles that would ensure improved labor standards in the supply chain.

“What workers have shown is that Walmart’s standards are nothing more than a sheet of paper,” said Guadalupe Palma, director of Warehouse Workers United. “To be serious the Walmart’s standards must be enforceable, credible standards that are centered around workers. Walmart must ensure Javier is reinstated and immediately start acting to resolve serious problems in its supply chain.”

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Warehouse Workers United is an organization committed to improving the quality of life and jobs in Southern California’s Inland Empire. More than 85,000 warehouse workers work moving goods for major retailers like Walmart in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Last week, in West, Texas, a fertilizer plant exploded, killing at least 15 workers and emergency responders.  The amount of deadly chemicals stored at the plant was thousands of times beyond the mandated limit, and inspections of the factory had not been performed in several years.

This week, news of a collapsed garment factory in Bangladesh that has killed at least 300 workers saddened us all.  Reports that cracks in the building’s foundation found yesterday were ignored and that management still forced employees to come to work are alarming.  This incident comes only months after more than 100 workers perished at another Bangladesh garment factory, when a fire broke out and locked doors (done by management) trapped workers inside.

• Can you take a moment to sign the petition asking Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju to Make garment factories in Bangladesh safe?

Workers at a Nicaraguan Walmart supplier were recently physically attacked by a paid mob when they protested about being fired for trying to organize for a voice on the job.

It’s time that companies stopped putting workers’ lives at risk in order to make a profit.  The working people who make corporations successful deserve basic human rights, and deserve safe working environments.

Take a moment to remember the victims of workplace fatalities, and help us continue to fight for worker safety. If you have a story of a friend or loved one lost or injured on the job that you would like to share, please send us a message on our Facebook page.

2013 Worker Memorial Day Break Room Flyers

Workers at the world’s largest musical instrument retailer are standing together for their rights in New York City and other areas across the country. Guitar Center workers at the flagship store in Manhattan have overwhelming support to file and hold an election to have a voice on the job and join the RWDSU.

In 2007 Bain Capital, the world’s largest private asset management firm, acquired Guitar Center and since then has been steadily stripping away pay and benefits from workers. Workers say it’s  getting harder for them to make ends meet on the low wages and so they are speaking out about their working conditions.

Guitar Center workers started an online petition asking Bain Capital and Guitar Center to respect their rights and allow them to join a union without fear of retaliation or harassment. The petition can be signed at http://bit.ly/YdhKVt.

Workers at Guitar Center are standing together for workers’ rights and to have a voice on the job with RWDSU.

Guitar Center is home to the world’s largest selection of popular guitars, basses, amplifiers, keyboards, workstations, drums, percussion, PA systems, DJ equipment, stage lighting, recording software, studio gear, and more.

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.

OUR Walmart member Rose Campbell is a grandmother of 14 and has worked at Walmart for four years in Chicago.  While Walmart considers Rose a full time employee, she is never scheduled 40 hours a week. Her schedule is erratic – some weeks she works 32 hours, others 38. Sometimes she will be scheduled for as few as 19 hours a week. With low pay and a fluctuating schedule, Rose struggles to cover her bills. She is unable to afford her own car or apartment.

OUR Walmart members believe in the value and importance of consistent scheduling and adequate hours. Thousands of Walmart workers work fewer hours they want and need to make ends meet. Workers say their schedules are often inconsistent, varying in the number of hours they get, as well as the shifts they are required to work. This makes budgeting nearly impossible and limits workers’ ability to go to school or find a second supplemental job.

The national day of action is a call for change at Walmart so workers like Rose can work the hours they need to get by. More information on the national action day on April 24 can be viewed at http://bit.ly/Z0jLZ6.

In January 2013, after speaking out about the issue for more than a year, OUR Walmart members won a huge victory: Walmart CEO Mike Duke announced that Walmart would provide more transparency in scheduling and offer part time workers the opportunity to get the hours they so desperately need. Unfortunately, workers report that three months later Walmart has yet to make good on its public commitment to change.

Martha Sellars, a Walmart associate from Paramount, CA, also noted, as she spoke at the conference, that Walmart is not a good employer, and therefore must stay out of Chinatown.  Touching on the never-ending fight to return Walmart to what its founder, Sam Walton, created it to be, Martha said:

“One of [Sam Walton's] beliefs was to listen to us, the workers. We know what’s going on in the stores–we deal with it everyday. So when we speak up now, the store retaliates

Martha and many other activists, business owners, workers, and residents protested last year, when Walmart began construction on the controversial Chinatown location.

Watch the videos of the Martha’s speech below to hear more about how Walmart’s mistreatment of workers, and its negative impact on the economy, make it a bad choice for Chinatown.

source: thecomingcrisis.blogspot.com

Walmart has been touting claims about its fresh produce, healthy food options, and great products all around for a while now, but recently, customers have been finding that the selection of great food products available at Walmart is not up to par with all the company claims it to be.

A few examples that went viral this week help demonstrate the problem.  When someone posted photos of a box of doughnuts that had layers of expiration stickers on it, each with a different date, many others related and shared similar stories. This twitpic shows another not-so-fresh photo from a customer who, while shopping at 6:30 pm at Walmart, saw rotisserie chickens on display that had been cooked at 10:15 am.

A driving force behind the poor selection in products like produce? An article in the New York Times helps explain what has been happening more and more in Walmart’s across the country:

“Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly.”

Walmart’s decision to deprive its associates of full-time work and healthcare is actually hurting the company:

“Internal notes from a March meeting of top Walmart managers show the company grappling with low customer confidence in its produce and poor quality. “Lose Trust,” reads one note, “Don’t have items they are looking for — can’t find it.”

Despite this problem, Walmart continues to expand across the country, while the average number of store employees has decreased from 338 to 281. Not only has the decrease in employee staffing and hours hurt the availability of fresh food, but it has created other issues as well:

“Tsehai Scott, a manager at a Los Angeles Walmart who is a member of the union-affiliated employee group OUR Walmart, said “sometimes there’s a 30- or 40-minute wait in the line” because there are not enough cashiers working. With as few as 11 people on the overnight shift stocking the 218,000-square-foot store, “stocking has fallen by the wayside in what we call the consumable areas,” meaning everyday products like food or toiletries. “The department won’t get as clean as it should,” she said, “or we’ll see spoiled food in the food department, that if we had enough hands, we could get it back to the freezer or refrigerator in time.”

The result of all of this? An exodus of customers to other retailers like Costco and Safeway.  When will Walmart realize that what is good for the associate is good for business too? If the company wants to turn things around, they should start by listening to what the world is telling it: treat your workers better.

But recently, things have changed.

Darrell was recently fired for supposedly violating a time and attendance policy. Even when Darrell proved that he hadn’t violated the company policy, Juicy denied him unemployment, and a judge had to step in.

Duane, who started his job at 40 hours a week, has seen his hours cut drastically over the years, so that he is now only working 14 a week.  The company claims this is due to his lack of availability, since he has a five-year-old daughter.

But Duane and Darrell are not the only employees at their location to experience such practices.  Many of their coworkers also started as full-time employees, and now only 19 of the 128 Juicy flagship workers are full-time.  When Duane and Darrell realized that their full-time workforce had been swapped for a part-time one, and part-time hours became capped at 21 hours a week, they decided to stand up to Juicy, and are telling the company–which sells $200 jeans and sweaters–to take care of its workers.

Juicy’s actions of cutting hours is so that it does not have to provide healthcare for  its part-time workers. In a time and city where it is hard enough to make ends meet while working a full time job, part-time hours and no healthcare is crippling to these hardworking individuals. To stand up for workers like themselves, who have been forced out of a job due to lack of hours or unjust firing, Duane and Darrell have started a petition in partnership with the Retail Action Project.

“We know from experience that Juicy has loyal customers and dedicated employees — if enough of us speak out and demand Just Hours, they’ll have no choice but to act,” note the former employees.  They couldn’t be more correct–which is why the workers should organize.  If the employees at Juicy Couture come together and unionize, to stand up for their rights as workers, they can put a stop to these unfair business practices.

Please sign their petition here, and tell Juicy to take care of its workers!

Walmart likes to claim that they are organic, sustainable, and all about healthy options. But in reality, Walmart is a driving force in the unhealthy lifestyles that have led to an “epidemic” of weight and diet-related health problems in our country.

Walmart’s share of the grocery market stands at an unprecedented and increasingly-growing 25%.  This means that Walmart has an alarming amount of control over what American eats.

According to an article from Truthout, Walmart has “recast its relentless expansion as a solution to ‘food deserts.’” However, when looking at the stats, it isn’t hard to see that this claim is more of a PR stunt:

“Although Walmart has made food deserts the vanguard of its PR strategy in urban areas, most of the stores the chain has built or proposed in cities like Chicago and Washington D.C. are in fact just blocks from established supermarkets, many unionized or locally owned.  As it pushes into cities, Walmart’s primary aim is not to fill gaps but to grab market share.”

Aside from Walmart’s bogus reasoning behind its rapid expansion, what is truly worrisome is this:

“Walmart’s takeover of our food system has been to intensify the rural and urban poverty that drives unhealthy food choices.  Poverty has a strong negative effect on diet, regardless of whether there is a grocery store in the neighborhood or not, a major 15-year study published in 2011 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found. Access to fresh food cannot change the bottom-line reality that cheap, calorie-dense processed foods and fast food are financially logical choices for far too many American households.  And their numbers are growing right alongside Walmart.  Like Midas in reverse, Walmart extracts wealth and pushes down incomes in every community it touches, from the rural areas that produce food for its shelves to the neighborhoods that host its stores.”

Farmers and food workers are now struggling more than ever to make a living now too, thanks to Walmart’s control of the industry.  In order to avoid being crushed by  the mega-corporation, food companies have been forced to merge and consolidate in hopes that they can supply for Walmart. The result is that 4 meatpacking companies slaughter more than three quarters of America’s beef, and a single dairy producer handles 40% of the country’s milk.  With monopolies like this, the ability for businesses to compete is all but zilch.

The effect of all of this? It comes down to less pay for farmers and food workers, a decrease in the value of the consumer dollar, and higher grocery prices overall.  But since Walmart’s prices are so low, many are forced to shop there, creating a vicious cycle: “As Walmart stores multiply, fewer families can afford to eat well.”

But let’s not forget the other huge reason Walmart is downright unhealthy: It doesn’t provide its hard-working associates with living wages, affordable healthcare, or oftentimes, even a safe working environment.  When the workers who make Walmart the success it is have to decide between food for their family or paying the electric bill, can’t go to the doctor because if they miss work they will be fired, or are afraid to speak out about issues in the workplace because of harassment and intimidation, healthy living becomes impossible–regardless of food choice.

Mott’s workers in New York signed a new contract for better wages, benefits, schedules, and respect on the job.

Local 220* Mott’s workers in New York have ratified a new contract. The contract contains wage improvements, signing bonuses, secures health care coverage for over 300 employees at the plant, and contains numerous language improvements that will help workers with scheduling and overtime issues.

In 2010, Local 220* members employed at the Mott’s plant in Williamson, New York were forced on strike by company greed. Workers waged a nationwide public campaign that exposed the greed of Motts and their parent company, Dr. Pepper/Snapple. Workers walked a picket line for several months, until Motts backed away from demands to gut their contract and do away with the workers’ retirement security.

Congrats to the Mott’s workers of Local 220* on their hard-earned contract!

Many IUF union workers are employed by Mondelez International, a leading chocolatier, biscuit and candy maker, and gum manufacturer. Their brands include Cadbury, Milka, Oreo, Nabisco, Tang, and Trident, just to name a few.  Despite being the world’s leading manufacturer for these products, Mondelez international has repeatedly shown that they do not care for the hard workers that make them successful.

Ahmad Abdulghani Awad Abdulghani, 26 years old, worked at Cadbury Egypt, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mondelez, from 2008 to December 2011. He never had a permanent job, but was part of the army of precarious workers making chewing gum at the Alexandria factory. He lost half his thumb while operating a machine which should normally be run by three persons. Then he lost his job.

This is the same factory management that sacked 5 union leaders in June 2012 following a spontaneous protest over the company’s refusal to pay a government-mandated private-sector pay rise.

This is the same company whose management in Tunisia has dismissed and suspended union leaders and denies responsibility for these abuses.
This is the company whose corporate management refuses to respond to communications to the IUF, the international union that represents these workers.

The IUF has therefore filed a formal complaint for violations of international human rights standards with the relevant US government agency – and has launched a GLOBAL CAMPAIGN in defense of its members at Mondelez in Egypt and Tunisia.

To learn about the campaign go to http://www.screamdelez.org – there you can learn more and download campaign materials for distribution to union members at Mondelez.

Click here to send a message to Mondelez – tell them to make time to rectify human rights abuses and to meet with the IUF NOW!

Also, please be sure to like the campaign facebook page.

UFCW Pilgrim’s Pride poultry workers visited Secrectary of Agricultre Tom Vilsack, OSHA, and members of Congress to lobby for better wages and worker safety in the poultry industry.

Last week, 12 Pilgrim’s Pride poultry workers from UFCW Locals 227, 455, 540, 1996, 2008, and RWDSU Mid-South Council traveled to Washington, D.C. to fight for changes in the poultry industry.

Despite the financial success experienced by many poultry companies, poultry workers continue to earn some of the lowest wages and face some of the most dangerous workplaces in the industry. Pilgrim’s Pride workers especially are suffering.

When Pilgrim’s Pride faced bankruptcy back in 2008, the company asked the workers to make concessions to keep their plants viable. Those workers with a union voice on the job were able to protect themselves from the most severe cuts, but had to sacrifice overtime pay and holidays to keep their jobs. The company is now posting record profits but the workers have not seen a raise in over two years, or had the overtime and holidays they gave up returned to them. And, Pilgrim’s Pride is holding workers up at the negotiating table and leaving contracts open.

“We work hard and work full-time and we just can’t make ends meet on these wages. My entire community is centered around the poultry plant. When workers aren’t making decent wages, the whole community suffers because people can’t afford to buy anything,” said Brian Rush, a Pilgrim’s Pride worker from the Batesville, Ark., plant and a member of UFCW Local 2008.

“On these wages, a lot of people can’t even afford to buy the product that they make. If a person makes $9 an hour and a box of chicken is around $60 – it all just doesn’t make sense,” said Carey Stanley, a Pilgrim’s Pride worker from the Live Oak, Fla., plant and a member of UFCW Local 1996.

Pilgrim’s Pride traveled to Washington, D.C. on a mission to tell their stories and educate lawmakers and policymakers about what it’s like to work in the poultry industry. They visited and spoke with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and his staff, ranking members of OSHA, as well as Senators Pryor, Kaine, Bennet, and Stabenow, and several members of the House of Representatives.
At the Department of Agriculture, members told Secretary Vilsack and key staff members about the struggles they face working full-time for a successful company that pays low wages. Workers also pointed out that Pilgrim’s Pride receives almost $75 million in government contracts, and is the second largest government poultry contract in the country. They argued that changes have to be made so that there is some balance and justice between company profits and worker wages.

“I brought my W-2 and my last paycheck to show them that I work 40-hour weeks and last year I made only $18,000. I work hard, my family makes sacrifices, and we are struggling so much,” said Idalid Guerrero, a Pilgrim’s Pride worker from the Lufkin, Texas, plant and a member of UFCW Local 540.

Workers then visited with Assistant Director of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels, Chief of Staff Debbie Berkowitz and additional staff of OSHA. In their meeting, workers discussed safety issues on the job, including dangerous ammonia leaks, the lack of decent medical care at the workplace, and the company not reporting injuries to avoid any lost-time reports.

The lobby day continued with workers visiting senators and representatives on Capitol Hill. There, workers educated members of Congress and their staff on the nature of the poultry industry, how workers are treated, and called for the necessary changes that the industry and union can make to turn poultry jobs into middle class, family supporting jobs. Workers also asked members of Congress to support a new federal study on the poultry industry in order to investigate further into worker wages and workplace conditions and bring the poultry industry issues to attention so that companies will begin to be held accountable and changes can be made.

Check out photos from the Lobby days on our Flckr! (Day 1 ,  Day 2)

Workers from Quetico, LLC, a warehouse in Chino, California that moves merchandise destined for Walmart and other retailers, launched the petition in February after the state determined that 865 workers had more than $1 million in wages stolen from them.

“We are grateful for the support from so many people throughout the country,” said Yurguien Juarez, a warehouse worker who traveled to San Francisco. “We really hope that with all this attention Walmart will recognize the need to involve workers in ensuring conditions inside the warehouses are safe and workers are treated with respect.”

After conducting a lengthy investigation into serious wage and hour complaints at that warehouse, the state of California issued a citation to Quetico for $1 million in wage theft over the last three years based on unpaid overtime wages, penalties, and meal period violations. Since the Labor Commissioner announced her department’s findings, harassment against the workers has increased and the company has vowed to appeal the ruling prompting workers to create the petition.

Support has been strong. Walmart workers, students, union members and community supporters joined the peaceful delivery of the petition signatures.

“Walmart must listen to the very people who make its business work,” said Feng Kung with Jobs with Justice in San Francisco. “We are proud to join with warehouse workers in their fight to improve their jobs.”

The petition calls on Walmart to enforce its “Standards for Suppliers” with real accountability and input from workers like Yurguien Juarez. As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart holds the power to clean up an entire industry, improve jobs and protect workers willing to speak out for the greater good.

Workers also asked both Alavarez and Mayer to meet with them. Warehouse workers noted that the goals of the Latino Community Foundation, which Alvarez chairs, and of Warehouse Workers United are similar.

“We estimate that about 80 percent of the 85,000 warehouse workers in the region are Latino,” said Guadalupe Palma, director of Warehouse Workers United. “Like the Latino Community Foundation we are focused on transforming the lives of thousands of workers and their families. Good jobs with decent wages, access to healthcare and other basic rights are key to warehouse workers’ ability to achieve the American Dream.”

Warehouse Workers United is an organization committed to improving the quality of life and jobs for warehouse workers in Southern California’s Inland Empire. About 85,000 workers, mostly Latino, labor in San Bernardino and Riverside counties moving goods that are destined for retailers like Walmart. The majority of workers are hired through temp agencies, paid low wages, receive no benefits, and have no job security.

]]> http://www.ufcw.org/2013/03/01/warehouse-workers-deliver-20000-signatures-to-bay-area-walmart-board-members/feed/ 0 http://www.ufcw.org/2013/02/07/walmart-workers-in-maryland-and-texas-walk-off-job/ http://www.ufcw.org/2013/02/07/walmart-workers-in-maryland-and-texas-walk-off-job/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:37:53 +0000 Maura Pond http://www.ufcw.org/?p=15248 Walmart workers in Maryland and Texas walked off the job today in protest of the company’s attempts to silence workers. OUR Walmart issued the following statement regarding today’s action:

Walmart Workers in Maryland and Texas Walk Off Job

Colby Harris, OUR Walmart member

Washington, DC-  Today at noon, Walmart workers in Maryland and Texas citing Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) committed by Walmart, walked off the job in protest of the company’s attempts to silence workers who speak out for better jobs.  The worker action comes in response to reports of Walmart managers in Maryland and across the country telling Walmart workers that their actions taken last Black Friday were illegal, any future attempts to strike would be illegal and punishable, and for associating or even talking with Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) could lead to termination.

“What I know based on my conversations with other OUR Walmart leaders and other associates from Walmart Associates in Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Maryland and other states last week Walmart managers started reading a memo to employees stating that their right to strike are illegal and if they did not stop taking action against the company they would be punished,” said Colby Harris, a Dallas, TX Walmart Associate, OUR Walmart leader and striker.  “Not only are such statements to employees illegal but they are threatening and intimidating and no one should have to endure that.  I along with other Walmart associates work hard to support our families and support our community, as a worker I should have the right to do my job free from intimidation and threats.”

Walmart workers have been speaking out about the company’s manipulation of hours and benefits, efforts to try to keep people from working full-time and discrimination against women and people of color, but rather than listening to the concerns facing 1.4 million Walmart workers, Walmart has attempted to silence them.

Last October, OUR Walmart leaders held the first-ever strikes against the mega-retailer.  At that time, workers walked off their jobs in more than 12 cities and with the support of national and local leaders, held protests at more than 200 stores. Since then, workers have walked off the job in Richmond, CA and Dallas, TX, and support for OUR Walmart, the associate organization calling for Walmart to publicaly commit to address labor rights and standards, has continued to grow.

Striking warehouse workers, who move billions of dollars of merchandise for Walmart, joined the call to speak about the retaliation they have experienced for speaking out against unsafe working conditions, including extreme temperatures, broken and unsafe equipment and inadequate access to clean drinking water.  The workers from the Inland Empire, outside of Los Angeles, held a 15-day strike that included a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage for safe jobs last September.

Energy around the calls for Walmart to publicly commit to changing its treatment of workers and communities has been building.  Last year, thousands of Walmart Associates and their supporters took unprecedented actions against Walmart in response to illegal actions the world’s largest private employer has been taking against its workers.  We saw Walmart workers walk off the job from California to Maryland, in protest against the company’s attempts to silence workers who labor rights, and standards.  And in the fall for the first time in the history of the company, we saw the first group of Walmart associates go on strike.  As a result nearly 1,200 protests and actions took place at Walmart stores for  its treatment of employees and the communities they occupy.

“The reason I decided to strike was because I cannot allow Walmart to mislead, threaten and intimidate myself or my fellow associates.  We have rights and legal protection and if we don’t stand up to these misleading and downright untruths now, Walmart will continue its behavior and that is just unacceptable. We must hold Walmart accountable for their actions,” said Harris.

Following the protest at Walmart’s Laurel, MD store, Harris and other Walmart workers went to the National Labor Relations Board to file an official complaint against Walmart for their latest action to silence and intimidate workers.

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OUR Walmart’s purpose is to help Walmart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Walmart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Walmart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards.  OUR Walmart has no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with it as the representative of Walmart employees.

Stop and Shop supermarkets has now begun putting ads in local newspapers to hire temporary workers, or strikebreakers, in the event that a strike will take place- an insult to the company’s hardworking union members. These tactics are designed to scare and intimidate workers.

So far however, the difficult negotiations have yielded some results, and Stop and Shop has removed some its negative proposals from the bargaining table.  Still in negotiation are issues surrounding holiday premiums, sick pay, and job transfers – all important issues to our members.  On an even bigger scale though, are conflicts involving pensions, health and welfare, and wages, which will be discussed next week.

Stop and Shop is owned by the Royal Dutch company Ahold, which makes more than half of its profits in the U.S. That revenue came to more than 25.8  billion dollars in 2012, keeping it in competition with the likes of Walmart and Target. Yet, the company is greedy to expand those profit-margins further, by implementing low wages and taking away healthcare and other benefits from its Stop and Shop employees, as well as those who work for its many other grocery stores and businesses.

Although these contract negotiations are often long and difficult, the five locals have already made progress by standing together in solidarity. By working in unity, UFCW and Stop and Shop can come away with a deal that is fair for both parties.

Stay tuned to updates by visiting http://ufcwstopandshopnegotiations.com/