| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 24, 2000 |
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WORKERS KEEP ON WINNING AT JACKSONVILLE WAL-MART Meat Department workers at the Jacksonville, Texas Wal-Mart Supercenter scored again in their fight to have a voice at retailing's biggest bully. False promises, trumped up allegations, management intimidation and high priced company lawyers aren't stopping the Jacksonville workers. They stood together in voting for a workers' voice at Wal-Mart, and they're sticking together to make that voice heard. Wal-Mart's tactic of delay and divide has run into another dead end as a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing officer found on April 21, 2000 in favor of the workers, and dismissed the company's attempt to evade the results of a government- supervised, secret-ballot election. The election results stand up, and so are the workers. The workers are demanding that Wal-Mart immediately begin to negotiate over hours, schedules, work assignments, wages and health benefits. In a forked-tongued filing with the NLRB, Wal-Mart tried a desperate, last ditch legal maneuver to have the labor board overturn the election and to deny the clear wishes of employees. Workers pointed to the company's fabricated charges against their vote for a union as just more evidence of Wal-Mart's two-faced, double-talking method of personnel (mis)management. The NLRB hearing officer characterized some Wal-Mart testimony as "confused, inherently inconsistent and appeared to be deliberately exaggerated." "Wal-Mart fears a united workforce---and, the company would do or say anything to deceive and divide workers. The Jacksonville Seven remain rock solid in their fight for a voice and workers across the country are joining in to support them," said UFCW Local 540 President John Rodriguez. The 13.5 million-member AFL-CIO---the U.S.'s largest worker organization---is putting its membership on alert to monitor Wal-Mart's treatment of the Jacksonville workers. At a Texas rally last month in support of the Jacksonville Seven, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney pledged a massive education campaign to keep working families informed of Wal-Mart anti-worker activity. The giant retailer targets working families, particularly union households which generally have higher incomes, through its ad and marketing campaigns. "Wal-Mart wants to tie the workers up in legalistic red tape. We are going to cut through the red tape and take the case directly to the community, to the consumers and to Wal-Mart workers everywhere," said Rodriguez. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is the largest organization of retail workers in North America, with 1.4 million members. UFCW represents workers at retail food industry leaders such as Kroger and Safeway.
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