| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 15, 2001 |
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Best Investment For A Working Woman---A Union Card FROM SUFFRAGE TO ECONOMIC SECURITY: WOMEN WORKERS MARCH TO HOME OF SUFFRAGETTE TO LAUNCH NEW MOVEMENT FOR A VOICE AT WORK
Student And Worker Activists Challenge Area Supermarkets: Give Women A Voice At Work The Women's Network of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) will march from the Central Labor Council of Greater Syracuse to rally at the historic home of 19th century suffragette leader, Harriet May Mills. The rally will demand a voice at work for women in the retail food industry. The growth of low wage, low benefit employers such as Wal-Mart and Price Chopper are threatening to lower living and working standards for women workers in the Syracuse area. "Women struggled for decades to win the right to vote, so that we could have a voice in government. Now, we are leading a struggle to give women a voice at work, so that we can win a living wage, family health care and retirement security," said Susan Phillips, UFCW International Vice President and Director of the UFCW Working Women's Department. Prior to the march and rally, Phillips will release the preliminary results of a study showing that a union card is the best investment for women working in the retail food industry. The study being conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a national non-profit think tank on women's issues, focuses on the wages, health care and pensions. The preliminary results show, across the board, women do better with union cards in their purses. UFCW Local 1, through the AFL-CIO's union summer program, is working with student activists to challenge area retail food employers to recognize the right of workers to have a voice. The activists will be distributing information directly to workers on the value of a UFCW Local 1 voice at work over the next several weeks. RALLY AND MARCH INFORMATION
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