| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 9, 2001 |
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Jay Leno to Receive Working Amercia Award from United Food and Commercial Workers Union Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show, will be presented with the Working America award for "being a stand up guy for working Americans." The award, presented by the 1.4 million member United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), recognizes Mr. Leno for his refusal to perform at a conference, unless the union-busting seminar component of the conference was canceled. As the result of Mr. Leno's actions, the union-busting seminar was, in fact, canceled. Tens of thousands of workers each year are illegally fired, intimidated and harassed for the simple exercise of their right under federal law to have a choice for voice at work through a union. Union-busters regularly advise employers on how to suppress workers' efforts to unionize. To workers, union-busters are the workplace equivalent of terrorists who depend on fear, coercion and intimidation to defeat workers' organizing efforts. Jay Leno sent a strong message that union-busting is not an acceptable means of doing business. (The UFCW is America's neighborhood union with more than 900,000 members working in local grocery stores and supermarkets. Another 250,000 UFCW members in the food processing industry work everyday to put breakfast, lunch and dinner on the table for America's families. Over 100,000 UFCW members care for the sick and elderly in nursing homes and hospitals. The UFCW is an active, organizing union that has consistently grown over the past two decades. The UFCW has distinguished itself in the fight for affordable health care and workplace safety.) |
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