| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 16, 2002 |
|
|
Court Slaps Down Food Lion's Slapp Suit The South Carolina Court of Appeals dismissed an "abuse of process" suit by Food Lion against the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), originally filed in February 1993. Food Lion went after the union when the UFCW assisted former Food Lion workers file a class action suit, Bryant v. Food Lion, charging Food Lion illegally fired employees or forced them to quit and falsified the reasons for their discharge to deprive them of pension and health benefits. "The dismissal confirms what we've said all along, that the Food Lion suit was basically a SLAPP suit, a strategic lawsuit against public participation, designed to deter the union from providing legal support for Food Lion workers," said a UFCW spokesperson. A federal court had dismissed Food Lion's suit as early as July 1993. But the grocer pursued its charges for nearly a decade, getting the case remanded to state court. "This is just another example of how big business attempts to bully and intimidate workers and keep unions from helping them pursue their rights, stated the UFCW. "The real issue here is that the UFCW does have a right to stand up with Food Lion employees, or any other workers, contending with intolerable workplace conditions, whether they be wage and hour , safety and health, or pension and health care violations, and we will continue to do so." The UFCW is North America's largest and strongest private sector union. The UFCW is made up of 1.4 million members-people working together to improve their lives and their future. UFCW members are employed in many different industries, with the majority working in retail food, meatpacking, poultry, and other food processing industries |
|
 |
 |
