Members from UFCW Local 1776 and concerned customers rallied on Tax Day in front of the Giant Food store in West Chester, Pa.

The event was part of a statewide Tax Day push for tax fairness sponsored by the Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenue (CLEAR), an alliance of labor organizations representing over 1.1 million hard working Pennsylvanians that are united to fi ght for essential services and critical investments in Pennsylvania’s state budget and beyond.

Most of the companies evade some taxes by shifting income earned in Pennsylvania to tax-haven states like Delaware.

In February, the non-profi t Keystone Research Center sent a letter to Pennsylvania’s 1,000 largest for-profi t employers asking them to disclose how much each pays in state income taxes. The ten largest multi-state corporations doing business in the state, including Giant Food Stores did not disclose their tax statements.

Click here for more information on the Tax Day actions.

From the Supermarket News article:

The workers said they would denounce what they called Giant-Carlisle’s “actively campaigning to prevent workers from exercising the same fundamental rights that many of their U.S. and Dutch counterparts enjoy.”

About 65% of Ahold’s U.S. workforce is represented by local unions of the United Food and Commercial Workers, but the Giant-Carlisle division, including Martin’s stores, is not organized.

“It does not make sense and seems unfair that we all work for the same company but some employees do not have the same rights as other employees,” said Stafford, Va., resident Michele Hepner, a UFCW Local 400 union member who has worked at one of Ahold’s unionized stores for the past 37 years. “Ahold must treat all its workers fairly, and that is the message I intend to share with the shareholders at the meeting.”

The union sent three members to the meeting last year with a similar message.

Click here to read the original article. 

Giant Food worker and UFCW Local 400 member Kayla Mock along with workers from Ahold’s distribution center and FNV Bondgenoten union members.

UFCW Local 400 member and Ahold worker Kayla Mock traveled to Amsterdam to participate in the week of action. “What I witnessed this past week is international worker solidarity at its best,” Mock said. “If we want to change the behavior of multinational companies like Ahold, it is important for workers to support each other beyond national boundaries.”

At Ahold’s Martin’s stores in Richmond, VA, workers say the company has cultivated an anti-union culture that restrains workers’ right to organize at its non-union stores. Meanwhile, workers at Ahold’s Albert Heijn distribution centers in the Netherlands endure working conditions that many believe to be unsafe.

During the week of action, workers from both countries called on the company to live up to the commitments it made in its corporate responsibility program to respect workers’ rights both in the Netherlands and abroad. Workers also spoke directly to customers about Ahold’s broken promises.

Ahold’s distribution center workers are members of FNV Bondgenoten, the largest trade union in the Netherlands with over 470,000 members in the retail, services, industrial, metal, agricultural, technique, and transport industries.

As part of their consumer outreach campaign, workers are asking Ahold customers to fill out delft tiles, which will be delivered to the company. These hand-painted tiles are popular in Dutch culture and usually offered as gifts during special occasions. UFCW members can click here to fill out their own tile.

Ahold considers its extensive global operation to be well into its next chapter, one whose main plot line involves creating new opportunities in the United States and Europe.

However, to reach this chapter, the Netherlands-based operation first needed to make sure all parts of its organization were on the same page, which was easier said than done at a company spread across two continents with a range of retailing formats and online shopping.

Check out the full article here.

• Immediate bonus pay and hourly raises over the three-year contract;
• increased access to affordable health benefits for part-time workers; and
• strengthening of retirement security for all workers.

Ratification of the contracts stands to benefit Stop & Shop, the workers that have made the company a market-leading success, and communities around New England. When UFCW members unanimously authorized a strike in the event an agreement could not be reached, communities around the region spoke out to keep middle-class jobs in their neighborhoods. While negotiations of this size and complexity are rarely quick or easy, the resulting agreements have secured the future of thousands of New England families as well as the region’s leading grocer.

Stop & Shop workers are represented by UFCW Locals 328, 371, 919, 1459, and 1445.