Tagged as American Dream

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Economic Justice, Health Care, Press Releases, UFCW Values

AMERICA

Oct 26, 2007

Washington, D.C. – Last night, the House of Representatives gave America ’s uninsured children a second chance at a healthy future by passing a new version of a children’s health care bill, but failed to get the majority of votes necessary to overturn another presidential veto.  The new bill will cover 10 million children through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and tighten eligibility in response to concerns about the previous bill. While imperfect, this new bill is a good start to addressing our country’s health care crisis, and another presidential veto will further punish the millions of children of working parents who are without coverage.

For too long, America’s workers and their children have paid the price for a broken health care system.  While workers struggle to survive on stagnant wages, more and more employers are adding to that burden by shifting the growing cost of health care coverage to workers—forcing them to pay high out-of-pocket premiums, deductibles and co-payments.  These faulty health care plans are proving to be too expensive for working men and women to afford, and in 10 million cases, many workers and  their children have nowhere to go for their basic health care needs.

This new bill is a responsible approach to ensuring that children have access to quality health care, and another veto will signal the president’s indifference to the majority of Americans who equate access to health care with the pursuit of the American Dream, our country’s destiny, and each family’s well-being and future.  The UFCW will continue to fight for health care reform so that American workers and their children are able to live healthy and productive lives and realize the American Dream.

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Collective Bargaining, Economic Justice, Health Care, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

UFCW Reviving the American Dream for Meatpacking Workers

Sep 25, 2007

New Hormel Chain Agreement Raises the Bar for Meat Industry Contracts

(Washington, DC) – A new contract covering 4,000 Hormel workers in five locations secures big wage increases, health care improvements and greater pension security for meatpacking workers and their families. The contract sets a new standard for wages and benefits in the meat industry-one that will allow packing and processing workers to truly live the American Dream.

Five UFCW local unions took unified worksite actions over the past six months – actions that sent a strong message to Hormel that UFCW members are willing to fight and stick together for a contract that would secure wages and benefits that can support a family.

“We haven’t had a contract like this one since the late 1970s.  Wages, health care, and pensions are all increased,” said Mike Marty, a member of UFCW Local 22 in Fremont, Neb.   “We achieved it by working together, engaging our membership across the country and building good old fashioned union solidarity,” Marty said.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members in five locations – Austin, Minn.; Algona, Iowa; Fremont, Neb.; Beloit, Wis.; and Atlanta, Ga. voted to ratify a new four-year contract that includes:

–considerable wage increases including  $1.40/hr base wage increase over four years for production workers and $1.80/hr base wage increase for maintenance workers. The increases bring the average wage for production workers to $15.75 an hour-the top of the industry.

–significant improvements in preventive health care, well baby and well child care, hospice care, home health care, vision care, mental health and substance abuse care, and cancer screening as well as big improvements in dental care. These improvements were achieved with no increase in deductible, and only a minimal increase in co-premiums.

–improved retirement security including increased “pension multipliers” which will mean a greater than 10 % increase in pension checks.

The Hormel contract is the latest of several major collective bargaining wins for UFCW members across the country.  Supermarket workers have engaged in unity bargaining and coordinated worksite actions over the past nine months – resulting in groundbreaking contracts with major national supermarket chains on both the East and West Coasts, Texas, and the Midwest.

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Immigration, Legislation, Packing and Processing, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, War on Workers

BUSH ADMINISTRATION IMMIGRATION PROGRAM WOULD LEGALIZE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

Aug 14, 2007

Statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

(Washington, DC) – On a hot, quiet August morning in Washington, DC – when the President is on vacation and Congress at recess – the Bush Administration announced an immigration reform package that essentially mandates federal racial discrimination.

The Administration’s guidelines would throw the doors open to racial discrimination to whole classes of people by placing an undue burden on workers who sound foreign, look foreign and particularly, on the tens of millions of Hispanic and Asian-Americans who would face greater scrutiny in the workplace.  It is irresponsible to toss out civil rights for the sake of political gamesmanship.

Considering the circumstances, today’s announcement smacks of nothing more than a publicity stunt aimed at terrifying immigrant workers.  Further, this program lacks the support and mandate of the American people who have been demanding humane, comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the root causes of illegal immigration.  This program offers no solutions, only punishments to workers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has proven by its past behavior that it is not beyond their scope to traumatize innocent workers, including U.S. citizens, under the guise of immigration enforcement.  During its raids at Swift meatpacking plants last December, all workers, including citizens, legal residents, were held by ICE agents and subjected to unlawful search and seizure.  Law enforcement must uphold and defend the Constitution, not violate it.

Congress and the President promised the American people it would work toward solutions to these problems but both parties have failed.  It is time for our elected leaders to get back to work – not with unauthorized, sweeping gestures like this Bush enforcement program.

More than 250,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) work in the meatpacking and food processing industries.  Many of our workplaces include immigrant workers.  Enforcement actions aimed strictly at workplaces like these accomplish nothing in terms of stemming the flow of workers entering the U.S. seeking the American Dream.  Instead, they create huge turmoil in communities, significantly disrupt the otherwise stable production in the plant and violate the civil rights of all workers in the workplace.

The UFCW will continue to fight for reform that ensures that all working people—immigrant and native-born—are able to improve their lives and realize the American dream.

For the UFCW position on immigration go to Issues

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