| "They will come to the table looking for a solution that works for the company. And we'll come looking for a solution works for people." -Mike Tramutola, Local 1500 |
 |
Local 1500 Gearing Up April Forquignon knows how tough—and how expensive—it is to be uninsured. Seven years ago, before becoming a UFCW member at a grocery store in Staten Island, NY, an unexpected medical emergency left her with medical bills she’s still paying today. “You need medical benefits,” she says. “It’s hard to get them outside your job, and then you can’t afford it anyway. Today, I have peace of mind.”
Minni Ramos is the floral manager at the same Staten Island store. One of her two children has chronic severe asthma and she’s been in and out of the hospital since she was just a year old. “With the cost of her medicine alone, I could pay my rent,” Ramos says. “Thankfully, both my husband and I are in a union. That means we can worry about our daughter—and not about paying for her health care. But that’s why negotiating for our health care is our main worry.”
 |
|
Minni Ramos, Local 1500 |
For the past three years, all over the country, UFCW members have walked picket lines and taken community action in contract campaigns to fight back against employer demands to eliminate affordable health care. Local unions have prepared community outreach campaigns to bolster their bargaining efforts. With petitions, pledge cards, websites, and media campaigns, UFCW members have been able to build public support for affordable health care that positively affects the bargaining table.
Rising health care costs will drive the bargaining climate until there’s comprehensive health care reform on a national basis. Like all UFCW members across the country, Local 1500 members are aware of the national trend of employers reducing or eliminating benefits.
They’re taking note when corporate giants pad their bottom line by making cuts to employee health care, or when companies like Wal-Mart encourage workers to turn to taxpayer supported public health care programs rather than provide affordable benefits.
But Local 1500 is 20,000 strong. They’re engaged in their communities. And they’re standing together, confident about the community connection and customer support that will give them an edge at the bargaining table.
We are going to stick together as one,” says Christine Charles, a 22-year member of UFCW. “The company will know we are united at the bargaining table, it will be harder for the company and easier for the union. Our customers know health care costs are overwhelming. They work too, and they know what it’s like. I think customers will understand if we have to fight to save our health care.”
“We aren’t looking to rock the boat. We are just looking to stay even—to keep what we have,” says MikeTramutola, a Grocery Manager and a 23-year UFCW member. “We are worried about health care because it’s affecting the whole country. You hear it on the news every night. People are in a tough spot. I see it in the store. They buy less when fuel is so high, when utilities are so high and their wages just don’t go that far anymore. I know health care will be the number one strain on the company, too. But they will come to the table looking for a solution that works for the company.
And we’ll come looking for a solution that works for people.”
 |
 |
