June 21, 2007

HOUSTON COMMUNITY MEMBERS STAND WITH KROGER WORKERS IN FIGHT FOR AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

Participants in Houston Press Conference today will Rally and Walk the Block to Let Community Members Know About Kroger’s Plans to “Wal-Mart-ize” Health Care

HOUSTON–United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 408 and 455 members working at Kroger stores in the Houston area will join with local community leaders and supporters today in asking Kroger to stop attacking workers’ health care. A press conference will be held at 3:00 p.m., at the Kroger Store, 10306 S. Post Oak Rd., (just outside of the 610 S. Loop) in Houston, and will be followed by a neighborhood walk to let community members know about Kroger’s greed.

Joining Houston Kroger workers at the press conference and rally will be prominent community and religious leaders, including representatives from the Houston Interfaith Workers Justice Center, ACORN, the Coalition for Workers and the Poor, LCLAA, and the Latino Labor Council, as well the President and Secretary Treasurer of the Harris County AFL-CIO, the President of the of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, the President of the Houston NAACP Branch, and other supporters and community activists.

This broad coalition of community and religious supporters are standing with Kroger workers for affordable health care. With Kroger’s latest contract offer, workers will be forced to choose between paying the electric bill and taking their children to the doctor.

Meanwhile, Kroger continues to be the most successful company in the industry, with rising profits and growing market share—and throughout contract negotiations the company has refused to share any of that success with the workers who made it possible.

Houston community members don’t believe that people who go to work everyday should have to rely on public assistance for health care coverage, or that Kroger should be allowed to shift their health care costs to local taxpayers like Wal-Mart does. Please join Houston community leaders and workers in saying “no” to Kroger’s attacks on employee health care and the community.

Members throughout the country are unified in a nationwide movement to improve jobs in the grocery industry for workers, families, and communities.   For more on UFCW negotiations across the country, please visit the Grocery Workers United website at: www.groceryworkersunited.org.