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News and Updates
April 9, 2014
UFCW President Hansen Statement on Senate Vote Blocking Paycheck Fairness Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would stiffen penalties for corporations that discriminate against women.
“The average woman still makes only 77 cents for every dollar a man does. Over the course of their working lives, this means women earn between $400,000 and $2 million less than if they received equal pay for equal work. This is not just a women’s issue–it’s a family issue. Women are now the primary or only breadwinner in 40 percent of households. When women bring home less money it makes it harder for families to afford groceries, rent, and other necessities. The UFCW has long had equal pay provisions in its contracts. But our members know that all workers deserve fair pay. Senate Republicans should stop blocking this common sense legislation.”
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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.
April 9, 2014
UFCW President Hansen Statement on Senate Vote Blocking Paycheck Fairness Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would stiffen penalties for corporations that discriminate against women.
“The average woman still makes only 77 cents for every dollar a man does. Over the course of their working lives, this means women earn between $400,000 and $2 million less than if they received equal pay for equal work. This is not just a women’s issue–it’s a family issue. Women are now the primary or only breadwinner in 40 percent of households. When women bring home less money it makes it harder for families to afford groceries, rent, and other necessities. The UFCW has long had equal pay provisions in its contracts. But our members know that all workers deserve fair pay. Senate Republicans should stop blocking this common sense legislation.”
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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.
April 3, 2014
UFCW President Hansen Statement on House Passage of Deceptively Named Save American Workers Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement after the House passed the Save American Workers Act—legislation that would change the definition of full-time under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from 30 hours to 40.
“The Save American Workers Act is a good sounding name for terrible policy. Employers cutting workers’ hours in response to the ACA is a serious problem that deserves genuine solutions. But this bill would actually make things worse—allowing large companies to get off scot free for failing to provide health coverage to those who work between 30 and 39 hours a week—including many UFCW members in the retail industry. The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education found this legislation would put three times as many workers in danger of having their hours cut. This is not about saving workers—it’s politics as usual. If the House wants to save American workers, it should raise the minimum wage, extend unemployment insurance, reform immigration, and remove obstacles to union organizing. The UFCW will work vigorously to ensure this bill does not see the light of day in the Senate.”
April 2, 2014
UFCW Decries Supreme Court Campaign Finance Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) today released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission which removed limits on the total amount a person can donate to political campaigns in an election season.
“The Supreme Court has once again struck a blow to our democracy. This decision is a gift to billionaires like the Koch brothers that want to unduly influence public policy and an affront to working families who are having their voices drowned out by a monsoon of big money. Elections should not be like auctions—for sale to the highest bidder. Yet this decision combined with Citizens United has created a wild west of campaign finance that allows a few superrich Americans to disproportionately impact the outcome of elections. It is long past time to fix our political system by correcting these harmful decisions and moving toward public financing of campaigns.”
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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.
April 2, 2014
UFCW Members in Ohio Lobby Against Right to Work
Over 100 UFCW members from Locals 1059, 75, 17A, and RWDSU traveled to Columbus today to lobby their state legislators against possible right to work legislation.
“I’m here because I’m afraid that they’re going to pass right to work and take so much away from me,” said Anne Bauer, a 7-year UFCW member from Local 75 who works at the Anderson Township Kroger. “The lower wages, the lack of safety, having no voice on the job – it’s horrible. I have to be here to fight for my coworkers, my friends, and my family.”
Many members spoke about the importance of ensuring the people they elected followed through on campaign promises.
“We have to be here to hold politicians accountable,” said Terry Payne, a Local 1059 member who has been at Kroger for 10 years. “We elect them and by being here we’re able to ensure that they’re supporting us. The legislators I’ve talked with have been very receptive. I was encouraged.”
One of the most important reasons for members to lobby is to share their personal stories with legislators which always make a more lasting impact. Roberta Greaver, a UFCW Local 75 member who has worked at Kroger for 35 years, told the legislators she spoke with about her experience visiting a Kroger store in the right to work state of Tennessee.
“These legislators don’t fully understand right to work and I’m happy to be here explaining it to them. I’ve seen what this law has done in Tennessee – there is a tremendous difference between their stores and ours here in Ohio. Their benefits are about half and their pay scale is less. After visiting Tennessee I was so happy to be in Ohio. The Ohio legislature has to understand how much right to work will hurt workers.”
David Becker, a Local 1059 member who has worked at Meijer in Toledo for five years, said the lobby day him to become more involved in his union and politics.
“This is my first time lobbying and I can’t wait to do it again. When it comes to right to work, everyone should be here. We’re squeezed enough trying to buy food and pay our rent – legislators have to understand that right to work will only make that more difficult. I plan on coming to lobby days as often as I can.”
March 31, 2014
UFCW Celebrates Women’s History Month and the Future of the Labor Movement
Women’s History Month has provided us with an opportunity to highlight the lives of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Frances Perkins, Dolores Huerta and Addie Wyatt—remarkable women who made significant contributions to the labor movement.
These women’s lives have served as an inspiration to today’s female labor activists. From the brave women of OUR Walmart to the women who work in our nation’s meatpacking, food processing, and poultry plants, as well as supermarkets and retail stores, women are taking the lead in fighting for respect and dignity at work and the right to organize for better wages and benefits.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership remains higher for men (11.9 percent) than women (10.5 percent), but the gap is narrowing as women realize the benefits of belonging to a union. In fact, workers who were members of a union in 2013 had median weekly earnings of $950, while workers who were not union members earned $750 per week.
As UFCW members, it is our duty to welcome more women into the labor movement by spreading the word that when workers stick together as a union, they have bargaining power and a collective voice that they simply do not have when they are not unionized. In unity there is strength, and unions can lift us all up by strengthening the middle class and our economy and restoring some balance between the wealthy few and the rest of America.
March 28, 2014
Remembering the legacy of César Chávez
Eighty seven years ago this Monday, César Chávez, a hero of the labor and civil rights movements, was born on a small ranch in Yuma, Arizona.
Like thousands of others Chávez’s family lost its land in the Great Depression and headed to work in the fields of California’s central valley, where he would spend the rest of his life fighting for the rights of migrant farmworkers. Growing up, Chavez experienced grinding poverty and rampant discrimination against Mexican Americans. He left school after 8th grade and began working in the fields full time to help support his family, but he never lost his appetite for education, teaching himself about Gandhi’s non-violent strategies for social change.
Chávez’s passion for social justice led him to become a community organizer, registering Latinos to vote so they could fight for their civil rights, but he understood that farmworkers could only win dignity and respect by banding together to form a union in the fields. Even some of Chávez’s allies doubted that Spanish-speaking migrant workers could ever organize successfully, but he led the creation
of the organization that would become the United Farm Workers in 1962.
The organization struggled at first, but in 1965 Filipino workers on grape farms launched a strike demanding wages equal to the federal minimum wage (from which they were excluded) and approached Chávez for support. Chávez inspired Latino workers in the grape i
ndustry to stand in solidarity with the strike, which spread rapidly through the California fields. During the strike, Chávez pioneered unprecedented strategies that have become invaluable to all of us in the labor movement. He led workers in long marches that crossed the state of California to raise awareness of the strike, sent workers and students to cities to lead consumer boycotts
of table grapes, and even put his body on the line in a series of hunger strikes. After a grueling five year campaign, the UFW won the strike and secured living wages and a union voice in the grape fields.
After the triumph in the grape fields, the UFW grew dramatically until it represented more than 50,000 farmworkers, and farmworkers’ right to join together and bargain with their employers was e
nshrined in California law. Chávez continued to lead the UFW and fight for
the rights of workers, immigrants, and Latinos until his untimely death in 1993.
This weekend will see the release of the new movie Cesar Chavez, which document his moving story. You can find more information, including showings near you, here.
March 27, 2014
Women’s History Month: UFCW Celebrates the Life of Addie Wyatt
Addie Loraine Cameron, better known as Addie L. Wyatt (1924 –2012), was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago with her family in 1930. When she was 17 years old, she married Claude S. Wyatt, Jr.
She began working in the meatpacking industry in 1941. Although she applied for a job as a typist for Armour and Company, African American women were barred from holding clerical positions and she was sent to the canning department to pack stew in cans for the army. Due to a contract between Armour and the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), she earned more working on the packinghouse floor canning stew than she would have made working as a typist, and joined the UPWA after learning that the union did not discriminate against its members.
In 1953, she was elected vice president of UPWA Local 56. In 1954, she became the first woman president of the local, and was soon tapped to serve as an international representative. She held this position through the 1968 merger of UPWA and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen until 1974, when she became director of the newly formed Women’s Affairs Department. In 1970s, she became the first female international vice president in the history of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen and later served as director of its Human Rights and Women’s Affairs and Civil Rights Departments. She served as the first female African American international vice president of the UFCW after Amalgamated and the Retail Clerks International Union merged in 1979.
She and her husband were ordained ministers and founded the Vernon Park Church of God in Chicago. She played an integral role in the civil rights movement, and joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in major civil rights marches, including the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the demonstration in Chicago. She was one of the founders of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the country’s only national organization for union women. She was also a founding member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the National Organization of Women.
In 1984, Addie Wyatt retired from the labor movement as one of its highest ranked and most prominent African American and female officials. In honor of her work, she was named one of Time magazine′s Women of the Year in 1975, and one of Ebony magazine′s 100 most influential black Americans from 1980 to 1984. The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists established the Addie L. Wyatt Award in 1987. She was inducted into the Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor in 2012.
March 26, 2014
UFCW President Hansen Urges Support for Discharge Petition on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement supporting the discharge petition filed by House Democrats which seeks a vote on comprehensive immigration reform.
“It has been 272 days since the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform on a bipartisan basis. For nearly 9 months, the House has failed to follow suit. This discharge petition is a way for those who support reform to force a vote on legislation to fix our broken immigration system, protect workers’ rights, reunite families, and give aspiring Americans a path to citizenship. House Republican leaders need to stop making excuses and House Democrats who say they are with us need to make this petition a priority. Our nation deserves comprehensive immigration reform—not tomorrow, not the next day, now. The vast majority of Americans support reform—Republicans, Democrats, business, labor, faith communities, law enforcement, and students, just to name a few. The only thing stopping comprehensive immigration reform from becoming the law of the land is a small group of extremist members of Congress and their enablers. It is time to end the gridlock and hold a vote. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration should immediately stop deporting those who will achieve legal status once reform is passed.”
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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.
March 26, 2014
UFCW President Hansen Urges Support for Discharge Petition on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), today released the following statement supporting the discharge petition filed by House Democrats which seeks a vote on comprehensive immigration reform.
“It has been 272 days since the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform on a bipartisan basis. For nearly 9 months, the House has failed to follow suit. This discharge petition is a way for those who support reform to force a vote on legislation to fix our broken immigration system, protect workers’ rights, reunite families, and give aspiring Americans a path to citizenship. House Republican leaders need to stop making excuses and House Democrats who say they are with us need to make this petition a priority. Our nation deserves comprehensive immigration reform—not tomorrow, not the next day, now. The vast majority of Americans support reform—Republicans, Democrats, business, labor, faith communities, law enforcement, and students, just to name a few. The only thing stopping comprehensive immigration reform from becoming the law of the land is a small group of extremist members of Congress and their enablers. It is time to end the gridlock and hold a vote. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration should immediately stop deporting those who will achieve legal status once reform is passed.”
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The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org, or join our online community at www.facebook.com/UFCWinternational and www.twitter.com/ufcw.