August 30, 2012

UFCW STATEMENT REGARDING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION’S ANTI-WORKER PLATFORM

Washington, D.C. – The following is a statement issued by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union:

“The Republican Party’s anti-worker platform at their convention in Tampa, Fla., this week further highlights the GOP’s disconnect from the realities of everyday Americans. Instead of offering any serious solutions for creating jobs with benefits and wages that can support a family and addressing the growing gap between the rich and the poor, convention speakers like Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Nikki Haley have resorted to pitting workers against workers by lashing out at labor unions.

“America’s workers are the cornerstone of our country’s middle class, and making it easier for hard working men and women to stick together through a union would put more company profits in the hands of working people and strengthen America’s middle class. While Republican candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, claim to care about the middle class, they have challenged the very idea of the right of workers to stick together and bargain for basic rights—including fair pay, health care and retirement benefits.

“The best way for workers to have a say about their working conditions is by sticking together as a union, and the UFCW will continue to fight any action by Romney, Ryan and followers like Christie, Walker and Haley who favor the wealthy one percent over America’s workers and the poor.”

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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.