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News and Updates
June 13, 2007
FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS APPLAUD CONGRESSIONAL EFFORT TO FORCE OSHA TO DO ITS JOB
Washington DC—The UFCW applauds Congressional efforts to force the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to regulate Diacetyl—a dangerous chemical that has killed at least three workers and injured hundreds of others. Today, U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) introduced H.R. 2693, a bill which would compel OSHA to issue a standard regulating worker exposure to this deadly chemical.
Diacetyl is a chemical used to impart the flavor of butter in popcorn, pastries, frozen foods, and candy. Each day that they report to work, tens of thousands of food processing workers are exposed to Diacetyl—a dangerous chemical that has been connected to a potentially fatal lung disease. There have been dozens of cases of what has become known as “popcorn workers lung,” or bronchiolitis obliterans—a severe, disabling, and often-fatal lung disease experienced by food industry workers across the nation.
Despite compelling evidence that Diacetyl presents a grave danger and significant risk of life threatening illness to employees exposed to the chemical, there are currently no OSHA standards requiring exposures to be controlled.
Last year, The UFCW, together with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, petitioned the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to stop the continued risk of Diacetyl exposure to workers. Forty-two of the nation’s leading occupational safety scientists signed on to an accompanying letter agreeing that there is more than enough evidence for OSHA to regulate this dangerous chemical. Still, OSHA did not act.
“OSHA has been sitting on evidence that there is a direct correlation between Diacetyl and popcorn workers lung for years. By not regulating this dangerous chemical, OSHA has neglected its responsibility to food workers,” said Jackie Nowell, UFCW Safety & Health Director. “The idea that it would take an act of Congress to get OSHA to do its job and protect workers is appalling.”
June 11, 2007
UFCW-Represented Kroger Workers in Dallas Authorize Strike
(Dallas, Tex.)- United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 540 members in Dallas have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a potential strike, and to join the fight with Houston UFCW Locals 455 and 408 members to stop Kroger from jeopardizing affordable health care. When their contract expires on Sunday, there will be no extension.
“This is Texas-style UFCW solidarity. Kroger meatcutters in Dallas aren’t going to let Kroger kick around our brothers and sisters in Houston,” said Johnny Rodriguez, UFCW Local 540 President. “Every Kroger member in Texas deserves respect and fairness from this company.”
Kroger is a profitable, successful company. But just like in Houston, Kroger is refusing to share that success and agree to a fair contract for its employees. The company intends to bankrupt the health and welfare fund, forcing its employees and their families to make a tough choice – pay for health coverage, or pay the bills. It’s the same old dirty trick we’ve seen before.
Every day, the financial news comes out with another rosy report on Kroger – the company is realizing record profits, increasing market share, and growing revenues. Yet the company seems intent on forcing workers out into the streets and disrupting shoppers’ lives, just to satisfy their own greed.
That’s why UFCW members across Texas are sticking together and fighting back. They’re offering Kroger a choice: the company can continue to play games and offer empty excuses – or they can get real and settle a fair contract.
Whichever way Kroger wants to play it, UFCW members across the state will be standing together – one union with one voice – united in the demand for a contract that protects affordable health care.
In fact, tens of thousands of workers in cities across the U.S. are at the table with Kroger, attempting to bargain for a fair contract that will benefit Kroger workers, their company and their communities. Those UFCW members, working at Kroger stores in Oregon, Southern California, Toledo and Seattle, have had enough. They’re joining Texas workers in demanding Kroger step up to the plate and share the company’s success with the workers who make it possible.
UFCW members have heard all the excuses. Now, they’re telling Kroger to stop playing games and get serious – for the sake of business, workers and communities. It’s about time.
UFCW members 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, log on to www.groceryworkersunited.com
June 8, 2007
DETROIT WORKERS RATIFY FAIR AGREEMENT WITH KROGER
West Coast, Houston, Dallas, and Toledo Workers Tell Company to End Games at Bargaining Table and Settle a Contract that Shares Krogers Success
WASHINGTON, DC– Michigan Kroger workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 876 scored a major victory yesterday when they voted to ratify a fair contract with the Kroger Company.
The contract includes immediate wage increases for all members, as well as increases throughout the contracts term. It also includes job security, improved, affordable health care coverage, and improved pension contributions.
The contract is especially meaningful for the approximate 700 current members who did not qualify for full health benefits under the last contract, but will under the new agreement,”” said Local 876 President Roger Robinson.
Kroger is a highly successful company, realizing record profits, increasing market share, and growing revenues.
Detroit is not the only location where UFCW members are in negotiations with the Kroger Company. In fact, tens of thousands of workers in cities across the U.S. are at the table with Kroger, attempting to bargain for a fair contract that will benefit Kroger workers, their company and their communities.
Those UFCW members, working at Kroger stores in Houston, Dallas, Oregon, Southern California, Toledo, and Seattle, are demanding that Kroger step up to the plate like it did in Detroit and share the companys success with the workers who make it possible. To date, though, Kroger has refused to get real at the bargaining table.
The company is up to its old tricks on the West Coast, in Texas, and Ohio, insisting on contracts that would, in effect, force workers and their families to choose between paying the rent and paying for health care. Instead of seeking ways to reward these UFCW members for their hard work, the company is seeking ways to lower living standards.
We all do the same jobs, and we all work hard, said Mike Newman, UFCW Local 911 member and Toledo Kroger worker. We should all be treated equally. Its only fair.
UFCW members 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, visit the website at www.groceryworkersunited.org.
June 8, 2007
UFCW Urges Congress to Redouble Efforts on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
For Immediate Release June 8, 2007
United Food and Commercial Workers International UnionUrges Congress to Redouble Efforts on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Responsibility to Fix Broken Immigration System Remains Despite Senate Action to Pull Latest Bill
Washington DC—All workers deserve immigration reform that respects the fundamental American values of inclusion and democracy.
Last night’s stumble does not relieve the U.S. Senate of responsibility of continuing on path of reforming our broken immigration system.
Approximately 12 million workers who go to work every day, pay taxes and contribute to their communities remain on the edge of hope without a path to fully participate in our democratic system and to achieve the American dream. This intolerable situation must end.
Meanwhile, too many corporations have played our dysfunctional immigration system for their own gain, leaving workers—both immigrant and native-born—to endure the price of abuse and deteriorating workplace standards.
The government’s reliance on worksite raids as a substitute for immigration policy only exacerbates the failings of our current system, disrupting families, workplaces, local economies, and communities. Employers who recruit, hire and, often times, exploit undocumented workers have faced virtually no penalty.
The UFCW remains committed to working with all members of Congress on achieving meaningful immigration reform that is consistent with fundamental American values and protects all workers. Guestworker provisions, including any expansion of existing programs, inherently undermine the very ideals and values our country was built on, creating an underclass of workers and engendering racial and other discriminatory attitudes toward individuals who are afforded neither full rights on the job nor participation in our society.
The legislation debated by the Senate is far from perfect, but it represents an opportunity to work toward meaningful reform. The UFCW will continue to work with our 1.3 million members, community partners and lawmakers to make immigration reform a reality.
May 31, 2007
Gerald Robert Menapace, former UFCW International Secretary-Treasurer, Passes Away
Gerald Robert “”Jerry”” Menapace, who rose from a production worker at the hog slaughter at Goetz Packing in Baltimore, Md., to the second highest office of the United Food and Commerical Workers International Union, passed away at his home on Sunday, May 27, from a heart attack.
“”The UFCW family is deeply saddened by the passing of Jerry Menapace. He was a friend and leader whose commitment to working people improved the lives of tens of thousands of working families. He was an inspiration to all of us,”” said UFCW International President Joe Hansen.
Menapace’s father, uncles, and grandfathers were all active in the United Mine Workers of America. When he was 20, Menapace joined Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen Local 149 (Now UFCW Local 27). Within two years, he became a union activist first serving as a local union representative, and later rising to the presidency of his local union. In 1974, he was elected an International Vice President of the Meat Cutters.
After the 1979 merger with the Retail Clerks International Union that formed the UFCW, Menapace became a UFCW International Vice President. In 1982, he became special assistant to the International President. He was named director of the Retail Division in 1984, and elected International Secretary-Treasurer in 1986 and re-elected in 1988.
Menapace’s leadership reflected his lifelong commitment to workers. Throughout his career he was an active champion for civil rights and social justice, deeply committed to the struggle for racial equality in Baltimore and in the entire U.S. He was a lifelong member of the NAACP.
He never forgot his commitment to workers, reminding people often that, “”the union exists solely for the benefit of members. Officers come and go. People live and die. The union goes on forever.””
Menapace was a native of Atlas, Pa., and graduated from public schools in his hometown. He spent four years in the Navy, serving in Africa during the Korean War as a radio operator. He completed a two-year program in labor relations at Harvard University.
Menapace is survived by his wife, Jeanne Dawson and six sons—David Menapace of Waynesboro, Pa., Danny Menapace of Cumberland, Martin Menapace of Hapeville, Ga., Douglass Menapace of Phoenix, Md., Jeffrey Menapace of Hawthorne, N.J., and Steven Menapace of Bel Air; two daughters, Kathleen Menapace of Baltimore and Elizabeth Stewart of Huntington, W. Va.; a brother Robert Menapace of Northumberland, Pa.; a sister, Jacqueline Bolger of Roslyn, Pa., 17 grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters.
May 30, 2007
MEATPACKING WORKERS STAND UP FOR A VOICE ON THE JOB
(Windom, Minn.) – Meatpacking workers at PM Beef stood strong against employer intimidation to vote in favor of representation by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1161 on Friday, May 25, 2007. The 500 PM Beef workers, who work in a full-scale cattle slaughtering and processing plant, sought out a voice on the job to address basic worker needs on the job – protection from dangerously fast line speeds and access to bathroom breaks.
“The PM beef workers fought hard for the opportunity to have a voice on the job. Their victory is significant considering how difficult it is for workers to organize in the face of employer intimidation,” said Kevin Williamson, UFCW International Vice President and Director, Region 6.
The majority Latino workforce withstood a heavy-handed anti-worker campaign by the company. Using hired gun lawyers, PM Beef pulled workers from the processing line to hold mandatory meetings with supervisors. Workers were subjected to one-on-one meetings with plant management for a month leading up to the election date.
According to American Rights at Work, more than 78 percent of workers face these kinds of captive audience meetings when organizing a union. Employers like PM Beef use the forced meetings to question workers about how they plan to vote, spread misinformation about the union and make workers fearful for speaking out in support of union representation.
What are rarely addressed in captive audience meetings are real solutions to the problems that inspired workers to organize. At PM Beef, that included the company’s policy of requiring workers to pay for their own knives when one broke or became unusable on the line.
“Workers withstood one-on-one meetings with bosses to maintain their solidarity and courage to vote together for UFCW representation,” said Williamson. “Their successful campaign will inspire other area meatpacking and other processing workers to stand up for respect and dignity on the job.”
The UFCW represents more than 250,000 workers in the meatpacking, poultry and food processing industries and has been on the frontlines of advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform (www.ufcw.org/issues/immigration).
May 25, 2007
KROGER WORKERS IN HOUSTON SHOW STRENGTH AND SOLIDARITY THOUGH STRIKE VOTE
Washington, DC—Grocery workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) are fighting back against the Kroger Company’s nineteenth century bargaining tactics. Kroger seems to be operating under that century’s model of “robber baron bargaining”—pushing workers to the brink and forcing strikes, all to justify greedy demands at the bargaining table and in the community.
In Houston, where 12,700 workers are involved in negotiations with Kroger, UFCW members turned out in droves to vote by over 97% to authorize a strike against the supermarket company.
“There’s no excuse for Kroger’s behavior,” said Pat O’Neill, UFCW Executive Vice President and Director of Collective Bargaining. “By beating on their own workers, Kroger is hurting morale in the stores, and customers are changing their shopping habits in an attempt to avoid a crisis at their grocery store. Ultimately, it accomplishes little for either side at the table.”
It’s time to put an end to this kind of “crisis bargaining” where a profitable company like Kroger comes to the table making outrageous demands of its hourly workers–threatening to chronically underfund health care and risk huge benefit cuts for workers.
UFCW members understand that the rising cost of health care in the U.S. is a crisis we all must face together. In previous contracts, Houston members have worked diligently to lower health care costs. Workers are picking up their share. Their hard work has made Kroger the hugely profitable chain it is today.
But Kroger’s greed just keeps increasing. The company seems intent on driving workers to the brink of a strike, and threatening to disrupt tens of thousands of consumers in an attempt to extract even more from its workforce.
Kroger can’t have it both ways. CEO David Dillon crows to investors and the public that when Wal-Mart expands its operations, Kroger gains market share, increases sales and boosts profits. There’s no excuse, then, to claim that competition from the low-wage, no-benefit Wal-Mart should require workers to strike in order to save affordable health care.
In Southern California, Seattle, Oregon, Montana, Illinois, Detroit, Toledo, and St Louis, UFCW members working in the grocery industry are also in tough negotiations with mammoth employers like Kroger and Supervalu. 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.
May 24, 2007
Guestworker Undermines Fundamental American Values
Washington, D.C.—””The sad fact is that our nation is currently incapable of enforcing our country’s most basic labor laws and workplace protections. To suggest that a new guestworker program can be constructed with adequate workplace protections is disingenuous,”” said United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) International Vice President Michael Wilson in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law.
“”The core issue is a failed immigration system that compounds its failure by victimizing workers,”” said Wilson, who is Director of the UFCW Legislative and Political Action Department. “”Our country’s archaic immigration policy—incapable of dealing with 21st century immigration patterns and economic realities—is undermining the very ideals and values our country was built on, and serving neither business nor workers.””
Immigrants and native-born American workers in underpaid economic sectors are experiencing workplace abuse, wage erosion and deteriorating working conditions. Meanwhile, immigration enforcement measures that consist of raiding workplaces, breaking up families, and devastating communities offer no sensible remedy to this situation and are antithetical to fundamental American values.
The guestworker programs are not the solution and would allow employers to turn permanent, full-time, family-supporting jobs into temporary, go-nowhere jobs that exploit immigrants and native-born workers alike.
“”Before we enact any new Guestworker program,”” continued Wilson, “”Congress should begin with making sure that the basic workplace protections already on the books are enforced. Guestworker creates a culture in which people believe that a person’s race, color, or national origin relegates them to a life of low-paying, no-future jobs. It also discourages domestic workers from those lines of work, segregating the workforce. Finally, when guestworkers choose to exert workplace rights—the right to a safe and healthy workplace or the right to form a union—they risk losing their jobs or being deported. In effect, this amounts to compulsory consent to abuse and exploitation, and lowers working standards for all working people.””
The UFCW is committed to working with all members of Congress on achieving meaningful immigration reform that is consistent with fundamental American values, protects all workers, provides immigrants an opportunity to fully participate in the democratic system and achieve the American dream.
May 23, 2007
Statement of Joseph T. Hansen, International President, UFCW International Union on Health Care Reform
Statement of Joseph T. Hansen, UFCW International President,
Excerpted from Remarks Presented to the
International Foundation’s 2007 Washington Legislative Update session on the “”Value of the Employment-Based Health Care System-Is It Worth Saving?””
Washington DC–Fixing our health care system is going to require us to come together—and act together—all across the country. In listening to the needs and concerns of Americans from every walk of life and every area of the country—as I did as part of the congressionally mandated Citizens Health Care Working Group—one thing became clear to me that we should always remember: First—“do no harm”.
“Do no harm” should be the central rule and guiding principle of the current health care reform debate. Unfortunately, “do no harm” seems to have been lost in the rush to pronounce the current employment-based system dead, and that creates the risk of misdiagnosing the problem and writing flawed prescriptions for the future.
The starting point too frequently in this debate is the presumed death of the employment-based system. But the fact is employer-sponsored health benefits remain the mainstay of health care for the overwhelming number of working Americans. Almost two-thirds of American workers get health care at work—about the same today as almost 2 decades ago.
The employment-based system has remained remarkably stable and resilient—particularly when you consider the rapidly increasing costs and the explosion of new technology over the past 20 years:
- The percentage of workers employed in workplaces offering health insurance is at about 81%—only a modest decline from the levels of the late 1980s.
- The percentage of workers choosing to take employer-provided insurance is at about 84% —only a slight decrease from the 1980s.
We cannot just abandon the current system. Everyday, those of us working in the employment-based system confront the challenge of providing health care for millions of workers. The harm done in declaring the system dead is that it becomes an excuse for too many employers to evade their responsibility to provide health care—and, becomes an easy way for those employers to avoid the public opinion consequences of that irresponsibility.
We are not proposing that we stand still, or that we should preserve the past. We must have a positive program of reform—a reform program that addresses the real issues in our current health care system.
We are spending too much and getting too little for it. On key measures of health care outcomes—preventable deaths, longevity, and infant mortality—the U.S. falls behind most advanced nations. The U.S. preventable death rate is 30 percent higher than those of France, Japan, and Spain. For both total costs and administrative costs, the U.S. exceeds almost all advanced countries in the world.
Our current system does not work at the most fundamental level—it does not prevent preventable death—despite how much money we spend.
Reform must focus on outcomes, and the central question is—how do we improve outcomes?
Our health care system currently focuses on the wrong issues, focusing resources more on reacting to diseases rather than in promoting healthy lives. We have to think differently about care. We have to think about funding for healthy diet planning as well as caring for those afflicted with diabetes. We must have benefit packages that promote health and promote effective management of chronic conditions.
We must reform and restructure the insurance market. Private insurance companies are at the center of the current system—and find themselves often in conflicting roles among providers, beneficiaries, employers and government. The conflicting relationships do not necessarily get resolved in the best interest of health care—but, only in the best interest of the insurance industry. Reform must focus on care quality, fairness, access, affordability and shared risk.
We need a different starting point for the health care reform debate. It is not whether or not the employment-based system is dead. The reform discussion should start with the question of improving outcomes. We should determine the best method to promote better outcomes. And, we should make the system accessible, fair and affordable for all.
Current reform proposals do not fully deliver on the principles I think most Americans believe in. More than 30,000 engaged in a national dialogue under the auspices of the Citizens Health Care Working Group to set out a set of principles to reform our system. Those principles focus on universal participation—with access to quality care without regard to financial ability or health status. Americans believe this as a core value of our country. Americans do not see health care as a consumer commodity. They see it as an essential part of our national community, and that we all share in it and we all take responsibility for it.
Can the employment-based system be used as a platform for reform? Yes, but we cannot have an employment-based system where some employers can choose not to participate; we must set universal standards of coverage, care quality and affordability across all employers; and we must redesign the benefit package to focus on promoting health and care management.
Is the employment-based model the only model that can work for reform? No, it is possible to move to a universal Medicare system with a re-designed benefit package focused on promoting health and care management.
Whether the employment-based system is worth saving is a question for the American people. In the meantime, until we move forward to put comprehensive health care reform in place, we must do no harm.
CLICK HERE for full remarks.
May 18, 2007
El acuerdo de reforma migratoria lastima los trabajadores y no cumple los valores estadounidenses
Washington, D.C.—La Unión de Trabajadores y de Alimentos (UFCW) está comprometida a cooperar con todos los miembros del Congreso para lograr una reforma migratoria significativa que cumple los valores fundamentales estadounidenses, protege todos los trabajadores, y provee una oportunidad a los inmigrantes a participar completamente en un sistema demócrata para que puedan realizar el Sueño Americano.
Mientras el acuerdo que fue anunciado ayer crea una apertura para formar una legislación significativa, le falta mucho para llegar a ser una reforma integral.
Demasiados aspectos del acuerdo no cumplen los principios fundamentales estadounidenses de la democracia y la equidad.
Nosotros somos una nación de inclusión—un plan de trabajadores temporales sólo convertiría trabajos que son permanentes en trabajos temporales, crearía un subclase de trabajadores explotados y resultaría en estándares laborales más bajos para todos los trabajadores.
Nosotros somos una nación que aprecia las familias—la creación de un sistema de puntos no sólo mantendría familias separadas y favorecía ciertas familias más que otras, también socavaría la estabilidad comunitaria y la idea más básica de la justicia.
Nosotros somos una nación de oportunidad—la creación de un sistema que favorece una clase de trabajadores más que otra cerraría la puerta al Sueño Americano para millones de inmigrantes que, aunque trabajan duro, tienen niveles educativos y profesionales más bajos.
Cualquier tipo de legislación que se desvía de estos valores fundamentales sólo exacerbará los problemas de nuestro sistema migratorio actual.