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News and Updates
Industry News
May 11, 2010
Summer Water Can Be Dangerous in Stores and Warehouses
With rising temperatures and increased consumer demand, grocery stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, and the warehouses that supply them are moving and selling ever-increasing volumes of bottled water. When palletized, these products can pose significant risks to workers in our industry as a recent deadly tragedy illustrates.
In mid-March, a Kroger employee working in the back room of a store in Franklin, Ind. was crushed by falling pallets of water. Five days after the accident, the employee died. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigated the accident and fined Kroger $17,000 for unsafe working conditions. This tragic incident and others like it are preventable – especially if UFCW members and locals take action for safety today.
When you are at work or a worksite, here are some things to look for:
- Don’t transport double stacked pallets beyond the distance necessary to remove them from a truck. Double-stacked pallets are inherently unstable, and when they have liquids (like bottled water) as cargo, they often exceed the safe weight limits for forklifts.
- Avoid double stacking pallets when storing them.
- Carefully monitor the stability of pallets at all times.
- Don’t attempt to straighten pallets that have begun to shift. Unload the pallet instead.
- Maintain a clear safety area around pallets when they are being moved.
- All forklift operators or other powered-equipment operators must be trained and certified. This is an OSHA requirement – check for proper recordkeeping.
Palletized bottled water is especially dangerous because of the high volume moved, the heavy weight involved, and increasingly thin plastic causing cases to be unstable. In addition, the limited amount of floor space in the back of grocery stores often leads to water or other heavy unstable products, being stacked higher than safety permits.
Kroger and UFCW Indiana locals have learned from the tragic accident in Franklin and are actively working to prevent future injuries or deaths. We urge you to do the same before something similar happens in your stores.
April 12, 2010
FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS JOIN NATIONAL EFFORT TO BRING FRESH FOOD AND GOOD JOBS TO FOOD DESERT NEIGHBORHOODS
(NEW YORK, NY) – The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) proudly announces its support for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative legislation introduced today by New York legislators Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez (D-NY).
The legislation will provide $1 billion through loans and grants to help build approximately 2,100 new grocery stores in high need areas across the country, including an estimated 273 stores in New York City. The initiative would create an estimated 200,000 new jobs nationally.
The Healthy Food Financing Initiative is a critical part of rejuvenating and revitalizing underserved neighborhoods both in terms of food quality and quality jobs that can support a family.
New York-based UFCW Local 1500 is a leading partner in the New York FRESH Initiative which serves as a model for the national legislation and has successfully launched two major supermarkets into previously underserved areas in the Bronx. Those supermarkets also added hundreds of new jobs and subsequent income to area residents.
Supermarkets act as anchors for economic development in a neighborhood. In community after community, good supermarket jobs provide workers with good wages, career opportunities and most importantly, quality health care coverage that is key to a healthy lifestyle. UFCW members in New York and across the U.S. take pride in serving their customers with good food. This national legislation will provide needed funding to expand those opportunities into even more markets.
The UFCW applauds Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Velasquez for their vision in bringing worker organizations together with the economic development leaders and health policy advocates to ensure that new food outlets also provide good career jobs and training opportunities for new employees.
We believe that working together works. With the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, we will:
- Create new jobs from building new supermarkets in underserved neighborhoods;
- Create new jobs from operating those stores; and
- Create new jobs from related development which will grow up and around the new stores.
All the while, providing millions of residents with access to good, healthy, affordable food.
March 11, 2010
UFCW Statement on DoJ/USDA Inquiry into Agribusiness Consolidation
Ankeny, IA – The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union represents more than 250,000 men and women who work in the food processing and packing industries, each of whom has a stake in industry consolidation as both a worker and a consumer.
UFCW members and senior officials will be available for comment on Thursday and Friday, before and after the public meetings and workshops. The following is the statement of Mark Lauritsen, International Vice President and Director of the Food Processing, Packing, and Manufacturing Division of the UFCW.
“When done properly, consolidation can stabilize the marketplace, make food cheaper, and raise standards across the industry. But when workers and communities aren’t part of the equation, it’s families and local economies that suffer.
“The diverse group of voices brought to the table by the Obama administration can speak not only to how agribusiness is consolidating, but also why. Big box retailers like Walmart are making record profits on the backs of small businesses by asking suppliers to make more with less. When family farmers and packers can’t meet those unrealistic demands, they’re forced to consolidate.
“We’re long overdue for a system that considers the long-term economic implications of downward pressure from retailers and the consolidation that it causes.”
March 11, 2010
UFCW Members Celebrate New Contract with Stop & Shop
(BOSTON, MA) – On March 7, thousands of Stop & Shop supermarket workers from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut ratified new contracts with Ahold, the Dutch-owned parent company. Highlights of the agreements between the members of the United Food and Commercial Workers and Stop & Shop include:
- Immediate bonus pay and hourly raises over the three-year contract;
- increased access to affordable health benefits for part-time workers; and
- strengthening of retirement security for all workers.
Ratification of the contracts stands to benefit Stop & Shop, the workers that have made the company a market-leading success, and communities around New England. When UFCW members unanimously authorized a strike in the event an agreement could not be reached, communities around the region spoke out to keep middle-class jobs in their neighborhoods. While negotiations of this size and complexity are rarely quick or easy, the resulting agreements have secured the future of thousands of New England families as well as the region’s leading grocer.
Stop & Shop workers are represented by UFCW Locals 328, 371, 919, 1459, and 1445.
March 4, 2010
Whole Foods Shareholders Taking Action on Major Corporate Governance Overhaul
(Washington, D.C.) – When Whole Foods shareholders meet on March 8, 2010, investors will consider actions that would bring greater accountability from Board members. The actions, supported by the most influential investor advisory group, Risk Metrics/ISS, also include a proposal to require a majority vote for shareholder proposals, rather than the current supermajority.
Investors have lost 30% or more by investing in Whole Foods over the last five years. It’s time for a change. The hard work of Whole Foods’ front line workers has been continually undermined by a CEO who is out of touch with customers and is unaccountable to investors. It’s time to reform how Whole Foods is managed and supporting shareholder proposals 3-6, as recommended by Risk Metrics/ISS, will help restore confidence in this troubled company.
Whole Foods sales are lagging in part due to the antics of its CEO who, in the past year, denounced President Obama’s health care reform efforts and publicly denied the science of climate change.
If Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey spent a little less time antagonizing his best customers and more time growing the company, all of Whole Foods’ stakeholders would be better off. The company nearly doubled the number of part-time workers this year. Why is Mackey reducing full-time workers, the very people who add value to the shopping experience.
The proposals supported by the world’s largest shareholder advisory company include proposals to require a majority vote for shareholder proposals, rather than the current supermajority and the reversal of bylaw changes which the Board passed to make it harder for shareholders to hold Board members accountable.
Proposals 3-6 would establish much needed board accountability. The path forward for Whole Foods must involve all its stakeholders, most importantly its customers, investors and associates. Passing these proposals at the March 8th shareholder will move management in a more accountable direction, and that’s what’s needed to help turn around this troubled management.
February 1, 2010
UFCW Members Celebrate New Contract with Nestle
CRETE, NE – Yesterday, hundreds of workers at the Nestlé Purina PetCare facility in Crete, Nebraska ratified a new contract with their employer. Highlights of the four-year agreement between the 320 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 271 and the Nestlé Purina PetCare Company include:
* raises of more than $2/hour over the life of the contract
* maintenance of affordable health benefits
* an increase of 15% in employer contributions to the pension fund.
“”We were proud to vote for a contract that will help working people in Crete support their families,”” said Eric Reeder, who has worked at the Nestlé-Purina facility in Crete for six years. “”We work hard every day at the plant, and we worked hard at the bargaining table to negotiate a strong and fair agreement. This contract is good for workers here, but its also a demonstration of what other workers at other plants can accomplish by standing together.””
Ratification of the contract stands to benefit Nestlé-Purina, workers at the plant, and the community of Crete.
“”This contract represents a win-win scenario for Nestlé-Purina and working Nebraskans,”” said Brian Schwisow, president of UFCW Local 271, which represents workers at the Crete plant. “”By investing in its workforce, the company has committed itself to a long-term, productive relationship with the people of Nebraska. By standing together to negotiate a strong contract, workers have secured the economic futures of their families and their communities.””
January 29, 2010
Scholarship available for UFCW members
The UFCW Scholarship Application will be available until April 15, 2010.
Go to www.ufcw.org/scholarship to for more information on how to apply.
January 25, 2010
Walmart Sam
(Washington, DC) – The following is a statement from Wake Up Walmart:
Walmart launched another assault on living and working standards in communities across the country yesterday, by laying off more than ten thousand Sam’s Club employees. The company is outsourcing jobs, many of them part-time, to a company based in Arkansas.
Workers report that Walmart called them into mass meetings where they were offered boxes of tissues and told they were no longer needed by the nation’s largest private employer.
The mass layoffs raise serious questions such as whether or not older and more senior workers were targeted for lay off. Why hasn’t Walmart made a clearer path to employment with Shopper Events for these 11,000 associates – which they clearly have the power to do? And for workers hired by the outsourced company, what kind of jobs will Shoppers Events provide to the new applicants? Why is Walmart telling workers they must agree not to pursue age discrimination claims in order to qualify for severance pay?
Walmart and Sams Club workers seeking additional assistance and answers are encouraged to contact Walmart Workers for Change at 866-587-2299 or log on to http://www.walmartworkersforchange.org/.
December 30, 2009
WAGE BILL
PITTSBURGH, PA—Yesterday the Pittsburgh City Council voted unanimously to enact a prevailing-wage law for service and retail jobs in publicly subsidized development. The passage of this legislation was due to a strong coalition of faith, environmental, community and labor organizations, including United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 23. Workers in building and food service, grocery store and hotel industries will benefit from this bill, including thousands of UFCW members working in those industries.
The Pittsburgh Prevailing Wage bill will make sure that collectively-bargained wage and benefit standards for workers in those industries are maintained in publicly-subsidized development. Wage standards assure pay of between $10 and $14/hr plus health insurance and other benefits to all jobs created by subsidies of over $100,000 in projects of over 25,000 square feet.
“This is a major victory for working families in Pittsburgh,” said Tony Helfer, President of UFCW Local 23. “It means developers who take our money must promise to maintain the standard wages—and that’s good for everyone: workers, business, and our community. Service and retail industry jobs like these are the jobs of the future, and yesterday the City Council voted to make sure those jobs will pay enough to raise a family and benefit our community.”
Over the past five months, the Pittsburgh UNITED coalition of labor, faith, environmental, and community groups worked tirelessly to help formulate and pass this legislation, which will have a positive impact on the city’s economic future. They knocked on doors, called their council members, gathered petition signatures, and attended numerous council hearings.
“If my tax money is going to be used to build a grocery store,” said Marc Mancini, a UFCW member and local grocery worker who worked to get the law passed, “I don’t want it used to create minimum-wage jobs that would undercut what I make and create competition that could hurt my employer while not actually helping any Pittsburghers earn a good living.”
December 8, 2009
New Study, National Ad Campaign Reminds Congress Health Care is Everybody
WASHINGTON, DC – A new study released by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) examines the Senate health care reform bill, and finds that a provision meant to hold corporations accountable actually encourages companies to duck their fair share of the costs of health care reform.
The report examines the Senate bill by looking at its impact on America’s largest and most irresponsible private employer – Walmart. As written, the employer responsibility provision—“Free Rider”—would provide no overall health care cost savings because it would:
- Incentivize the hiring of a largely part-time workforce, and encourage reducing workers’ hours as a way to eliminate company responsibility for health care costs.
- Force low-income Walmart employees into high-deductible, company-provided insurance.
- Make few, if any, Walmart employees eligible for tax credits to purchase better insurance through the health insurance exchange.
- Continue Walmart’s dependence on federal and state subsidies for Medicaid for its employees, and encourage Walmart to have even more employees dependent on Medicaid.
- Provide little or no incentive for Walmart to provide better care to its workers.
These findings have galvanized a broad coalition of working families and their supporters to call on Senators to fix the flawed provision of the bill to ensure that President Barack Obama achieves his goal of quality, affordable health care for every American. Concerned organizations that have signed on to a comprehensive ad campaign include the Communications Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Auto Workers, the United Farm Workers, USAction, and the United Steelworkers. Beginning with full page ads in Capitol Hill publications and a national Web presence, the group will roll out print ads across the country over the next few weeks.
The findings of this report put a bright light on just how critical employer responsibility is to health care reform. With much of America’s job growth expected to be in retail over the next few years, it is clear that not including strong employer responsibility provisions will result in a part-time workforce dependent on already overburdened state programs for health care.
The complete report can be viewed online at www.fixthebill.org