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News and Updates
Industry News
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.
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 17, 2007
Grocery Coalition Launches Door-to-Door Campaign, Seeks
Coalition Asks Consumers to Support Good Jobs by Pledging Not To Shop
At Albertsons, Ralphs or Vons in Case of a Strike or Lockout
Los Angeles—Community and religious leaders today joined more than 100 grocery workers and union members in launching the “Walk for Respect” campaign, a massive public outreach effort designed to help restore good jobs among the supermarket industry’s top three chains.
In the coming weeks, thousands of volunteers across Southern California will blanket neighborhoods around stores with pledge cards asking consumers not to shop at Ralphs, Vons or Albertsons stores in the case of a lockout or strike. The program will continue until the three chains agree to once again provide decent wages and affordable health insurance to their employees.
Grocery workers at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons stores are currently locked in contract negotiations for the first time since the bitter four-and-a-half-month strike and lockout in 2003-2004. That contract expired March 5, and the stores have dragged out negotiations with a series of extensions in a bid to get further concessions from employees, despite record profits and declining non-union competition.
“Grocery workers haven’t had a wage increase since 2002, yet the markets are making billions in profits,” said Chris Zazueta, a veteran employee of Ralphs. “New workers have to wait up to 18 months to even become eligible for benefits, and 30 months to get health care for their kids. No wonder turnover among new employees is as high as 85%.”
As community leaders, supporters and members from numerous Los Angeles labor unions gathered for a rally in front of an Albertsons store in Burbank, the frustrations with the stores’ tactics and the effects on workers and local communities became clear.
“Grocery workers have historically been pillars of communities across Southern California. For decades, the supermarkets provided jobs with decent wages and health benefits, located directly within our neighborhoods,” said Reverend Anna Olson, Deputy Director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). “But times have changed. Now the markets are in a race to the bottom, undermining good jobs and our communities in the process.”
The contract imposed on workers following the lockout and strike severely curtailed benefits and wages for new employees, and denied any wage increases to veteran workers.
“The erosion of middle-class jobs impacts all of us,” said Rabbi Haim Beliak of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace. “Our communities don’t need more people living one paycheck from the edge. We don’t need more uninsured families forced into emergency rooms and free clinics. The markets are making record profits. It is time for them to give back to the communities that make their success possible, or the communities must withhold their support.”
Of the 44,000 workers hired since 2004, less than 3,800 have health care, and less than 80 have coverage for their children.
A recent UC Berkeley study estimated that 20,000 fewer children have access to health care because of the changes since the strike and lockout.
“Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons need to understand they are part of our community,” said Manuel Hernandez, a community organizer with AGENDA. “They need to act like a good corporate citizen. That means providing fair wages and healthcare for their employees. They can afford it, and it’s the right thing to do. We need more good jobs in our neighborhoods.”
Immediately after the rally, volunteers walked door to door in the surrounding neighborhoods and stood in front of the store to gather pledges from consumers not to shop at Ralphs, Vons or Albertsons in the event of a lockout or strike.
The Walk for Respect program launched simultaneously across Southern California, with volunteers walking in communities from Bakersfield to the Mexican border.
“We’ll keep this up until we the stores begin to treat us and our communities with respect,” said Sharlette Villacorta, a longtime Albertsons employee on leave to work on the contract campaign. “The employers are making billions because of our hard work. They need to do their fair share and provide good, middle class jobs that nourish our communities.”
May 10, 2007
Statement by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union On Grocery Bargaining in Southern California
After seven months of unproductive negotiations with grocery employers, UFCW Southern California local unions left the bargaining table on Tuesday. The latest offer by the three grocery companies, Safeway, Kroger and Supervalu, was an insult to members, and left UFCW leadership with no choice but to break off negotiations.
The companies are trying to force another strike, like the work stoppage they caused in 2003 that put 60,000 UFCW members on picket lines for nearly five months and disrupted shoppers and communities throughout the region.
The three grocery giants have repeatedly denied members’ need for accessible, affordable health care, and living wages for all workers. This despite the fact that all three companies have shown a recent rise in profits that analysts predict will continue to grow.
It would appear that Safeway CEO Steve Burd knows that workers need affordable, quality health care for themselves and their families. That’s why he announced earlier this week that Safeway and nearly 40 other companies were launching the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform (CAHR). The UFCW applauds Burd and other CAHR participants as welcome voices to this important discussion. We wish that all three grocery leaders would bring this commitment to the bargaining table.
UFCW members will be reaching out to consumers in Southern California and across the country to remind the grocery giants that their success is due to workers and shoppers, and that they need to show concern for their community and workers by reaching a fair agreement with Southern California workers.
Two grocery companies in Southern California, Stater Bros. and Gelson’s, settled fair contracts with UFCW members that included quality, affordable health care and living wages for all workers. That two regional supermarket chains can afford to offer their workers a fair contract proves that it’s possible to be profitable while still showing your workers respect.
If these regional markets can offer a fair contract, then surely Supervalu, Kroger, and Safeway — national supermarket chains that are currently raking in billions of dollars in profits — can do the same.
Southern California’s grocery workers, together with Stater Bros. and Gelson’s Markets, created a road map to a fair contract, a map that can be followed by the national chains. But instead of doing the right thing and partnering with the workers who helped them return to profitability, these national companies dragged out negotiations in an effort to keep their workers’ wages low and benefits out of reach for workers and families.
Southern California’s grocery workers are unified, and UFCW-represented grocery workers across the country are supporting them as well. But it’s time to end this drawn-out, dead-end negotiations process. With the support of the public, UFCW members can and will win a fair contract — even if means a long, difficult battle.
May 8, 2007
Washington DC—Wal-Mart must go beyond public posturing and change its corporate practices before it can have any credibility in the national debate on healthcare reform.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has long been a supporter of universal, affordable and quality health care coverage for all Americans. And we believe that a broad-based effort of all Americans is fundamental to achieving that goal. We are actively working with committed members of the business community, lawmakers, advocacy groups and other unions to solve our country’s health care crisis.
Wal-Mart’s attempt to insert itself into the healthcare care debate fuels the kind of cynicism and mistrust that that comes out of the say-one-thing-but-do-another form of public discourse from powerful interests—whether in the corporate or political arena.
Only last week, the internationally acclaimed Human Rights Watch issued a comprehensive indictment of the giant retailer, citing Wal-Mart with systematically violating the human and civil rights of Wal-Mart workers.
It’s difficult to see how the world’s largest corporation can have any moral standing in the effort to establish universal health care when it doesn’t provide affordable health care benefits to its own employees.
Wal-Mart should be a leader in corporate responsibility—instead the company’s business practices encourage other employers to act irresponsibly.
American workers deserve better than Wal-Mart posturing. They deserve universal healthcare. Engaged and committed members of the business community must be a part of any solution to our country’s health care crisis, and the UFCW will work with them and all other committed stakeholders to achieve that end.
In the meantime, we will continue our fight for good health care benefits for workers at the bargaining table. And we will continue our efforts on behalf of Wal-Mart workers so they can have affordable healthcare benefits and good wages.
May 7, 2007
Statement by Joseph T. Hansen, International President, United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Washington DC—Today’s launch of the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform (CAHR) marks the first serious entry of the business community as full participants into the national healthcare reform debate. The nearly 40 major companies currently signed onto CAHR bring a new and positive momentum to the growing mandate for political action on our national healthcare crisis.
A great many of the companies have union workforces, including Safeway, Kroger, Supervalu, Raleys, Heinz, General Mills, Clorox, Del Monte Foods and CVS among others, whose workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). These companies have long been committed to and engaged in the issue of providing good healthcare coverage to employees through the collective bargaining process.
Escalating costs, declining healthcare access for more and more Americans, as well as compromised quality, leave those at the bargaining table to deal with a national crisis that can only be solved with a national political solution.
Compounding the situation is the lack of fairness in our current healthcare system that allows irresponsible employers—like Wal Mart—to shift their healthcare costs onto taxpayers and responsible employers.
The UFCW has long been a supporter of universal, affordable and quality health care coverage for all Americans. And we believe that a broad-based effort of all Americans is fundamental to achieving that goal. Responsible members of the business community have a large role to play in this effort, and we applaud CAHR for bringing them into the national healthcare dialogue.
America’s workers need universal healthcare. CAHR principles represent an important contribution in the effort to adopt healthcare reform that is fair to everyone in our society, can control costs, and provide universal access to quality healthcare all Americans.
We look forward to working with CAHR, and will continue working with lawmakers, advocacy groups and other unions to solve our country’s health care crisis.
UFCW President Joe Hansen was the only labor representative on the 14 member Citizens’ Health Care Working Group mandated by Congress to make recommendations to the President and Congress for solving the healthcare crisis. The Working Group engaged nearly 40,000 Americans in an historic national dialogue over a nearly two- year period and submitted its recommendations last September. They can be accessed at: www.ufcw4healthcare.org