Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
CWA Donates $100,000 to Grocery Strikers
CWA has donated $100,000 to aid 70,000 locked-out and striking grocery workers in California who are on the front lines of a national fight to preserve health care benefits for workers and families.
"Their fight is our fight," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "The grocery chains are among many profitable companies that are slashing health benefits for working families across this country. There's no question that health care costs are rising, but simply shifting more costs to workers does nothing to solve the problem. Today, too many workers have to choose between paying the lion's share of their health care coverage or feeding and housing their families, leaving them with no insurance at all. That's just unacceptable."
In addition to the $100,000 contribution, CWA members and locals have made individual gifts to the United Food and Commercial Workers' strike fund. District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler said they include a $10,000 donation from Local 9400 in Southern California and a pledge of 1 percent of monthly dues collected from members of Local 9413 in Sparks, Nev.
"Our members understand that this isn't an issue unique to grocery workers," Bixler said. "I think we will see it in almost all our negotiations from now into the future." CWA is also working with the AFL-CIO on a program to "adopt" the striking families.
The grocery workers, who are picketing at Albertsons, Kroger-owned Ralph's and Safeway-owned Vons chains, have been without paychecks for nearly four months and some have lost their cars and homes. CWA members have joined UFCW members on picket lines in California. They have also taken part in informational pickets at stores owned by the chains in other regions, including recent actions in the Baltimore area.
Peaceful marches and demonstrations by grocery workers and their supporters - including CWA members - have drawn a large police presence. Last week, two Contra Costa, Calif., sheriff's deputies alarmed picketers by identifying themselves as "homeland security officers."
Officials later told the media the deputies are part of a homeland security team but were sent to the rally as part of routine security and shouldn't have identified themselves that way. "This was a mistake. The event that is occurring on Wednesday is a normal law enforcement response and really is not in any way a homeland security operation," sheriff's captain Scott Parsons said, quoted in the Contra Costa Times.
Union leaders "view the surveillance and invoking homeland security as anything but normal, questioning whether the tactics were intended to intimidate protesters," the paper reported.
Donations to help the workers can be made online by visiting https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline. Donors may also send a check, payable to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, to the Hold the Line for Health Care Strike Fund, AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.
"Their fight is our fight," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "The grocery chains are among many profitable companies that are slashing health benefits for working families across this country. There's no question that health care costs are rising, but simply shifting more costs to workers does nothing to solve the problem. Today, too many workers have to choose between paying the lion's share of their health care coverage or feeding and housing their families, leaving them with no insurance at all. That's just unacceptable."
In addition to the $100,000 contribution, CWA members and locals have made individual gifts to the United Food and Commercial Workers' strike fund. District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler said they include a $10,000 donation from Local 9400 in Southern California and a pledge of 1 percent of monthly dues collected from members of Local 9413 in Sparks, Nev.
"Our members understand that this isn't an issue unique to grocery workers," Bixler said. "I think we will see it in almost all our negotiations from now into the future." CWA is also working with the AFL-CIO on a program to "adopt" the striking families.
The grocery workers, who are picketing at Albertsons, Kroger-owned Ralph's and Safeway-owned Vons chains, have been without paychecks for nearly four months and some have lost their cars and homes. CWA members have joined UFCW members on picket lines in California. They have also taken part in informational pickets at stores owned by the chains in other regions, including recent actions in the Baltimore area.
Peaceful marches and demonstrations by grocery workers and their supporters - including CWA members - have drawn a large police presence. Last week, two Contra Costa, Calif., sheriff's deputies alarmed picketers by identifying themselves as "homeland security officers."
Officials later told the media the deputies are part of a homeland security team but were sent to the rally as part of routine security and shouldn't have identified themselves that way. "This was a mistake. The event that is occurring on Wednesday is a normal law enforcement response and really is not in any way a homeland security operation," sheriff's captain Scott Parsons said, quoted in the Contra Costa Times.
Union leaders "view the surveillance and invoking homeland security as anything but normal, questioning whether the tactics were intended to intimidate protesters," the paper reported.
Donations to help the workers can be made online by visiting https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline. Donors may also send a check, payable to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, to the Hold the Line for Health Care Strike Fund, AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.