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Health Care Fight at Grocery Chains Now Nationwide
With 70,000 grocery workers still walking picket lines in southern California, the UFCW and AFL-CIO are launching a nationwide campaign to further pressure the Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons chains to settle the dispute, now in its fourth month.
CWA members are rallying behind the strikers who are fighting against the grocery chains' demands to drastically cut, and in some cases, eliminate workers' health care benefits altogether, reported District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler. CWA Local 9413 has voted to send 1 percent of its dues each month to help the strikers and their families keep health care coverage, and CWA members union-wide also have been making contributions to the UFCW's emergency relief fund. Contributions can be sent to the UFCW Strike Hardship Fund, Attn: Sec.-Treas. Joe Hansen, 1775 K St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006.
As part of the national effort, union members across the country will target the companies' stores in various cities with picket lines and demonstrations. A schedule for actions will be announced shortly; more information is available at http://www.aflcio.org/ and http://www.ufcw.org/.
Meanwhile, labor is demonstrating how Safeway is hurting investors by continuing to demand cuts in workers' health benefits. The AFL-CIO Office of Investment recently told the Washington State Investment Board - a major stockholder - how Safeway's confrontational labor strategy and poor management has led to "significant losses."
CWA members are rallying behind the strikers who are fighting against the grocery chains' demands to drastically cut, and in some cases, eliminate workers' health care benefits altogether, reported District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler. CWA Local 9413 has voted to send 1 percent of its dues each month to help the strikers and their families keep health care coverage, and CWA members union-wide also have been making contributions to the UFCW's emergency relief fund. Contributions can be sent to the UFCW Strike Hardship Fund, Attn: Sec.-Treas. Joe Hansen, 1775 K St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006.
As part of the national effort, union members across the country will target the companies' stores in various cities with picket lines and demonstrations. A schedule for actions will be announced shortly; more information is available at http://www.aflcio.org/ and http://www.ufcw.org/.
Meanwhile, labor is demonstrating how Safeway is hurting investors by continuing to demand cuts in workers' health benefits. The AFL-CIO Office of Investment recently told the Washington State Investment Board - a major stockholder - how Safeway's confrontational labor strategy and poor management has led to "significant losses."