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Kid's Corner
Take a Stand for Grocery Workers
If you're like most kids, you probably make at least one trip a week to the grocery store with your mom or dad. Maybe you even make some of the decisions - like what kind of cereal or ice cream to buy.
That's the fun part of grocery shopping. But there's been a serious side to it, too, lately. It's about grocery workers and their brave and costly stand for fairness. We hope you'll think about it, and help your family decide not just what to buy, but where to buy it.
About 70,000 grocery workers in California were out of work for nearly five months fighting to save their health benefits - the insurance that pays for doctors and hospitals when they or their children are sick.
They got a new contract at the end of February, but grocery workers across the country are facing the same threat to their health care. That means you might see picket lines in your area eventually.
While many grocery chains are involved, Safeway is getting the most attention because Steve Burd, the company's chief executive officer, is leading the charge to severely cut workers' health benefits. He wants people to believe that health care is too expensive for the company. Yet Safeway has made more than $3 billion - that's billion, 3,000,000,000 - in profits over the past five years.
Unions understand that health care costs have gotten way too high in the United States, and many union members have agreed to pay more for their benefits. But the supermarket chains in California were demanding far too much.
The California workers are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. While on the picket line they were paid strike benefits that are about half of their normal paychecks, a terrible financial hardship. Some couldn't afford their rent or house payments and lost their homes. Some had to sell their cars.
CWA's national headquarters gave $100,000 to the workers and CWA locals and individual members made donations and "adopted a striker."
There's another very important way you can help: If you come across a picket line in your community, don't cross it. And if your family's union urges you to boycott a store that's treating workers unfairly, don't shop there.
"This is a very important fight for every working family in America," CWA President Morton Bahr says. "No one should have to make the choice between paying for health care and being able to afford to feed their family."
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
Whether you're a kid or a grownup, everyone loves Dr. Seuss. This month marks the 100th birthday of the master of rhyming fun and whimsical art.
Dr. Seuss' real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel and he was a man today's labor union members can be proud to celebrate. Before he became famous for "The Cat in the Hat" and his other beloved tales, he drew political cartoons that supported rights for workers and African Americans, among other important issues.
We hope he'd be proud that just in time for his birthday, another talented writer has borrowed his unique style to help support grocery workers in California and nationwide fighting to save their good jobs and benefits.
The following poem takes a look at how Safeway and boss Steve Burd are treating workers. It was written by Margaret Butler, director of the Portland, Ore., chapter of Jobs with Justice and a former CWA local officer and organizer. Read it as if you're reading Dr. Seuss:
If you're like most kids, you probably make at least one trip a week to the grocery store with your mom or dad. Maybe you even make some of the decisions - like what kind of cereal or ice cream to buy.
That's the fun part of grocery shopping. But there's been a serious side to it, too, lately. It's about grocery workers and their brave and costly stand for fairness. We hope you'll think about it, and help your family decide not just what to buy, but where to buy it.
About 70,000 grocery workers in California were out of work for nearly five months fighting to save their health benefits - the insurance that pays for doctors and hospitals when they or their children are sick.
They got a new contract at the end of February, but grocery workers across the country are facing the same threat to their health care. That means you might see picket lines in your area eventually.
While many grocery chains are involved, Safeway is getting the most attention because Steve Burd, the company's chief executive officer, is leading the charge to severely cut workers' health benefits. He wants people to believe that health care is too expensive for the company. Yet Safeway has made more than $3 billion - that's billion, 3,000,000,000 - in profits over the past five years.
Unions understand that health care costs have gotten way too high in the United States, and many union members have agreed to pay more for their benefits. But the supermarket chains in California were demanding far too much.
The California workers are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. While on the picket line they were paid strike benefits that are about half of their normal paychecks, a terrible financial hardship. Some couldn't afford their rent or house payments and lost their homes. Some had to sell their cars.
CWA's national headquarters gave $100,000 to the workers and CWA locals and individual members made donations and "adopted a striker."
There's another very important way you can help: If you come across a picket line in your community, don't cross it. And if your family's union urges you to boycott a store that's treating workers unfairly, don't shop there.
"This is a very important fight for every working family in America," CWA President Morton Bahr says. "No one should have to make the choice between paying for health care and being able to afford to feed their family."
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
Whether you're a kid or a grownup, everyone loves Dr. Seuss. This month marks the 100th birthday of the master of rhyming fun and whimsical art.
Dr. Seuss' real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel and he was a man today's labor union members can be proud to celebrate. Before he became famous for "The Cat in the Hat" and his other beloved tales, he drew political cartoons that supported rights for workers and African Americans, among other important issues.
We hope he'd be proud that just in time for his birthday, another talented writer has borrowed his unique style to help support grocery workers in California and nationwide fighting to save their good jobs and benefits.
The following poem takes a look at how Safeway and boss Steve Burd are treating workers. It was written by Margaret Butler, director of the Portland, Ore., chapter of Jobs with Justice and a former CWA local officer and organizer. Read it as if you're reading Dr. Seuss:
Green Eggs and Grocery Workers
Safeway jobs have been good jobs for so many years
Families have lived well, without many fears.
The union's been strong and workers have had
Enough to survive on, things haven't been bad.
There's vacation and health care and pensions enough
Family wages mean workers can afford to buy stuff.
Grocery workers work hard for these modest returns
God knows, with the speedup, each dollar is earned
Repetitive motion, the quickening pace
It's a daily challenge all grocery clerks face
Employers and workers have bargained for years
And compromised often to settle the deals
Now in California this deal has been wrecked
Safeway's proposed cutbacks that do not reflect
The hard work that workers put into each day
To make profits for Steve Burd, shareholders, and Safeway
Down south of us now they are walking the line
To fight for their health care and for yours and mine.
So pick up a sign and join in our cause
Bosses won't protect workers and neither will laws
Safeway and Freddies and Albertsons too
Would like to cut benefits and pay less, it's true
If we don't stand and fight this battle right now
All jobs will be Wal-marted, just ask me how
No health care to speak of, pensions will be gone
How can we live? These takebacks are wrong!
So let's build a movement and stop this down slide
Let's shine public light so the greedy can't hide
Let's be at the stores 'til Burd has to give in
Together we have enough power to win!