Workers and Supporters March On Giant Eagle Headquarters

Giant Eagle workers and supporters, with UFCW Local 23, marched on Giant Eagle's company headquarters, asking the company to respect their rights. Just to send a clear message, various members of the march dressed up as our Founding Fathers, with a Bill of Rights for Giant Eagle workers they asked the company to acknowledge.

Giant Eagle, unfortunately, once again tried to silence workers by refusing to let them near the building or listen to their request for respect. But Giant Eagle workers will not be silenced! These pictures speak louder than words; Giant Eagle workers want the respect their deserve for their hard work to make their company successful.

UFCW Members Demonstrate Gold Power in Lead-Up to Nov 2

It Gets Better: AFL-CIO President Trumka

AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka speaks out against discrimination, which happens not just in our schools and neighborhoods, but in our workplaces, too.

Fixing our Economy with Union Values

Greed. Avarice. Reckless speculation. Zero accountability. That’s what got America into the financial mess we’re in. But those aren’t the values we advocate when we are teaching our children how to get ahead, how to support themselves financially, or how to be successful. We teach them just the opposite: responsibility, hard work, fairness, cautiousness, and generosity.

Those are also union values, and they’re the values that our governors, senators, representatives and elected officials at every level must draw on if we are to repair a decade of economic damage caused by Republican malfeasance. We have no choice but to draw on our own ethics and principles—not the ethics of Wall Street bankers—if we want to grow an economy that strengthens our country and middle-class families for the long run.

President Obama inherited an economy in free-fall with huge deficits, skyrocketing health care costs, rising unemployment, and banking and housing markets on the brink of collapse. It took two years, and we still have quite a way to go, but the fact is that under George Bush, our economy was losing 700,000 jobs a month. Despite Republican obstructionism, Democrats were the ones to turn America around by cutting taxes for 95 percent of working families, and investing in the sectors of our economy that are projected to grow the most jobs: health care, energy, education. And, there’s still more work planned.

• Putting Americans to work rebuilding roads, bridges, rails, and ports, strengthening our economy and our infrastructure across all 50 states.

• Investing in a clean energy economy, and providing tax credits to spark manufacturing of windmills, solar panels, and electric cars here at home; and

• Valuing and rewarding with decent pay and family-supporting benefits those who are already employed in the jobs and sectors that are here to stay—like the 4.2 million Americans who work in retail; grocery workers; food processing meat packing and other plant workers.

In addition to the Recovery Act, which stabilized the financial system and helped to prevent a second Great Depression, the President and Democrats have taken several actions to save and create jobs and to get our economy moving again and to ensure that as the engine of our economy comes back to life, it will run for working people, not Wall Street.

• Passed the Manufacturing Enhancement Act to help create jobs, lower business costs, and strengthen the manufacturing sector.

• Supported Americans looking for work by passing the Unemployment Compensation Act which restored badly needed assistance to hard-working Americans who lost their jobs in the recession.

• Reinstated fiscal responsibility in government spending and ensured that American taxpayers will never again be forced to bail out big banks.

• Passed the Home Buyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, extending the eligibility for new home buyers to receive a tax credit for their purchase.

• Passed a bill that will cut taxes and increase lending for small businesses, helping them to grow and hire new workers. It also lets businesses write off half of their equipment investments this year, and lets employers deduct health insurance costs from their taxes.

• Signed into law emergency aid for states saving the jobs of more than 140,000 teachers and preventing the layoffs of police officers, firefighters and first responders.

Working America's New Job Tracker: A Powerful and Exciting Tool

Our friends over at Working America have blown us away with a powerful new online tool they launched last week: behold the Job Tracker!


The Job Tracker is a beautifully simple online search tool you can use to find out which companies in your area (or any area in the country) are exporting jobs, laying off workers, endangering workers' health, or are involved in cases of violations of workers' rights. The database contains information on more than 400,000 companies nationwide.

Just enter any U.S. zip code, and voila!


Here we used a zip code in Cincinnati, OH. The results are pretty impressive. Considering the economic situation in Ohio right now, you might not be all that surprised to learn of that over 100 companies are in the process of making mass layoffs. But take a look at the number of companies with safety and health violations in the workplace - more than 2,500! Seems like OSHA needs to step it up in southwest Ohio.

Beyond being a super cool and well-designed online tool, the Job Tracker is a gateway to very important information about the forces driving our economy. Outsourcing and other irresponsible employer behavior amount to a full-fledged epidemic in the 21st century - one we need to work to fully understand in order to end. "Sending Jobs Overseas: The Cost to America’s Economy and Working Families," the detailed report on outsourcing that accompanies the job tracker, is a must-read.

1200 JBS Packinghouse Workers Join the UFCW

Nearly 1,200 workers at the JBS plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania, voted today to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776.

“I am delighted that we stood together and made the right choice to form a union,” said Bernard Coneghen, who has worked at the Souderton facility for 27 years. “We had the opportunity to speak with representatives of the UFCW about the benefits of having a voice at work and were able to make an informed choice about forming a union.”

The workers’ victory today was the successful conclusion of a months-long campaign designed to give a voice to the nearly 1,200 JBS workers in Souderton, but also as part of a UFCW-led nationwide effort aimed at raising wages and benefits for all workers in the meatpacking and poultry industries.

“The outcome of this election shows that when workers get a free and fair process, they choose union representation,” said Wendell Young, IV, UFCW International Vice President and President of Local 1776.” The UFCW applauds JBS for taking the high road to allow the workers to have a free and fair process. Having a union makes it better for everyone, workers, the company, and the larger community.”

The Brazilian firm JBS, S.A. acquired the former Moyer Packing Company’s Souderton facility with the purchase of the Smithfield Beef Group in 2008. JBS, out of respect for its workers, allowed a free and fair process for workers to decide about union representation.

“We achieved our victory because we stood together and that’s what made us strong,” said Melina Martinez, who has worked at the plant for the last six years. “Now that we have a union, we want to get right to work on a contract that protects our rights and improves our working conditions.”

By choosing UFCW Local 1776 today as their bargaining representative, workers at the JBS plant in Souderton will be joining together with 27,000 JBS workers and 250,000 meatpacking and poultry workers across the country who already enjoy the benefits of union representation with the UFCW.

UFCW Local 1776 represents thousands of packinghouse and food processing workers in Pennsylvania at plants such as Empire Kosher Poultry in Mifflintown, Cargill in Hazelton, BC Natural Chicken in Fredericksburg and Citterio USA in Freeland.

America Needs YOU! (To explain why the health care bill works for working Americans.)

The other side is running full tilt at what they sneeringly term "Obamacare," a mythical bill that's supposedly already driving up costs for small business and creating soaring premiums. And since most Americans still don't really understand or know much about the health care bill, it's been easy to create that monstrous image of a bloated, expensive bill that hurts, not helps.

But not anymore. Candidates and politicians who voted for health care are starting to run on it now, bringing the immediate benefits of the bill sharply into focus.

As E.J. Dionne points out in his column today:

Why the sudden willingness to run on health care? The key reason is that the law didn't begin to take effect until Sept. 23, and the first elements to kick in are very popular. They include the guarantee that children cannot be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions, a requirement that insurance companies allow kids to stay on their parents' health plans until age 26 and a ban on "rescissions" through which insurance companies could abruptly drop sick people from coverage.

Around the country, Democratic candidates are calling these parts of the bill a "Patient's Bill of Rights," as Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), put it in a column in the Huffington Post.

Dionne also points out that Democrats are starting to expose not just the good points of the bill, but also Republicans' lies about the bill. As he puts it, there are two competing visions of the health care bill in this election:

One is the parody Republicans have lovingly created that casts the health-care law as a big-government monstrosity with no redeeming features. The other is the law itself, an admittedly sprawling legislative compromise that nonetheless moves things in the right direction -- and most of whose individual elements voters support.

Democratic politicians are finally starting to expose the monstrosity as a false vision, and the sprawling-but-mostly-good-compromise as the true one. But they can't do it alone. UFCW members, like most union members across the country, had a unique seat in the health care debate and the opportunity to learn the inside and out of the bill like few other Americans. And it's up to us--to progressives and union members and labor supporters and anyone who works for working people--to educate our friends and family members on what this bill is really all about.

We need to tell them that the health care bill does some really good things (kids can't be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, young adults can stay on their parents' insurance till age 26, people can't be kicked off their health care for getting sick) but also needs improvement, like any big bill. And we need to convey to every one we know that many Republicans--especially Tea Party Republicans--want to repeal health care, and all those great benefits that just kicked in. We need to let them know that voting for those Tea Party Republicans is really a vote to get rid of that health care bill, not to fix it.

Here's a video to help you get started:

UFCW 367 STANDS IN STRONG SUPPORT OF THEIR TACOMA MACY’S MEMBERS

From our brothers and sisters at UFCW Local 367 in Tacoma:

UFCW 367 STANDS IN STRONG SUPPORT OF THEIR TACOMA MACY’S MEMBERS

The women who wait on you deserve more!


Who cares about a bunch of women who sell Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Jones New York clothing? Tacoma Macy’s wants them working for minimum wage and is willing to demote, lay-off, fire, and otherwise get rid of all of its long-time employees on the top tier who are earning more than minimum wage. Isn’t there a moral issue here? Can anyone feel good about laying out a lot of cash on designer clothes knowing that the people who are on their feet all day fetching things to the dressing rooms and putting clothes back on the hangers can’t raise their families on what they are paid? Are we under the misconception that because we are shopping at a store that carries cotton blouses costing $120 that the people who are helping us can afford to buy one, too? Do we really think these women spend their entire pay checks on the luxury items they are surrounded by all day?

During the ongoing negotiations between UFCW Local 367 and Tacoma Macy’s, a major sticking point has been Macy’s demand for a two-tiered contract. The company wants to grandfather in without commissions – in this case grandmother in because most of its employees are women – the employees who have been with the company for a number of years and have worked their way to the top of the scale. Macy’s wants all new hires to begin work at minimum wage, with increases that will top out at not much more than that.

So, what will happen to the people who have been hard-working and loyal employees? In an attempt to keep wages distressingly low, Macy’s plan seems to be to purge them out of the store. And that process has already begun. People who have worked at Macy’s for years are being charged with minor infractions that at one time might well have been overlooked, but now these workers are being demoted or summarily dismissed.

If Tacoma Macy’s gets its way, their 300 employee’s lives are going to change drastically. There will be no more commissions (except in very limited areas) pay will never get much higher than minimum wage, and general operating procedures will change.

This is a model that seems to be being tested in the Tacoma store and in time could very well sweep across the country to all Macy’s 800 locations.

This model will impact every community Macy’s is a part of. If Tacoma Macy’s is given free reign, it means the community will lose $2,250,000 over the three year contract. And that figure can be extrapolated out even longer because once the cuts are made that money will never come back. One more segment of the population will be added to those struggling to get by on less and less.


This comes at a time when Macy’s Inc. is being lauded by the financial community for its excellent second quarter report. Macy’s profits were up 21 percent and their cash on hand rose 11 percent.


We are in the midst of an economic downturn, it is true. Yes, Macy’s is running perpetual sales to lure customers in, and maybe that $120 blouse will go on sale. But, trying to make even larger profits on the backs of its workers is an inequitable and cruel trick to play on women who need their jobs and have few other job opportunities available to them.

The employees of Tacoma Macy’s deserve the support and understanding of the union community. They deserve to know that they can keep the jobs they have worked hard at and hold on to the rate of pay they have earned over the years. Local 367 will continue to fight for these women and all the Macy’s workers who are our members.