AFL-CIO President Blasts Pay Freeze for Hardworking Americans

Rich Trumka on the President's decision to freeze pay for federal workers: 

 

Today’s announcement of a two-year pay freeze for federal workers is bad for the middle class, bad for the economy and bad for business. No one is served by our government participating in a “race to the bottom” in wages. We need to invest in creating jobs, not undermining the ones we have. The President talked about the need for shared sacrifice, but there’s nothing shared about Wall Street and CEOs making record profits and bonuses while working people bear the brunt. It is time to get our nation back on track, but we should not do so by placing an even greater burden on the middle class.

These are good middle class jobs, and Trumka is exactly right--we need to stop placing the brunt of our economic burden on our middle class, and start placing it where it belongs--on the Wall Street tycoons and greedy CEOs who got us into this mess in the first place. Whether it's the retail industry, the service industry, the manufacturing industry, or government workers--we need to stand together and say NO MORE to the attempts to hold down wages and benefits in our industries while Wall Street is allowed to run wild and the gap between the haves and have-nots grows greater every day. Only when we stand together can we stand up for America's working families.

This Thanksgiving, We Pledge to Continue Feeding the Hungry from Coast to Coast

As we give thanks this year for all we have, it's good to remember those who are less fortunate. Our union is the food workers' union, with UFCW members working in grocery stores, packing plants, and food processing plants—and UFCW members and local unions have long been involved in efforts to help the hungry and provide for those in need.

One of the most successful, and certainly the largest of these efforts is the joint UFCW/Smithfield Feeding the Hungry (FTH) Program. We just completed year one of the three-year, multi-city, coast to coast effort to donate and deliver more than 20 million servings of protein to food banks. The program launched in November of 2009, and has engaged the participation of UFCW local unions and members, elected officials, labor and community activists, and celebrity chefs like Paula Deen and the Food Network's Jeff Henderson. So far, over a million pounds of proteins have been distributed to food banks in 23 cities.

This effort, sadly, is more necessary than ever before. Food banks nationwide are reporting a 46 percent increase in the number of people coming to them for help. As people continue to lose jobs, that has a big effect on food banks’ ability to meet that demand. As a result, food assistance organizations across the country have been reporting over the past year that more individuals and families are turning to them for assistance than ever.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that the first human right—the greatest human right—was access to food. The Feeding the Hungry Program is about doing our small part to uphold that right. Our members—and our locals unions—are part of the fabric of their communities. They work tirelessly to ensure that our neighborhoods are strong, stable, and secure. And we engage on issues like hunger because we understand that in these challenging economic times, all of us have an obligation to be active and involved in the communities we serve. That's what the Feeding the Hungry campaign is all about. It's about being a good neighbor. It's about ensuring nutritious meals for every family, in every community.

The UFCW is committed to ensuring that families across the country have the relief and the opportunities they need to weather the current economic crises. Our goal is simple: Get good, nutritious food to as many families, in as many communities, as possible. And we are committed to partnering with Smithfield to do just that in the coming year. All across the country, the UFCW and our allies are committed to providing the resources and manpower to ensure that the feeding the hungry program reaches as many families, as many tables, in as many communities, as possible. We hope that our involvement—and the participation of our partners—can shine a light on this critical issue, and help us take action to fight hunger in America.

Six Things Congress Should Know About Immigration Reform

This week, a New York Times editorial pointed out immigration reform will have an uphill climb in a Congress dominated by hard-liners. As the editorial says, we’re going to get more of the same:

a national doubling-down on enforcement, with still more border fencing and immigration agents, workplaces locked down, and states and localities setting police dragnets on what always was — and still ought to be — federal turf.

You’d think a new Congress would have a few new ideas. We have had agreement for years that securing our borders is a priority, but only one of several necessary priorities if we are to have an immigration system that works. Here at the UFCW, we’ve spent years working with other labor unions, elected and business leaders, and advocacy groups on the right and the left to find common sense fixes for our broken immigration system. And we’ve got a few thoughts for the next Congress.

First, we’ve seen how enforcement-only approaches hurt all workers, fueling divisiveness and racial profiling, trampling rights, interrupting production, putting companies out of business and Americans out of work.

Second, both the CATO Institute and the Center for American Progress have determined, in independent studies, that immigration reform would pump more than a trillion dollars into the U.S. economy—creating jobs, which should be issue number one for the incoming Congress.

Third, the workplace is sometimes more than a workplace—it’s a common area where workers learn about American culture and customs, forge friendships, and begin to understand what being an American is all about. Many of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents found this out firsthand when they came to work in America.

Fourth, individual state-based immigration policy will only make the situation worse. We understand the frustration when Washington won’t act, so states feel like they must. Some irresponsible congressional representatives even encourage state-based solutions in order to avoid getting to work and providing a federal solution to a serious national problem. It is up to Washington to lead and act. Only federal legislation, guided by democratic principles and the rule of law, can fix our broken system. Congress needs to get serious about immigration.

Fifth, we need a clear process for undocumented workers to get right with the law, and secure our borders. Such a process would raise wages and benefits for all workers, because incentives to hire undocumented workers and exploit them would be eliminated.

Finally, we need to remove legal work-based immigration from the uncertainty of the political process, and put in place a process to meet industry workforce requirements through a depoliticized system comprised of industry, economic, and labor experts.

Real immigration reform would uphold our values of civic inclusion and participation, as well as embrace the vitality and diversity that are the fabric of a vibrant and strong society. It’s what Americans deserve—and it’s what will work to move all working people forward in the 21st century.

TAKE ACTION! Grocery Workers Need Your Support Today!

The Big Y grocery company has been buying A&P stores and reopening them as Big Y stores in Connecticut--but has barely hired back any of the experienced, long-time A&P workers who were already working in those stores. At the same time, Big Y has laid off many of its own workers, and has encouraged full-timers to take voluntary layoffs. 

It's terrible any time someone loses a job, but when a company is expanding--what sense does that make? Why get rid of experienced workers from our communities, only to hire new ones to replace them? Full time OR part time, these grocery jobs should be good jobs--jobs that offer good wages and benefits and a path to advancement.

We're forced to ask: Why, Big Y? What kind of a company does Big Y want to be? The kind that rewards loyal, hard-working employees? Or the kind that lets them--and their customers--down? The kind that creates good middle class jobs in our communities, or the kind that destroys them? The kind that offers a real path to advancement for part-timers and full-timers alike? Or the kind that offers only low wage, dead-end jobs? 

Please help us support these laid-off workers and fight for good middle class jobs.

With your help, we want to hold Big Y accountable--by asking Why, Big Y? Please join us in asking the tough questions on Big Y's Facebook page and Twitter feed, like:

• Why did Big Y lay off so many of its own workers, and ask others to take voluntary layoffs—when the company is expanding and hiring?

• Why did Big Y refuse to hire back most A&P workers when it re-opened old A&P stores under the Big Y banner?

• Why won't Big Y listen to loyal A&P shoppers--who’ve asked repeatedly for Big Y to re-hire the A&P workers who customers have come to regard as family?
  
• Why won’t Big Y reward years of hard work and loyalty, so full-timers AND part-timers alike can have the opportunity they deserve?

• Why is Big Y making these tough economic times even tougher for laid-off workers and their families?

Or, just ask them, Why, Big Y? on Facebook or Twitter to show your solidarity with laid-off Big Y workers. 

You can find Big Y's Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/bigyworldclassmarket

And Big Y's Twitter feed is: @BigYFoods and the hashtag we'd like to use is #whybigy

Feel free to use the graphic above as well in any way you would like. 

Thank you so much for all your help on this, and please spread the word--we can't fight for good jobs at Big Y without you!

Worker Rights Extend to Facebook, Labor Board Says

As Steven Greenhouse reports in the New York Times, the National Labor Relations Board is alleging that a Connecticut company's decision to fire an employee over comments she made about her supervisor on Facebook amounts to an illegal suppression of worker rights.

According to the NLRB's acting general counsel, “This is a fairly straightforward case under the National Labor Relations Act — whether it takes place on Facebook or at the water cooler, it was employees talking jointly about working conditions, in this case about their supervisor, and they have a right to do that.”

This is a groundbreaking case for workers that will have far-reaching implications about how social media and the workplace fit together. An administrative law judge is scheduled to begin hearing the case on Jan. 25. - it will be an interesting one to follow!

Seattle Grocery Workers Stand Strong Against Proposed Cuts, Take Strike Authorization Vote Ahead of Busy Holiday Season

UFCW Local 21 members have been standing strong and united for over 9 months of bargaining with Seattle grocery stores. Now, with the companies still insisting on cuts to pay, benefits, and pensions, workers have been forced to take a strike authorization vote in anticipation of a possible strike this holiday season.

Negotiations with Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer, and QFC have stalled, and as Local 21 members point out, the employer proposals are simply unfair to workers.

"We have to raise our children, and I've been working there for five years," said Angela Kenyon, who works at a Safeway in Burien. "And what they're having to offer, even for the new employees... it's just unfair."

Hear more from Seattle grocery workers and Local 21 members here.

One thing to note: UFCW Local 21 Communications Director Tom Geiger makes an important observation when he explains that "the employers themselves have said their last, best, and final offer is not yet proposed." So the question is: why not? "After nine months you should be able to get pretty much anything done," he says. We couldn't agree more!

Votes will be taking place through Wednesday. Seattle grocery workers can get more information and RSVP here or by calling 1-800-732-1188, ext. 6161.

Cincinnati Kroger Workers Approve New Contract

Over 12,000 members of UFCW Local 75 working at Greater Cincinnati Kroger stores ratified a new three-year agreement yesterday; members of Local 75 approved the agreement by over 70%. The new contract includes compensation increases, benefit improvements, and additional pension contributions.

"Thanks to the efforts of the Bargaining Committee and the membership, we were able to reach and approve a fair agreement. Members of Local 75 working at Kroger stores make the company number one in this market, and number one in the country. We are pleased to have a contract that reflects the efforts of these hometown workers," said Lennie Wyatt, President of Local 75.

UFCW Local 75 represents nearly 30,000 members along the I-75 corridor in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Local 75 members put dinner on the table for families in our community with members in supermarkets, drug stores, and food packing and processing facilities.

Reflections on the 2010 Election from UFCW International President Joe Hansen: Workers Should Insist Their Voices Are Heard

You’ll hear a lot in the coming days about what yesterday’s election results mean for Congress, for Democrats, for Republicans, for the Tea Party, for President Obama, for health care reform, for Wall Street… the list goes on. Personally, I think our time is better spent thinking about what it means for regular Americans – the people who go to work every day, to do their best to put food on the table and send their kids to school, and worry about keeping their homes and saving for the future.

Over the last two years, under the leadership of President Obama and Democrats in Congress, our country has made some great strides. Together, we passed a law that makes our health care system fairer, more affordable, more accessible, and less vulnerable to abuse. To be sure, there are aspects of the law we need to fix, just as Social Security needed to be adjusted shortly after its creation. But the reforms we passed are a great start, and we should not cast them aside. We reigned in the wild-west behavior on Wall Street with a financial reform law that will protect consumers, not big banks. We invested in job creation and education. We took a stand against wage inequality and hate crimes.

I am consistently amazed by how successfully opponents of reform have drowned out all those accomplishments with a chorus of “NO” and empty, misleading rhetoric designed to incite fear and hate. Those most primitive of emotions seem to have won out in this year’s elections, overshadowing reason, progress, and hope.

The truth is, Americans have every right to be angry. For all the talk of the recession ending and the markets bouncing back, regular people are still struggling to make ends meet. If this is a recovery, most of us certainly aren’t sharing in it. What we must guard against is not anger, but those who seek to hijack it to advance their own agendas. And sure, times are tough, but where would we be if Republicans had controlled Congress and the White House these last two years? We’d still be living in a country whose health care costs were spiraling out of control; a country where Wall Street was allowed to run roughshod over Main Street; a country whose government mandated education reform but refused to invest in it. I, for one, am glad we came together to change that country for the better.

It’s clear we have to work harder than ever to make sure that progress and recovery continue. The deficit is a real and growing problem that we must address effectively – and smartly – in the coming years. Addressing it smartly means not taking a machete to government programs that people depend on, like Medicare and Social Security, but rather reevaluating our country’s priorities and commitments to create savings without leaving struggling, hard-working people out in the cold.

So what can working people take away from yesterday’s elections? Should we jump on the fear and hate bandwagon? No. We should, instead, work to strengthen and amplify our collective voice in support of the policies and people we believe in. Working people make America work. Let’s see to it that November 3, 2010, goes down in history as the day American workers decided never again to let the wealthy minority hijack the political conversation in this country.

Tomorrow is Election Day--Vote and Make Your Voice Heard!

Every year, you're told that this is the most important election you'll ever vote in. That your vote counts more than ever this year. That this year, the difference between voting and not-voting could mean years of disastrous policies for the country.

Well, guess what? It's truer than ever this year. Your vote is of crucial importance to the future of this country. Will we continue to move forward? Or will we reverse course--just as our economy is starting to improve a little, just as we're beginning to correct the disastrous course set by the Bush administration?

President Obama and the Democratic Congress still has a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to job growth. But the alternative--a Congress full of far right and libertarian extremists, who'd like to abolish all government and let Wall Street run wild, who'd like to re-enact the very policies that led to the economic collapse in the first place--is unthinkable.

We can't go backwards. We have to keep making progress, moving forward, inch by inch, mile by mile--and the only way to do that is to vote on Tuesday to elect candidates that will fight for working families in this country. We have to vote on Tuesday for the candidates who'll fight to save our jobs and lift our economy. We have to vote on Tuesday for the candidates that stand for progress, because we can't afford to let this country slip again.

It's just too important this year to sit this one out. We have to vote. See you at the polls tomorrow!

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