Campaign Brings Macy's and Bloomingdale's Workers from Across the Country Together to Rally for Better Contracts

In an act of solidarity to raise standards in the retail industry, Macy's and Bloomingdale's workers in Seattle, Pleasanton, C.A., Pittsburgh, and New York City are working together to fight for better contracts. Together, UFCW members from locals across the country are negotiating with management at Macy's, Macy's Furniture Gallery, and Bloomingdale's stores.

"All we want is a fair contract," says Damaris Morales, 46, who has been a saleswoman at the Bloomingdale's 59th Street flagship store in New York City for 15 years.

Focused on the theme: "We are the Magic Behind Macy's," workers across the country hand-billed their customers with a Macy's fact sheet; wore "We are the Magic" yellow wristbands; and signed petitions that pledged to take local action to support workers in negotiations.

On April 18, workers from across the country came together and rallied for a new contract. In a community effort, they were joined by elected officials, other union members, customers, and other workers, including Macy's workers and workers from Bloomingdale's flagship store.

Check out photos from the rally and workers participating in the "We are the Magic Behind Macy's" campaign:

Tens of Thousands of Workers - Including Hundreds of UFCW Members - Rally at Indiana Statehouse for Workers' Rights

Today tens of thousands and workers and labor supporters gathered outside the Indiana Statehouse to rally for workers' rights, and to protest against the anti-worker bills being introduced by Republicans in the state senate. Workers chanted, sang, danced, listened to speakers, and made one thing loud and clear: they're not going anywhere until Republicans back down from their anti-worker agenda. They also thanked the Illinois Democrats for staying out of the Statehouse and refusing to provide a quorum to vote on those anti-worker bills. The crowd at one point chanted "Thank you, Democrats," for a full minute and burst into wild applause and enthusiastic cheers.

Hundreds of UFCW members showed up in their UFCW gold to protest with their brothers and sisters, including members from Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, and of course from all over Indiana.

You can see pictures of the rally and UFCW members below and  here, and video here.

Former A&P Workers, UFCW Members and Staff, Supporters and Shoppers, and Even Senator-elect Blumenthal Rally for Good Jobs at Big Y!

After the rally and press conference, at which local state representatives, former A and P workers, community members, shoppers, and United Health Care Workers Local 1199 leaders and members, and UFCW Local 371 leaders and staff spoke or attended, Senator-elect Blumenthal arrived and gave the workers some very encouraging words as they leafletted customers.

Many customers were outraged at Big Y's treatment of the former A and P workers, and some even told Big Y staff at the event how they felt.



Most A and P employees were not hired back after their stores were bought by the Big Y chain and re-opened as Big Y stores—despite workers’ many years of experience, skill, and dedication to their jobs. Entire families who had worked at A and P for generations were not re-hired at Big Y, and now find themselves out of work at the worst time—during an economic downturn and over the holidays. Workers are wondering, Why, Big Y?



As Big Y opens six stores in Connecticut, these A and P workers, their customers and their supporters are asking Big Y to make a real commitment to our communities this holiday season. During tough economic times, the single most important thing that will help our communities prosper is jobs. Those at the rally asked Big Y to rehire the A&P workers that are now out of work, and to commit to providing good jobs in our communities—jobs with full-time hours if workers want them—jobs that pay a living wage and come with good benefits.

“Big Y should hire us back,” said former A and P worker Rich Johnson, who worked at A and P for 31 years. “A lot of our customers came in because of us. They’re friends, they’re family, and they come here for us. Why not keep us? It just makes good sense, for us, for our customers, and it seems like good business, too.”

Over 200,000 rally for immigration reform

Over 200,000 Americans gathered on the nation's mall today to demand Congress take action and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

If you couldn't make it to the rally, you can still do your part to make reform a reality by calling Congress. Go to www.ufcwaction.org to sign up and make your call.

UFCW members were out in force. You can check out some of the photos from the day below:

UFCW Members Take Capitol Hill by Storm

A big thank you to all who came out to yesterday’s health care rally on Capitol Hill yesterday! UFCW members were out in force with thousands of other union members and health care advocates. Together, we sent a strong message to our representatives in Washington that the American people know what we want: a strong public health insurance option and a solution that shares responsibility among employers, individuals, insurance companies, and the government.



UFCW members came from as far away as Washington state. Here’s just a few of their stories and what they had to say:

Christie Menyard lives in South Bend, Indiana where she is a front-end supervisor at Kroger and a UFCW Local 700 mem­ber.

Before Christie was employed with Kroger, she ran her own day-care business. But when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and cancer, she closed her business to take care of him. During this time, Christie got shingles. The resulting medical bills quickly ran through her savings. Christie says, “I feel like I experienced the recession before they announced the recession. Shingles can be a deadly disease, and I feel lucky that I had a family and a little bit of money to help me get through this. I worry about people without even that help. ”

Dawn Cutler has been a Registered Nurse at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington for over 20 years.

In Dawn's work with women and children in a large hospital birthing center, she sees that patients receive the good care they deserve. Dawn says, “We need to say no to a system that says that if you lose your job you lose your health care. As a nurse, these patients, these families, they are people to me and they deserve the best.”

Eric Lawhorn lives in Charleston, Indiana where he is a truck driver for Riverton Truckers.

When Eric was divorced and lost his health insurance, he turned to COBRA, but the out-of-pocket costs were unbearable. Eric tried to buy insurance on the open market, but was rejected because he’d had kidney stones the previous year. Eric says, “What the insurance companies are doing aren’t right, and I believe in fighting when that happens . . . What do you do? We can’t all be as healthy as an athlete.”

Vincent Germani is a produce clerk at ShopRite in Edgewater, New Jersey and has been a UFCW member since 1979.

Vincent is grateful for the good benefits he has, but worries his 19-year old daughter will lose coverage when she leaves for college as she has to maintain full-time status to be covered under his plan. Vincent been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Four years ago, Vincent had a heart attack. Vincent says, “Thanks to insurance and the union benefits the operations did not cost me. Everything was taken care of. My lost time was compensated by my disability insurance. Many people don’t have that chance. I have more of a safety net than most Americans. There are many people suffering and that’s a shame.”

Leslie Firth is a single mom from Marysville, Washington.

Leslie has worked as a pharmacy technician at Group Health for the past 16 years. In addition to her two 11 and 18-year old children, she cares for a 16-year old teen who lost her mother to cancer in January. Leslie says, “I believe I speak for my co-workers back home when I say ‘quality affordable health care for all can be done.’ We ask our nation’s leaders to make it happen. The longer we wait, the longer each one of us will be suffering for it.”

Massive Health Care Day of Action Today

UFCW members from all across the country will be descending on Congress today to call for quality, affordable health care as part of "Health Care 09 - We Can’t Wait," a massive day of action hosted by Health Care for America Now.

Here's the rundown of the day according to HCAN:

The main event on Thursday will be a large rally held in the Upper Senate Park at 11:30am.

Actress Edie Falco, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), HCAN Campaign Manager Richard Kirsch, CWA President Larry Cohen, AFSCME President Jerry McEntee, SEIU Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger, Governor Howard Dean, Congressman Becerra (D-CA), National Physicians Alliance President-Elect Valerie Arkoosh and other leading Members of Congress and Senators are expected to speak.

Then we'll be heading on to town hall meetings on Capitol Hill and flooding the offices of our representatives.

It looks like it's shaping up to be a historic day for health reform. You can keep up on the action from home by following our Twitter feed or keep tabs on what other advocates are tweetin' throughout the day with the #healthcare09 widget on http://www.ufcwhealthcarenow.org/.

And don't forget to take a minute and write in to your paper on why we need a strong public health insurance option. Even though the majority of Americans want a public health insurance option (and poll after poll says we do), those insurance companies still have a lot of money and power. So write in to those papers and let 'em know what we want!

Workers rally for Employee Free Choice

Here's some video from yesterday's rally for Employee Free Choice:


Rep. George Miller (D-CA) addresses crowd rallying for Employee Free Choice from UFCW on Vimeo.

[Blooper alert: Someone knocks the camera out of my hands midway through the clip. were all very excited.]

You can also check out photos from the event below: