Safeway boss Burd sold company shares for 20 million USD before attacking workers' health insurance (08.11.2003)
US government mediator invites parties to negotiations (7 Nov)
UFCW
members on strike across the United States
(21 Oct)
Wal-Mart "sets a troubling standard" for poor healthcare
Text of AFL-CIO study on Wal-Mart's healthcare standards
UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles, California (PDF files):
Fact sheet on what the rejected employer proposals would have meant
UFCW members spearhead workers' fight to save US health care
Across the United States, almost 75,000 supermarket workers are on strike, fighting to save affordable health care for their families and all of America’s workers. Southern California is the main battleground, where human values and corporate greed face each other.
- They want to be like Wal-Mart so they can compete", says Victoria Marano, a cashier at leading supermarket chain Kroger in a newspaper interview.
The strike is about fundamental issues for all workers; Will the big US supermarket retailers be able to cut union members' wages and working conditions down to Wal-Mart levels? No, say the workers, supported by their union UFCW.
 |
Joe
Hansen is the new president of UNI, board expressed its support for UFCW strike On 6 November in Nyon, Switzerland, Joe Hansen, secretary-treasurer of UFCW and UNI vice president, told UNI's world executive board about the supermarket workers' fight. The board spoke out in strong support for UFCW and the striking workers. It called on the employers to get back to the negotiations table and to reverse their unfair demands for massive cuts in health care insurance and other benefits. When the UNI World Executive Board continued its work the following day, Joe Hansen took over as UNI President, succeeding Maj-Len Remahl of the Finnish service trade union. |
No to Wal-Martization of working life
The fight of the American retail workers is a fight against the 'Wal-Martization' of working life. This would mean relegating commercial workers and their families to poverty, workers who have previously been able to make a decent living through their work.
Denying workers and their families affordable health care would be a particularly hard blow. This is what the large supermarket operators are now trying to do. They want workers to pay for healthcare insurance that has until now been provided by the employers. They also want to cut the benefit levels.
The supermarket operators have a long-term objective of establishing the industry as a low-wage area. They demand that newcomers be paid considerably lower wages than those which collective agreements give today. This would destroy the results of UFCW's successful work over the years, to ensure that supermarket workers enjoy decent wages and conditions.
Their employer campaign is spearheaded by Safeway boss Steve Burd, who became notorious for a particularly bad recent business deal, which cost the company a billion dollars.
It is not that Safeway and others could not afford their health care insurances and other labour expenses. These are very profitable companies. They are only using Wal-Mart as an excuse. This shows, of course, how dangerous a Wal-Mart can be for all workers in commerce.
UFCW President Doug Dority
together with workers at a picket line in Southern California. The
workers' fight for affordable health insurance and a living wage is
receiving much support from the public and from other trade unions.
Safeway's net income for the third quarter of this year was over 200 million USD or 0.45 USD per share. The gross profit margin was 29.98 per cent. For the fourth quarter, even higher earnings are expected, between 0.66 and 0.69 USD per share - not taking the costs of the strike into account.
Now, Safeway and other profitable supermarket operators want to deny their workers and their families an affordable health care insurance. They also want to cut wages and other benefits. They use Wal-Mart's social dumping as an excuse, wanting to become Wal-Marts themselves.
This is an attack on unions, driven by greed
This attack on UFCW and its members is not driven by need, but by greed. It is clear that these employers want to push the union out of supermarket retailing. To force the union on strike, and then to lockout tens of thousands of workers is a fundamental attack on organised labour.
The US retail workers' strike has global implications. If social dumping is allowed to become the norm in American commerce, it is only a question of time before this plague contaminates other countries as well. The employer efforts to break down collective agreement structures in Germany are only a first step towards a situation, where the American fight repeats itself throughout Europe.
The aim is the same: to make workers pay for price wars, larger market shares, management bonuses, and higher shareholder profits.
World-wide support for UFCW and its fighting members
The UNI World Executive Board, which met in Nyon last week, strongly condemned this race to the bottom and expressed its support for UFCW and its fighting members. This is an all-out attack on trade union rights, collective agreements and decent employment conditions.
Leading employers and commerce trade unions in Europe have spoken out together, in favour of a totally different view on where the industry should go.
In a
joint statement by EuroCommerce and UNI-Europa Commerce, signed last
week in Brussels, they say that "the European social partners
for commerce endeavour to promote quality services, that are well
adapted to consumer needs and expectations and are produced by
well-qualified and engaged personnel, working under good employment
conditions. In this context corporate social responsibility has proven
repeatedly that it can contribute positively to the competitiveness of
enterprises in commerce."