Last week, Kroger managers called the cops on their workers but in the end it was the supermarket who got in trouble. The Kroger workers were talking to customers at several stores in the Roanoke region about the company’s proposal to offer only slight raises to employees over the next four years, provide no paid sick days, and cut off healthcare for retired workers. Several shoppers signed cards to store managers saying these workers “deserve to share in the success they have helped to build.” Store managers called the police, even though it was clear that no laws were being violated. After a union rep explained that union members have a right to leaflet customers at their own stores, the police left and encouraged the workers to "keep up the good work." Later in the week, employees at several stores filed charges against Kroger for violating federal labor law, which protects union workers who are entitled to exercise their rights without retaliation by their employer. "Kroger is the most successful traditional grocery chain in the country, with billions of dollars in profits,” said Local 400, “yet it believes it can intimidate and silence the very people who make that success possible – its own workers."
On today's labor calendar, Verizon strike picket lines continue today throughout the metro Washington area; go to dclabor.org and click on calendar for the latest list of locations and times. The Metro Washington Council meets tonight at 6:30 and the DC LaborFest continues with the film “7 Chinese Brothers” at 7pm at the AFI Silver Theatre, Tickets are just $5 for this film in which Jason Schwartzman stars as Larry who, along with his trusty sidekick (Schwartzman’s real-life French Bulldog, Arrow), goes through life as a misanthropic outcast, unable to retain employment or stable relationships - especially with his grandma, played with sharp timing and wit by Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis. As always, complete details on all of these events are at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. Today’s labor history On this date in 1934, a Minneapolis general strike backed Teamsters, who were striking most of the city’s trucking companies. In 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers. The decision had little impact until Ronald Reagan’s replacement of striking air traffic controllers in 1981, a move that signaled anti-union private sector employers that it was OK to do likewise. And in 1979, Black labor leader and peace activist A. Philip Randolph died. He was president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black on the AFL-CIO executive board, and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Today’s labor quote is by A. Philip Randolph “Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Union City Radio is proud to be supported by UnionPlus, which has been working hard for union families since 1986.
Union City Radio is part of The Labor Radio/Podcast Network
Listen now...UC Radio airs weekdays at 7:15a on WPFW 89.3 FM; subscribe to the podcast here. |