“Oh my God, it felt like heaven.” So said Loan Cao, a UFCW Local 400 member who works at Giant Food, after learning she had won her grievance. A member of Local 400 for 29 years, Loan works at Giant Food #795 in Springfield, Virginia. She was fired suddenly last December, accused of doing something wrong when she was closing the store one night, but another employee who did the same thing received no discipline. With the help of her Local 400 representative, Bertha McKiver, Loan immediately filed a grievance, and eventually, the company settled, agreeing to reinstate Loan and writing her a back pay check for almost $7,000 dollars. She started work again on February 2. “When Giant told me I was fired, I was numb and couldn’t cry,” Cao said. “But when Bertha called me to say I got my job back, this time I cried and cried. I never expected my union to help me so well. I’m so very thankful.”
You can see a photo of Cao on our website at dclabor.org. On today’s labor calendar, catch a free screening of the film “Trafficked in America” this afternoon at 3pm at the AFL-CIO, then at 7 tonight there’s a UC Strike Support Protest and Politics & Prose; Complete details, as always, on our website at dclabor.org, click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that undocumented workers do not have the same rights as Americans when they are wrongly fired. Today’s labor quote is by Mother Jones, who was ordered to leave Colorado on this date in 1904; state authorities there accused her of “stirring up” striking coal miners. Mother Jones, who said: “You will not be serfs, you will march, march, march on from milestone to milestone of human freedom, you will rise like men in the new day and slavery will get its death blow. It has got to die.” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Thinking about buying or refinancing a home? The Union Plus Mortgage Program provides top-notch service and is union-owned. Visit unionplus.org/mortgage.
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