Workers are making their voices heard in the media with the publication of two opinion pieces. One is by a UFCW member talking about the damaging effects of right-to-work. The other published op-ed is by an IKEA worker and the need for better industry policies for retail workers.
Tyrone Sutton, a UFCW Local 1473 member and Fair Oaks Farms worker, talks about how right-to-work legislation is a threat to workers in Wisconsin, and across the country in an op-ed in Salon.
“Every few years my coworkers and I sit down with Fair Oaks Farms and negotiate workplace rules, pay raises, health care, and other terms of our employment. There are disagreements, but we have always managed to work out a fair deal. This “right to work” law upends that entire process by giving corporations all across Wisconsin the right to divide workers.”
Derek Dutch, an IKEA worker in College Park, Maryland, is featured in the Baltimore Sun in an op-ed talking about how important it is for retail workers to have access to fair scheduling policies. Dutch also talks about how having a union voice would raise the standards for retail workers and the importance of supporting Maryland’s Fair Scheduling Act (HB 969).
“For the past year, my co-workers and I have been speaking out to make IKEA a better place to work. We want a living wage, full-time, predictable schedules and a union voice with the United Food and Commercial Workers union. We want to make IKEA a better place to work, and our most important goals were full-time positions and fair wages.”