On Nov. 25, members of UFCW Local 770 who work at El Super stores in Southern California rallied for a fair contract in front of the El Super store in Los Angeles. At the rally, El Super members and community supporters called on Chedraui USA, the parent company of El Super, to provide a fair contract with living wages, safer stores, and immigration protections to ensure families feel safe while shopping in the stores.
Since negotiations began last April, the company has rejected nearly all workers’ proposals, including the request to implement clear immigration policies in the event of ICE raids.
El Super workers are fighting for:
• Health and safety protections to prevent injuries.
• Sufficient staffing to improve customers’ shopping experience.
• More guaranteed work hours and living wages to keep up with the high cost of living.
• Clear immigration protocols to protect workers and customers in case of immigration raids.
“With the salaries that El Super pays us, me and my co-workers are struggling to put food on our own tables. This is unacceptable, especially on Thanksgiving!” said El Super employee Araceli Pinedo. “My family is four people. When El Super cut my hours, I had to get a second job. I try to stretch every dollar, using coupons, and sometimes I even go to my local park to grab free vegetables to top off what I can buy.”
“For seven months, workers have been fighting for a contract that includes living wages and immigration protections for the community,” said El Super employee Fermín Rodríguez. Specifically, Rodriguez said workers are demanding that the company, “establish clear safety protocols on how to proceed during raids so that families feel safe to make their purchases in our stores; restrict immigration agents’ access to non-public areas of the store to protect workers and customers and include these protocols in our contract so that they are guaranteed and not just remain an empty promise ‘at the company’s discretion,’ as they are proposing.”
“El Super wants to set our salaries in a way that they are not going to improve when the minimum wage goes up,” said El Super employee Araceli Ortiz. “This means that a worker with 15 years of experience could earn only a few cents above the minimum wage. That is unacceptable.”