Posts Tagged: el super

On November 18, more than 500 El Super workers, labor, community and clergy leaders, staged a nonviolent civil disobedience and candlelight vigil at the busy “Five Points” intersection near El Super’s East L.A. location.

Protesters took to the streets for the second time in less than a month to ratchet up the pressure on El Super grocery stores decision-makers on the eve of scheduled contract negotiations. More than a dozen protesters were arrested after forming a prayer circle in the center of Cesar E. Chavez Ave. after the Los Angeles police department issued an order to disperse.

El Super #17 cashier Flora Castaneda was among the protesters arrested. “Change demands that people like me must stand up. I don’t want to get arrested, but if we don’t stand up for ourselves, everything will stay the same,” said Castaneda, a single mother of three children, who has worked at El Super for more than eleven years.

Castaneda is one of approximately 600 UFCW union members who work for the El Super chain. For more than two years, she and her unionized coworkers have been seeking an agreement with El Super that ensures a 40-hour guarantee for full-time workers, adequate paid sick leave, seniority protections, fair wages, affordable health benefits, the right to organize without retaliation, and respect in the workplace. 

Last July, El Super entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Government to resolve the National Labor Relations Board’s allegation that it violated workers’ federally protected labor rights. The company agreed to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith with UFCW.

However, since returning to the negotiations with UFCW on August 18, after more than a year of stalling, El Super hasn’t made a significant progress towards an acceptable deal. They have agreed to negotiate a total of five days, over four months. Indeed, El Super has even failed to meet its legal obligation to provide information necessary to bargaining.

Grupo Commercial Chedraui is Mexico’s third largest retailer. Chedraui operates over 200 markets in Mexico, and 52 El Super stores in the U.S. In 2014, it earned nine-figure profits. Yet, Chedraui’s largely immigrant workforce in the U.S. toils in jobs that undermine basic industry labor standards.

A multinational coalition filed complaints Nov. 12 with the federal government alleging Chedraui is violating the North American Free Trade Agreement and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines by engaging in alleged “workers’ rights abuses” in the U.S. and Mexico.

The NAFTA-related complaint against Chedraui Commercial Group was filed by the UFCW in California, Frente Autentico del Trabajo, in Mexico, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, in California, and the Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research, a Mexico and U.S.-based NGO focused in Latin America.

In the wake of a nearly two year struggle, El Super’s workers and UFCW locals have won a significant legal victory against the California based grocer. Last week, a federal judge granted the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) request for a rare “10j” injunction to stop El Super’s unfair labor practices and immediately remedy their unlawful treatment of workers.

In the face of El Super’s coercive and threatening conduct designed to silence workers, Chief Judge George H. King issued the significant “10j” injunction, ordering the immediate reinstatement of Fermín Rodriguez, who had been illegally fired for his union activity, and ordering the grocer to restore the company’s vacation accrual policy. The company had unlawfully changed its vacation policy and denied workers their earned vacation. After recognizing its legal obligation to bargain with the workers for a fair contract, El Super and UFCW locals will now resume bargaining on August 18.

Securing this rare form of injunction relief demonstrates the extent to which El Super tried to silence its workers. In 2014, 144 requests for “10j” injunctive relief were made by the NLRB’s Regions across the country and only 39 cases were authorized by the Board for Court action. In this case the Board not only sought, but succeeded, in obtaining this extraordinary relief.

After more than a year of operating without a union contract, El Super employees and the UFCW launched a boycott in December 2014 to protest poverty pay, widespread violations of workers’ rights and the company’s refusal to negotiate in good faith. More than 100,000 shoppers have been turned away by community supporters and workers at informational picket lines in front of the stores.