Posts Tagged: UFCW Local 1059

By Josh Greenlee, Local 1059, Summer for Respect Action Project, Los Angeles

Wednesday morning we met Jerry, and a group of reps at the Local 1428 office and  headed to a Food 4 Less store to petition customers and hand out flyers. Local 1428 members are in negotiations with Food 4 Less. Handing out flyers was a great way to raise awareness with the local community and increase support for workers. I have never seen a community so willing to interact with and help workers. It was a huge success. After we finished at Food 4 Less we headed to our first Walmart store visit.

At Walmart we had two main goals. The first was a sick days petition to convince Wal-Mart to make a change in their sick days policy. The second is signing workers up for OUR Walmart. Walmart makes it very difficult for us to speak to Walmart workers – we had to stay outside of the store in the parking lot. In spite of this, I met some great associates throughout the day. One of them even signed up for OUR Walmart.

On Thursday morning we met Jerry and headed to our first home call. We met with  a worker from Sam’s Club that is a member of OUR Walmart. She was very passionate about workers’ rights, and her fellow associates. We spoke with her for a couple hours, and learned a lot about her struggles working at Sam’s Club. She circulated the sick days petition at her store, and had it full of signatures. Once the home call was over we went to prepare for the OUR Walmart leadership meeting set for that evening. Jerry gave Joe, and I speaking parts. It was amazing to meet all of these leaders from the different Walmart stores and hear their struggles. Everyone one of them are leaders in their stores and firmly believe in the making life better for their friends and coworkers.

On Friday morning, clad in their green, several OUR Walmart members joined us for a picket line at the ports. Thousands of Port truck drivers around the country work long hours at low pay with little to no benefits. Helping them speak out for a better life was a great experience. The eight hour picket was successful and fun. We came up with chants, played music, and danced. The OUR Walmart members were just as excited for this fight as they are for their own. It was the perfect way to end an exciting first week. I’m already looking forward to next week.

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Over 100 UFCW members traveled to Columbus to lobby their state legislators against possible right to work legislation.

More than 100 members from UFCW Locals 17A, 75, 1059, and RWDSU traveled to Columbus last Wednesday to lobby their state legislators against possible right to work legislation.

“I’m here because I’m afraid that they’re going to pass right to work and take so much away from working people,” said Anne Bauer, a seven-year UFCW member from Local 75 who works at the Anderson Township Kroger. “The lower wages, the lack of safety, having no voice on the job – it’s horrible. I have to be here to fight for my coworkers, my friends, and my family.”

Many members spoke about the importance of ensuring the people they elected followed through on campaign promises.

“We have to be here to hold politicians accountable,” said Terry Payne, a Local 1059 member who has been at Kroger for 10 years. “We elect them and by being here we’re able to ensure that they’re supporting us. The legislators I’ve talked with have been very receptive. I was encouraged.”

One of the most important reasons for members to lobby is to share their personal stories with legislators which always make a more lasting impact. Roberta Greaver, a UFCW Local 75 member who has worked at Kroger for 35 years, told the legislators she spoke with about her experience visiting one of the company’s stores in the right to work state of Tennessee.

“These legislators don’t fully understand right to work and I’m happy to be here explaining it to them. I’ve seen what this law has done in Tennessee – there is a tremendous difference between their stores and ours here in Ohio. Their benefits are about half and their pay scale is less. After visiting Tennessee, I was so happy to be in Ohio. The Ohio legislature has to understand how much right to work will hurt workers.”

David Becker, a UFCW Local 1059 member who has worked at Meijer in Toledo for five years, said the lobby day motivated him to become more involved in his union and politics.

“When it comes to right to work, everyone should be here. We’re squeezed enough trying to buy food and pay our rent – legislators have to understand that right to work will only make that more difficult. I plan on coming to lobby days as often as I can.”