Posts Tagged: Wage Increase

On October 15 and 16, UFCW, Jobs With Justice, and community partners from across Conn., N.Y., Mass., R.I., and Md., rallied to take aim at Wakefern Food Corporation’s Price Rite grocery store brand as part of the “Change Price Rite Supermarkets for the Better” campaign.

The Price Rite campaign is part of a national and regional effort of communities coming together and fighting to improve the lives of workers by highlighting irresponsible employers who must take action to change the lives of the hard-working employees for the better. The “Change Price Rite for the Better” campaign will continue Thursday with public actions across four states, and will involve hundreds of local community leaders and partners from the UFCW, Jobs With Justice, local clergy, and local retail workers.

“Companies like Price Rite are hurting hard-working families with low wages, a lack of benefits, and inadequate schedules that make it impossible for many employees to control their lives or take care of the ones they love. We have the power to change Price Rite into a better and more responsible employer. Our supporters, and Jobs With Justice, and other community leaders are speaking out and telling Price Rite and Wakefern that all hard-working men and women in communities across America deserve a better life,” said Tom Clarke, UFCW Region 1 Director.

The “Change Price Rite for the Better” campaign is continuing with a series of coordinated public actions, as well as a targeted social media effort, that will reach out to educate and mobilize communities to support Price Rite employees’ efforts to better their lives. During this week’s actions, the UFCW, Jobs With Justice, clergy, and other allies are holding rallies outside of Price Rite stores. A delegation made up of representatives from each group is coming together to sign and deliver a letter to Price Rite management, calling on the company to “do what is right” and provide better wages, better benefits, and better scheduling that Price Rite workers deserve.

At the Rhode Island rally on Friday the 16th, about 90 people showed up to support the workers, including AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice Executive Director Jesse Strecker. The delegation of supporters carried their message into the store, where they were stopped by corporate management.

“Price Rite needs to become a better employer and do what is right for workers. I work hard every day to try to have a better life for me and my family. But with constant schedule changes and low wages, Price Rite makes it almost impossible. Together, we are asking Price Rite to do the right thing and provide the schedules and wages that we deserve,” said a current Price Rite worker.

Price Rite runs 58 stores across eight states and employs thousands of hard-working men and women. Among the issues affecting many of the workers in the area are low wages, inconsistent scheduling, unpaid sick leave, and other poor employment practices proliferated by stores like Price Rite. These policies hurt employees, families and communities.

The campaign to “Change Price Rite for the Better” is part of regional and national effort to highlight the need for retail companies, like Price Rite, to pay their hard-working employees better wages, provide better benefits and offer consistent scheduling, and respect on the job.

The AFL-CIO recently featured the story of UFCW El Super worker Lydia Flores.

On Oct. 7, the White House is holding a summit with leaders in the various movements to improve the lives of working people across the country, with a focus on how to make sure that economic growth is broad-based and that workers share in the benefits they help create with their labor. Until the summit begins, we’ll be highlighting the stories of workers and their struggles to make sure their voices are heard on the job.

Today, we take a look at Lydia Flores.

Flores is a 37-year-old single mother of three who works as a cashier at union El Super market in Arleta, Calif. She and her co-workers have been fighting for a new contract for more than two years in the face of a campaign by the company to undermine the workers’ desires for fair working conditions and a voice on the job.

Currently, she makes $12.88 per hour after 11 years at the company. The low wages and the lack of sufficient hours keep Flores in a constant struggle to pay her bills:

“I pay the mortgage and my car and my utilities—and the rest of the bills have to wait. Sometimes I work 32, 36 hours. The 40 hours are not guaranteed.”

When Flores speaks up about anything at work, she says that she is met with hostility and disdain. Other workers at El Super have made similar complaints.

Flores says the workers want more:

“We want more respect and enough hours to support our families. If we had a contract, they would respect the 40 hours, and we would not have to be fearful about raising concerns about the company’s failure to follow the rules.”

Flores knows that coming together with her co-workers can make positive change. She is a member of UFCW Local 770, a shop steward and a member of the union’s bargaining committee.

El Super employs low‐wage and predominantly Latino workers. The workers at the union stores were covered under a contract with El Super that expired on Sept. 27, 2013. For more than a year, the unions and the worker bargaining team sought to bargain to improve their working conditions. In September 2013, El Super imposed what it called its “last, best and final” offer, which did not address the workers’ concerns and provided for less paid sick leave than is currently mandated by California state law. On Dec. 12, 2014, El Super workers voted resoundingly to recertify the union and demanded the company return to the bargaining table, a request which El Super rejected. El Super employees and the UFCW launched a boycott in December 2014 to protest the company’s actions. The union’s boycott lines have turned away more than 100,000 prospective El Super shoppers. In the face of the boycott and after the NLRB issued complaint and sought a 10(j) injunction in federal court regarding the company’s unlawful refusal to bargain, the company agreed to return to the table. El Super recently agreed to bargain for the first time in more than a year.

Flores and her fellow workers aren’t making outrageous demands, especially in light of the fact they are owned by a billion-dollar business:

“What we’re trying to do with our consumer boycott of El Super is trying to get something better for our families. We just want the company to hear us, we want them to come and negotiate and give us what is fair. We’re asking for better wages, regular schedules and hours to support our families and respect, that’s what we want.”

About El Super

El Super is managed by the Paramount, Calif.-based Bodega Latina Corp. There are 50 El Super locations in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Bodega Latina Corp. is 81.4% owned by Mexico-based Grupo Commercial Chedraui (Chedraui). Chedraui operates 211 markets in Mexico. It is Mexico’s third-largest retailer.

In January 2013, Forbes estimated the personal wealth of Chedraui’s chairman of the board, Alfredo Chedraui Obeso, at more than $1 billion. That year the company made $5.1 billion in revenue. The El Super stores make up more than 20% of Grupo Chedraui’s income.

(Source: AFL-CIO)