United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW)
300 Families, 5 Days, 60-mile March for Justice at Shaw's (2010)
UFCW
Flash Mob at Shaw's (2010)
Rand Wilson
From Justice at Shaw's:
Shaw’s and their parent company, Supervalu, have forced three hundred and ten workers at their Perishable Distribution Center in Methuen, Mass., into the streets on strike since March 7, over unfair demands for workers to bear all the burden of increasing health care costs.
From the onset of the strike, Shaw's has used health care as a weapon to punish their workers and coerce them into submission. On April 1, three weeks into the strike, the company unilaterally cut off health care coverage for strikers and their families, ignoring the fact that many of their workers have spouses or young children with serious medical conditions.
After ignoring several requests to sit down at the bargaining table, including calls by religious, labor, community and political leaders like Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Shaw's finally resumed negotiations on May, 2 only to demand more draconian cuts to workers' living and working standards. In an effort to end this strike, the workers made significant movement in their contract offer, which Shaw’s flatly rejected.
Clearly, Shaw's Supermarkets has no intentions of bargaining in good faith and reaching a fair agreement with their workers.
Here are some of the callous demands Shaw's is insisting upon:
- Taking away the workers' union health care plan and substituting it with a more expensive company plan with fewer benefits.
- Eliminating the pension plan for new employees.
- Subcontracting work to a third party, resulting in loss of jobs and the reduction of work performed by union members by 50 percent.
Even more unacceptable is the fact that the entire package is conditioned on a number of things: the replacement workers stay in the facility, meaning that more union members will lose their jobs. Shaw's also stated their intention of moving the meat and deli work out of the Methuen facility and subcontracting it to C&S Wholesalers, which will reduce the work performed by union members by 50 percent.
Shaw’s offer is outrageous and UFCW members refuse to be bullied into accepting a package that lowers the standard of living in our communities.
From the onset of the strike, Shaw's has used health care as a weapon to punish their workers and coerce them into submission. On April 1, three weeks into the strike, the company unilaterally cut off health care coverage for strikers and their families, ignoring the fact that many of their workers have spouses or young children with serious medical conditions.
After ignoring several requests to sit down at the bargaining table, including calls by religious, labor, community and political leaders like Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Shaw's finally resumed negotiations on May, 2 only to demand more draconian cuts to workers' living and working standards. In an effort to end this strike, the workers made significant movement in their contract offer, which Shaw’s flatly rejected.
Clearly, Shaw's Supermarkets has no intentions of bargaining in good faith and reaching a fair agreement with their workers.
Here are some of the callous demands Shaw's is insisting upon:
- Taking away the workers' union health care plan and substituting it with a more expensive company plan with fewer benefits.
- Eliminating the pension plan for new employees.
- Subcontracting work to a third party, resulting in loss of jobs and the reduction of work performed by union members by 50 percent.
Even more unacceptable is the fact that the entire package is conditioned on a number of things: the replacement workers stay in the facility, meaning that more union members will lose their jobs. Shaw's also stated their intention of moving the meat and deli work out of the Methuen facility and subcontracting it to C&S Wholesalers, which will reduce the work performed by union members by 50 percent.
Shaw’s offer is outrageous and UFCW members refuse to be bullied into accepting a package that lowers the standard of living in our communities.
For more on this campaign, please visit justiceatshaws.org