Albertsons Breaking Laws and Intimidating Workers
The dirty tricks have begun again. We really shouldn't be surprised that the grocery stores would resort to breaking the law, in an attempt to weaken the workers negotiating position. After all, three years ago Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons entered into an illegal pact to share their profits, in order to outlast the worker strike. That landed them in court facing anti-trust charges. And just last year, Ralphs plead guilty to fraud charges and lying to the government. It was part of their scheme to use fake social security numbers to hire strikebreakers during the last contract dispute. They paid $70 million in fines and were placed on three years' probation.
Albertson's faced a strike vote Sunday and they immediately dug back into their bag of dirty tricks. They violated the National Labor Relations Act in the following ways:
- Sending home union activists to prevent them from speaking with fellow workers
- Keeping records of employee preferences on the strike authorization vote
- Directly asking workers how they were going to vote
Due to the weakness of the NLRB, it will be years until they will receive their light slaps on the wrist, if ever. It is another stark reminder of the necessity for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Billy Gonzalez an Albertsons Produce Clerk and UFCW Local 1428 member penned an email today about these outrageous violations of federal law. He says:
I'm writing to you about this because we have to stand up to Albertsons and any employer that tries to intimidate or bully their employees. Employers must act within the law and treat their employees with respect. I know they can't bully me, and I'm filing this complaint along with several of my co-workers because I want to stand up for every employee to make sure that they don't ever have to experience this.
It's clear that the employers are seeing the momentum in this campaign shift over to our side. After all, why would they risk federal charges if they didn't feel their billions in profits and the unfair two-tier contract were being threatened by our authorization vote? Bullies like Albertsons don't fight fair, because they know they have to cheat to win.
By staying united and standing up to the employers, we already have them on the run. We'll be fighting these violations of federal labor law in court to ensure they realize the penalty of breaking the law in the weeks to come, but one thing is already clear: their desperate actions prove that grocery workers are winning the battle to get respect.
The court case will take a long time. The workers need your help now.
Help Billy win this fight.
- Sign the petition and add your voice to support and demand respect for grocery workers.
- Email the corporations.
- So. Cal grocery workers will be tabling at Ralphs this week. Find locations and stop by to show your support.
- Find a worker-friendly store.
- Find out more at RespectWorkers.com. There are a number of videos, a new feature called "truth of the day" and lots of great information.