Under the banner of “One Union, One Voice,” thousands of UFCW delegates from across the United States and Canada assembled in August to chart the union’s growth and to galvanize its efforts to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

The sixth UFCW International Convention was an intensive program of speakers, classes and committee meetings designed to focus the UFCW’s work to improve the living standards of its 1.3 million members.

Delegates at the convention in Montreal also re-elected UFCW International President Joe Hansen and the members of his “Team Hansen” slate to a new five-year term. Local 99 President Jim McLaughlin was sworn in as a Vice President of the UFCW International Union. The slate included UFCW International Secretary-Treasurer Marc Perrone, Executive Vice Presidents
William T. McDonough, Pat O’Neill and Wayne Hanley, as well as International Vice Presidents across the United States and Canada.

Throughout the convention, classes and special committees concentrated on such issues as organizing, political action, collective bargaining and civil rights.
“We hold the international convention so we can pool our ideas with our union sisters and brothers,” McLaughlin said.

“Five years ago our dominant concern was the pending supermarket contract negotiations in other parts of the country. In 2008, with our own negotiations upon us, our focus was to discuss strategy and focus with locals around the country and Canada so we can get the best for our members. The convention also gave us an historic opportunity to call national attention to our pro-Labor agenda, including passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.”

In his welcoming address, President Hansen said the convention “is about our union and the future of working families in the United States and Canada.”

Hansen praised the work of WakeUpWalMart.com, a nationwide grassroots organization that puts Wal-Mart in the national spotlight for its destructive business practices and its poor treatment of workers. He credited the group for its “innovative communications designed to make shoppers think twice about where they spend their money.”

Secretary-Treasurer Marc Perrone urged the delegates “not to wait for the world to change,” but to take immediate action to correct the nation’s priorities.

“We need to change the pervasive corporate way of thinking,” Perrone said. “It’s a mindset where people’s families and lives are viewed as a dollar sign or a decimal point in the search for more profits. I say it’s wrong and we need to change how we think and act.”

“Workers and retirees are depending on us,” Perrone said.

Executive Vice President Pat O’Neill called on the delegates to renew and strengthen their commitment to organizing new members.

“It’s simple: without growth, there is no strength,” O’Neill said.

“There is a growing recognition among stewards and active members that the fate of our union lies in our ability to organize new workers. With more members, we build our strength at the bargaining table and increase our ability to make the change that our members and all working Americans need.”

Executive Vice President William T. McDonough cited the union’s consistent record of negotiating the best contracts in industries that are served by the UFCW. He also said that the UFCW must continue to integrate its resources and strategies regionally, nationally and internationally.

“UFCW bargaining is unity bargaining,” McDonough said. “When we mobilize across bargaining units, we can unite across regions, across our great countries.”

Political leadership
Speaking via a live satellite feed, Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama promised to change the way the White House approaches Organized Labor and pro-worker legislation. He also thanked the delegates for their hard work on his behalf of his campaign, adding that he looked forward “to seeing more of those yellow UFCW T-shirts all across the campaign trail this fall.”

Obama said that President George W. Bush has led “the most anti-Labor administration in history.”
“They don’t believe in unions, they don’t believe in organizing, they pack the administration with their corporate buddies — but it’s time to let them know that we’re going to take it back for workers,” Obama said.

Through videos and letters read from the podium, the UFCW delegates also heard praise and pledges of support from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), among other political leaders.

Union allies
Friends of the UFCW within the Labor Movement also came to the convention to show support for their union brothers and sisters.

President Hansen saluted International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa for his union’s support during the 2003-2004 Southern California strike/lockout. Hansen said continuing support by the Teamsters helped Southern California workers secure strong contracts in 2007 without a single day on the picket line.

Addressing the delegates, Hoffa said it’s up to union members to make sure that the presidential election “isn’t even close.”

“When you vote for Barack Obama, you vote for yourself, for your children, for your job and for the next eight years of America,” he said.

Actor, director, activist and longtime UFCW supporter Danny Glover told the convention that he foresees a bright future for the union.

“I have faith in your leadership and I know you can and will unite new workers,” he said. “In your effort to grow your union, I will be there with you.”

Glover detailed his support for the continued struggle for workers at the Smithfield meatpacking plant in Tar Heel, N.C. He said that, in the end, “workers will prevail.”

“Trade unions are the foundation of human rights and human dignity,” he said. “I know the workers at Smithfield and all workers can look forward to a better future because in the UFCW you never give up and you never back down.”

President Jim McLaughlin of  UFCW Local 99 recently participated in a delegation from the UFCW that flew to London to protest Tesco’s policy of opening Fresh & Easy stores in the United States with non-union labor.

Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, is a union employer in its home country. Its decision to avoid union participation in its American operations has provoked angry responses from Labor leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Along with UFCW International President Joe Hansen, McLaughlin arrived in the British capital to deliver a message of concern to Tesco’s shareholders, who were attending the company’s annual meeting.

At the shareholders’ meeting, McLaughlin asked Tesco CEO Terry Leahy to change his strategy and welcome union participation in America as he does in Britain. British reporters took the opportunity to interview the American union leader.

“We are here to inquire why there has been no dialogue in the U.S. whereas in Britain it is an established practice for Tesco to engage with unions,” McLaughlin told the Reuters news agency.

“All of our calls to the company have fallen upon deaf ears, so we are looking to engage with the company at a higher level and have a constructive dialogue with them,” he said.

After the meeting, McLaughlin told Reuters: “We have been asked to leave the matter with the company for them to consider.... I do hope [Tesco’s] response is a positive and speedy one in favor of dialogue.”

Meanwhile, the UFCW International Union, which McLaughlin serves as an International Vice President, launched a campaign in Britain to expose “The Two Faces of Tesco.”

At a London press conference hosted by Jon Cruddas, a pro-union member of Parliament, UFCW officials said they intended to shame Tesco into practicing in the United States what it preaches in Britain.

“We want a dialogue to build with Tesco the same constructive partnership that Tesco enjoys in Britain with the USDAW (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) union,” McLaughlin said. “But so far, Tesco refuses to meet with us.”

“British companies that operate in the global marketplace should apply the highest standards in dealing with their workforce, both at home and abroad,” Cruddas said. “Tesco’s practices in the United States not only undermine Tesco’s reputation, but will also affect how people think about the fairness of British companies in general.”

At the launch of “The Two Faces of Tesco,” Jackie Gitmed, a cashier from a Ralphs supermarket in Encino, Calif., added:

“We’re never going to be rich working for a grocery store, but we all deserve a shot at earning a living wage and health insurance we can afford, as well as the peace of mind to know that we won’t be let go at a moment’s notice.

“In my 32 years working with the protection of a union agreement, I have enjoyed job security and union-negotiated health care and pensions benefits. Our colleagues at Tesco’s Fresh & Easy stores don’t have this.

“I have flown from L.A. to London because this campaign is important. I hope it will make Tesco pay attention, so that my fellow workers in Tesco’s U.S. stores can enjoy the benefits and opportunities they deserve.”

Addressing the recent UFCW International Convention, William T. McDonough, International Executive Vice President and Director of Collective Bargaining, described the union’s trailblazing strategies for contract negotiations.

McDonough also praised the delegates for their hard work in bargaining good contracts for members.

“You are the union that represents more private-sector workers than any other union,” he said.

“You are the union that has brought the best contracts to workers in our industries.”

McDonough added: “In the UFCW we measure ourselves by our confidence to move forward, confronting challenges and seizing opportunities to bring more strength to the bargaining table.”

McDonough warned that American industries are changing and that the union must change with them in order to survive and grow.

“The companies we bargain with now operate nationally and internationally,” he said. “They are no longer the local, regional or even national companies we were used to dealing with.

“When they come to the bargaining table, they come with a fully-integrated, company-wide agenda to drive down wages and benefits.”

He said that UFCW locals are coordinating their bargaining efforts effectively.

“UFCW local unions are developing common goals company-wide,” McDonough said, “and we are better informing and mobilizing UFCW members to achieve those goals.

“UFCW bargaining is unity bargaining,” he continued. “We have the same strategy and the same goals, and we take the same actions on the same day.

“When we mobilize across bargaining units, we can unite across regions, across our great countries.”
McDonough also emphasized “bargaining to organize,” using good contracts to encourage non-union workers to join the UFCW.

“We turn every contract into a handbill for unorganized workers in our industries,” he said. “Our members depend on us to bring their non-union counterparts to our side of the bargaining table.

Union density is the key to better contracts, McDonough said. “Density is strength. Density means better jobs and a brighter future for UFCW members.

“In our vision, bargaining and organizing are two sides of the same coin.”

A study for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations, concludes that all countries need universal health care in order to eliminate inequalities in health and life expectancy.

The report summarizes three years of research by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, composed by 19 experts led by Michael Marmot, head of the Epidemiology and Public Health Department of University College London. Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher also participated in the study.
Marmot said the commission found “dramatic” differences in health care between poor and wealthy countries, as well as between poor and wealthy areas within countries.

“Between countries we have life expectancy differences of more than 40 years,” Marmot said. “A woman in Botswana can expect to live 43 years, in Japan 86 years.”

The commission recommends that nations change their health systems to make care available to all people, regardless of their ability to pay.

The report criticized the “commercialization” of services as a threat to health care systems in all of the countries it studied. It called for financing health care through general taxation and/or mandatory universal insurance.

The study found that more than 100 million people worldwide are pushed into poverty each year because of catastrophic health care costs.

“We are distressed by the reports of health care simply being unavailable to people because of inability to pay,” Marmot said.

About 15.3 percent of Americans, some 46 million people, have no public or private health insurance. Many of them are minorities who are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer and colorectal cancer than whites.

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said WHO’s Executive Board will examine the report at its January 2009 meeting and submit proposals to its 193 member states the following May.

The firing of six workers, allegedly for attending a pro-union meeting and complaining about managers, has prompted the UFCW to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the primary supplier of prepared foods for Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets.

The complaint against British-owned 2 Sisters Food Group “sends a message that companies cannot come to the United States and ride roughshod over workers’ rights and labor laws,” a UFCW spokesman said. A spokesman for the supplier denied the charge.

Bashas’ Workers can Pursue Pay Discrimination

A federal appeals court ruled that current and former workers of Bashas’, including workers at all Food City stores in Yuma County, may continue pursuing their claims of pay discrimination together.

Local 99 Organizer Luis Espinosa said the suit includes about 200 union and non-union workers at the two Food City stores in Yuma and the one in San Luis.

In a unanimous decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the worker who charged that the Chandler-based grocer paid Hispanic workers less than Anglo counterparts presented “extensive evidence'” that the chain's “discriminatory pay practices affected all members of the proposed class.”

That means the three workers who filed the original lawsuit in 2003 are entitled to represent the Yuma Food City workers.

Tesco is set to expand its fledgling Fresh & Easy chain beyond the Western United States.
A team of property executives is identifying potential locations for stores and a distribution center in the Chicago area.

The company already has 71 Fresh & Easy stores in Arizona, California and Nevada.

September 5, 2008
From Los Angeles Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch

Like the redcoats of old, British retailing giant Tesco is learning that America is a big and difficult place to conquer.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain of small grocery stores continues to struggle, Piper Jaffray senior analyst Mike Dennis said in a research report this week. There aren't enough shoppers, and the ones that do come don't buy very much, he said.

The chain, which is based in El Segundo, also is falling behind on store openings in California, Nevada and Arizona that are needed to leverage the huge investment the company has made in a distribution center and
kitchen facility in Riverside, according to Dennis.

What's more, nearly one year after opening its first U.S. stores, the retailer hasn't established much brand recognition and has been forced to offer deeper-than-expected discounts to generate even sluggish store
traffic.

"Poor locations and high value coupon discounts will not make them much profit," Dennis said. Fresh & Easy doesn't accept product coupons but frequently offers $5 off of any purchase of $20 or more.

Dennis said his research shows that most Fresh & Easy shoppers limit their purchases to produce and a few other items. Sales of major brand-name items amount to only a fraction per store of what Ralphs, Vons, Stater Bros. and Albertsons garner, he said.

He predicted that Tesco's woes would only worsen as major U.S. chains, including Safeway, Kroger, Wal-Mart, SuperValu and others, jump into the small-grocery-store format over the next couple of years.

The bottom line: Dennis believes Fresh & Easy needs a partner that better understands the U.S. market. He suggests that Tesco cut its losses by merging Fresh & Easy into a joint venture with an established American retailer with brand identity.

Tesco's U.S.-traded shares hit a 52-week low on Thursday, falling 95 cents, or 4.6%, to $19.80. The stock peaked at $30.75 last October as the company began the U.S. rollout of Fresh & Easy.

Bashas’ closed its operations for home delivery of groceries on May 31. Earlier, Bashas’ announced it was eliminating 100 jobs, including those of its home delivery workers. UFCW Local 99 continues to represent home delivery workers at Safeway.

Albertsons LLC, which owns the Albertsons stores in Arizona, announced that it is selling off all of its fuel centers except for those in Florida. In all, Albertsons is selling 72 fuel centers and closing four in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana. Valero is buying the fuel centers.

With a historic presidential campaign as a backdrop, labor leaders and activists from across the nation gathered for the annual UFCW Legislative Conference, April 22-24 in Chicago.

The meeting was called to set priorities for pro-worker legislation and policies at all levels of government.
Delegates from UFCW Local 99 — who included President Jim McLaughlin, Secretary-Treasurer Paul Rubin and Community Affairs Director Stan Chavira — heard speeches by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Workshops focused on new technologies available to local unions to help them put friends of labor in office.

UFCW International President Joe Hansen opened the conference by telling the delegates “the time for change is now.”

“We need to help elect our friends to office,” Hansen told the gathering.

“Look at what the political process has produced for us without our friends in office: corporate power is stronger, workers are being paid less and the rich are getting tax cuts,” he said.

The deciding factor

“Government stepped aside while corporate greed stepped in,” Hansen continued. “Gas costs more and the mortgage business is a mess. It costs more to get to work than some workers are earning at work. We are on the brink of a worldwide recession that threatens to pull the middle class into poverty.

“Change is absolutely necessary for our members,” the UFCW leader said. “We don’t want more empty promises like the politics of the past. We want labor law reform and worker protections.”

President Hansen said that passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would guarantee the freedom to join unions without intimidation, was the Labor Movement’s top priority.

“The Employee Free Choice Act will be an issue in this presidential election,” he said. “We will begin a million-member sign-up for support of the Employee Free Choice Act and every member of this union will play a role in that.”

Hansen said that the million-member sign-up will be “the largest political action in our lifetimes for the UFCW.”

Noting that the UFCW is one of only two unions in the private sector with more than a million members, Hansen said the union is a formidable force that could be the “deciding factor” in the 2008 presidential campaign.

“Because of our activities we will be in the front row of the Obama Administration,” Hansen said.
Looking ahead to 2009, he said that the UFCW will continue its active role in national politics.

“We will build on our momentum and grow even stronger in 2010,” he said. “We will ensure that the issues that are discussed in Washington will be our issues.”

In addition to the Employee Free Choice Act, Hansen listed health care reform and opportunities for advancement and training as Labor’s leading priorities.

“We can have the America of our dreams,” he said. “We can change America to make it real. And the people in this room will lead the effort.”

Setting the agenda

UFCW Legislative Department representative Steve Powell, who also serves as secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 881 in Illinois, presided over the rest of the conference.

“We will reset the national agenda with this election,” Powell said.

“Signing up at rallies is not enough. Signing a letter is not enough. We must back up the support of our friends in politics with action. We must hold them accountable for what they do for us.”

In workshops, UFCW staff members and lawyers described how to keep political contact lists current and explained how to analyze demographic information in efficient and successful political campaigns. They also described new software and telephone systems that UFCW leaders can use to inform and mobilize their members.

Local unions were urged to use the UFCW International Union as a resource to improve their political programs.