Glad to Be Union: Safeway Worker Who Came to Aid of Pregnant Woman is Reinstated

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Thursday May 24, 2012 · 1:30 PM PDT

2012/05/24 · 13:30

By now, news of Ryan Young, the Safeway meat clerk who came to a pregnant woman's aid when her boyfriend started kicking her, has spread across the country. Unfortunately, the the news of Ryan's heroic deed also came with the news that he was to be suspended without pay for the incident, due to Safeway's zero-tolerance policy for violence.

However, swarms of people have since come to Ryan's defense, and it has paid off. UFCW Local 5, Ryan's union, began supporting Ryan by immediately challenging the suspension. It took several weeks, but Ryan has finally been reinstated at Safeway.

4workers

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Wednesday July 20, 2011 · 1:46 PM PDT

2011/07/20 · 13:46

Today AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UFCW President Joseph Hansen put out a joint statement, saying the White House Walmart event today undercut the message of the need for good jobs to rebuild our middle class.

When Walmart opens in a community, it regularly displaces existing jobs with poverty-level jobs. Tens of thousands of Walmart associates qualify for and utilize food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. In this time of budgetary stress, Walmart's business model is subsidized on the backs of American taxpayers.

You can read the rest of the release here. If that link doesn't work for you (not sure why but working on that) you can go to www.ufcw.org and click on the statement under News. Or read the full the thing below.

4workers

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Thursday September 03, 2009 · 7:59 AM PDT

2009/09/03 · 07:59

We know politics makes strange bedfellows--but the new Whole Foods/Teabagger alliance is beyond bizarre. The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition has announced a series of events in defense of Whole Foods CEO's far right agenda.

As you’ve no doubt heard, in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey argued that health care is not a right all Americans are entitled to, relying on scare tactics to mislead Americans about Obama's efforts to fix our nation's health care system. The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition then announced "buycotts" of Whole Foods stores in St. Louis, MO, and Dallas, TX, to show their support for the CEO and his green grocery chain.

Our thought: this new-found alliance brings up some interesting questions about the progressive values Whole Foods claims to espouse. You can tell a lot about people by the company they keep, right?

4workers

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Thursday June 18, 2009 · 10:30 AM PDT

2009/06/18 · 10:30

The Bush administration's enforcement-only policy was an unmitigated disaster for workers. Administration officials became masters of misdirection, as ICE agents began conducting terrorizing worksite raids under the guise of meaningful immigration reform.

A new report just released by a National Commission on these raids (disclosure: a group founded by my union, the UFCW, after the raids) details the abuses of the Bush administration during these raids. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in real immigration reform.

4workers

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Wednesday February 04, 2009 · 9:03 AM PST

2009/02/04 · 09:03

James Satler worked as a grocery employee in Huntington Beach, CA. He went to Fresh & Easy from Trader Joe’s, excited by Fresh & Easy’s promises of competitive pay, affordable healthcare and promotional opportunities.

But the Fresh & Easy never lived up to the promises they made. James couldn't afford the health care, made less than he was told he'd make--and somehow those promotional opportunities never came up for him.

So James did what millions of workers do every year when conditions at their workplace are unsatisfactory--he decided to try to organize a union at Fresh & Easy. He signed a union card and talked to his co-workers about the benefits of forming a union, becoming more active the more convinced he became that a union was the right way to go. You know where this is going, right?

4workers

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Wednesday January 28, 2009 · 11:28 AM PST

2009/01/28 · 11:28

The Washington Postreports that for the first time in the 25 years it's been measured, union membership has shown a statistically significant increase.

Yep, yep, not surprised, you say. Unions have been starting to turn things around, organize more workers, etc, etc.

But one of the key causes economists give for the upturn may surprise you.

4workers

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Friday January 23, 2009 · 9:02 AM PST

2009/01/23 · 09:02

We are so screwed on health care. Seriously. As streams of newly unemployed and underemployed Americans pours in applying for Medicaid, state budgets are going into crisis mode.

And even so, many of the unemployed who apply for Medicaid won't get any health care coverage at all. Like my sister, whose previous job didn't offer any health care coverage (because of a pre-existing condition), so she's not eligible for Cobra.

When she then tried to apply for Medicaid, she was told she didn't qualify. Then the person she was speaking with paused, and said, "You're not by any chance pregnant, are you?"

4workers

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Thursday January 08, 2009 · 8:23 AM PST

2009/01/08 · 08:23

One of the leading front groups for opponents of Employee Free Choice, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, is out today with a new ad. The ad once again makes the false claim that Employee Free Choice would eliminate secret ballots (it wouldn't) and the false comparison of American political elections to workplace union elections.

The comparison doesn’t hold water, and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Oscar Dace make it clear why in an editorial in the San Jose Mercury News. The writers point out that union elections under the National Labor Relations act are "are as free and democratic as elections in Russia under Vladimir Putin - so rigged in the employer's favor that they are invoked exclusively as a union-thwarting tactic."

4workers

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Friday December 12, 2008 · 1:19 PM PST

2008/12/12 · 13:19

Two years ago today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided six meatpacking plants owned by Swift & Companyacross the United States. The tragic consequences of these raids are a stark legacy of the Bush administration’s eight years of disastrous immigration policy.

This anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on how those policies have failed America’s workers, and how this administration has continued to choose harmful publicity-grabbing raids over real immigration reform.

4workers

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Thursday December 04, 2008 · 11:39 AM PST

2008/12/04 · 11:39

At a rally to organize workers at a supermarket chain recently, a woman stopped as I gave her a leaflet. When I told her that part time workers at this chain didn't have any health care, she shook her head, and I expected her to sympathize.

Instead, she said, "Health care? Who has health care? They should be glad they have a job at all. It’s unions that are killing this country, trying to make all these demands of companies and dragging them under."

Yes, I thought to myself, all these demands like affordable health care—-demands like a secure retirement—-demands like a wage workers can live on with dignity, that lets them pay the bills and put food on the table for their families.

Demands like these aren't killing America. In fact, they’re the only thing that can save us...

4workers

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Thursday October 16, 2008 · 8:13 AM PDT

2008/10/16 · 08:13

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) just released a new report today that finds young workers have been hit hardest by economic woes and stagant wages over the last three decades. It finds that "younger workers are earning about 10 percent less than their counterparts did in 1979, despite impressive gains in young workers' educational attainment over the same time period."

That certainly sucks, considering the economic meltdown we find ourselves in today. But there's hope, young workers. What's one of the best ways for young workers to protect themselves in these tough economic times, according to CEPR? A union job! More below the fold...

4workers

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Thursday October 09, 2008 · 10:54 AM PDT

2008/10/09 · 10:54

When a friend of mine got her first job, she was devastated to learn that her company's health care plan wouldn’t cover her. She has a pre-existing condition, and needs expensive medicine, so this was some seriously bad news for her.

When she went to talk to her employer to see if anything could be done, he was surprised—-but not at the fact that my friend couldn’t be insured. No, her boss was surprised at my friend’s concern. "I thought young people didn’t care about stuff like health insurance," he said.

It's one of the biggest myths about health care: the idea that young workers don't need it and don't want it—-that they’d rather spend the money on video games or clothes or concerts instead...

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Glad to Be Union: Safeway Worker Who Came to Aid of Pregnant Woman is Reinstated

AFL-CIO and UFCW Presidents Say White House Event on Walmart Undercuts Message of Good Jobs

Teabaggers & Whole Foods: Two Organic Peas in a Pod?

"Many kids are scared of the Boogieman, but we fear ICE."

A Worker's Story: Why Rally for Employee Free Choice?

Union Membership Up and an Interesting Reason Why

My Sis Was Told "Get Pregnant, Get Health Care"

Union Elections are Not Like Our Political Elections.

"Like a Bomb Had Hit Our School:” Two Years Later

Let's Lower Our Expectations; or Who Cares About Workers?

Young Workers Hit Hardest By Economy. Solution? A Union!

Young Workers Need Health Care, Too