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Macy's Workers to Strike This Saturday
WHEN: Saturday July 17th Please come any time to the picket line -- but
especially from 11-1 pm on Saturday during the press conference in Union
Square.
WHERE: Macy's at Union Square, and Macy's at Stonestown. check macys.com for
directions
especially from 11-1 pm on Saturday during the press conference in Union
Square.
WHERE: Macy's at Union Square, and Macy's at Stonestown. check macys.com for
directions
Are you jonesing for a rockin' picket line? Help stop the war on workers here at home and join Macy's workers on Strike this Saturday!
Here's the perfect oppurtunity for DASW folks and friends to stand with Macy's workers fighting for their future.
Macy's workers voted 90% to strike THIS SATURDAY June 17th, because
management is SCREWING them at the table...for example:
Check it out: These folks are selling hundreds of thousands of dollars of
merchandise for Macy's every day and THEY HAVE NO PAID SICK DAYS!
This is a 24 hour strike -- starting at 11 pm on Friday evening, ending 11
pm Saturday.
MACY'S WORKERS NEED YOUR HELP: They have called for all community allies to
walk the picket line all day. Bring picket signs, puppets, drums,
noisemakers, bullhorns and your rockin' out selves!
WHEN: Saturday July 17th Please come any time to the picket line -- but
especially from 11-1 pm on Saturday during the press conference in Union
Square.
WHERE: Macy's at Union Square, and Macy's at Stonestown. check macys.com for
directions.
WHAT: Picket line-walking, chanting and causing a ruckus! There will also be
an ARREST action after the press conference. If you are interested in
GETTING ARRESTED FOR MACY'S WORKERS (union style, remember) -some DASW folks may be doing it as well.
See you on the picket line! Si Se Puede!
In Solidarity,
Liz
for more information about the strike contact Jason Blalock @
j_m_blalock [at] yahoo.com
SEE ATTACHED MESSAGE:
Hi folks. The Macy's workers that I've been organizing
for the past 7 months just voted (90% approval) to go
on a one-day strike this Saturday (7/17)! We will be
having a rally at the union square Macy's from 11am to
1pm. And of course, we will also be picketing all day
at both the union square and stonestown stores, so
come out whenever you can to help the Macy's workers
out! Many of you are also members of various social
justice groups in the Area: Tell them to come out too!
Below is an article from KTVU with the some of the
specifics on the dispute. Hope that you can make it
out to show your solidarity with these workers. -Jason
B.
San Francisco Macy's Workers Threaten To Strike
POSTED: 8:25 am PDT July 13, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO -- Macy's workers at the Union Square
and Stonestown department stores were threatening to
go on strike if the company does not meet their
demands relating to sick pay and health care coverage.
According to Mike Borstel, a spokesman for the United
Food and Commercial Workers Union, almost 90 percent
of the more than 1,500 San Francisco employees who are
UFCW union members, including sales associates,
greeters, clerical staff and stock clerks, have voted
in favor of the strike.
"Our members are fed up with Macy's family-unfriendly
policies," Borstel said.
The unionized employees, who have been working without
a contract since June 23, are asking for more paid
sick days and for the elimination of a system that
allegedly "disciplines workers for getting sick."
Borstel said Macy's uses a system in which points are
assigned to an employee every time he or she calls in
sick or is late to work. Once a certain point
threshold is reached, the employee is disciplined and
can eventually be fired.
"The company is encouraging you to come to work sick
and to infect everyone around you and possibly even
the public," Borstel said.
According to Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski, Macy's
wants to continue with its "decade-long policy" that
he said places more emphasis on helping people with
long-term illnesses than on those with more ephemeral
sickness.
Under the current policy, first-year employees don't
receive sick pay until they are absent for more than
four consecutive days. Second-year employees start
getting paid on their third sick day, and not until
they have been with Macy's for 10 years do they get
paid on their first sick day.
Employees are also asking management to agree to cap
the amount of money employees must contribute to their
health insurance. Borstel said employees "already
carry 40 percent of the burden of the premium" and
can't afford to pay any more.
Sluzewski said Macy's is continuing to "negotiate in
good faith" with its employees but indicated that a
cap on employee health care contributions is not
"realistic in this intense competitive environment for
retailing."
"The company has worked very hard to minimize the cost
of health care for its employees. But, when there are
increases with carriers, there have to be increases
with Macy's and its employees," Sluzewski said.
Union representatives plan to sit down with Macy's
executives again on Wednesday and indicated today that
they hope to avert a strike.
Here's the perfect oppurtunity for DASW folks and friends to stand with Macy's workers fighting for their future.
Macy's workers voted 90% to strike THIS SATURDAY June 17th, because
management is SCREWING them at the table...for example:
Check it out: These folks are selling hundreds of thousands of dollars of
merchandise for Macy's every day and THEY HAVE NO PAID SICK DAYS!
This is a 24 hour strike -- starting at 11 pm on Friday evening, ending 11
pm Saturday.
MACY'S WORKERS NEED YOUR HELP: They have called for all community allies to
walk the picket line all day. Bring picket signs, puppets, drums,
noisemakers, bullhorns and your rockin' out selves!
WHEN: Saturday July 17th Please come any time to the picket line -- but
especially from 11-1 pm on Saturday during the press conference in Union
Square.
WHERE: Macy's at Union Square, and Macy's at Stonestown. check macys.com for
directions.
WHAT: Picket line-walking, chanting and causing a ruckus! There will also be
an ARREST action after the press conference. If you are interested in
GETTING ARRESTED FOR MACY'S WORKERS (union style, remember) -some DASW folks may be doing it as well.
See you on the picket line! Si Se Puede!
In Solidarity,
Liz
for more information about the strike contact Jason Blalock @
j_m_blalock [at] yahoo.com
SEE ATTACHED MESSAGE:
Hi folks. The Macy's workers that I've been organizing
for the past 7 months just voted (90% approval) to go
on a one-day strike this Saturday (7/17)! We will be
having a rally at the union square Macy's from 11am to
1pm. And of course, we will also be picketing all day
at both the union square and stonestown stores, so
come out whenever you can to help the Macy's workers
out! Many of you are also members of various social
justice groups in the Area: Tell them to come out too!
Below is an article from KTVU with the some of the
specifics on the dispute. Hope that you can make it
out to show your solidarity with these workers. -Jason
B.
San Francisco Macy's Workers Threaten To Strike
POSTED: 8:25 am PDT July 13, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO -- Macy's workers at the Union Square
and Stonestown department stores were threatening to
go on strike if the company does not meet their
demands relating to sick pay and health care coverage.
According to Mike Borstel, a spokesman for the United
Food and Commercial Workers Union, almost 90 percent
of the more than 1,500 San Francisco employees who are
UFCW union members, including sales associates,
greeters, clerical staff and stock clerks, have voted
in favor of the strike.
"Our members are fed up with Macy's family-unfriendly
policies," Borstel said.
The unionized employees, who have been working without
a contract since June 23, are asking for more paid
sick days and for the elimination of a system that
allegedly "disciplines workers for getting sick."
Borstel said Macy's uses a system in which points are
assigned to an employee every time he or she calls in
sick or is late to work. Once a certain point
threshold is reached, the employee is disciplined and
can eventually be fired.
"The company is encouraging you to come to work sick
and to infect everyone around you and possibly even
the public," Borstel said.
According to Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski, Macy's
wants to continue with its "decade-long policy" that
he said places more emphasis on helping people with
long-term illnesses than on those with more ephemeral
sickness.
Under the current policy, first-year employees don't
receive sick pay until they are absent for more than
four consecutive days. Second-year employees start
getting paid on their third sick day, and not until
they have been with Macy's for 10 years do they get
paid on their first sick day.
Employees are also asking management to agree to cap
the amount of money employees must contribute to their
health insurance. Borstel said employees "already
carry 40 percent of the burden of the premium" and
can't afford to pay any more.
Sluzewski said Macy's is continuing to "negotiate in
good faith" with its employees but indicated that a
cap on employee health care contributions is not
"realistic in this intense competitive environment for
retailing."
"The company has worked very hard to minimize the cost
of health care for its employees. But, when there are
increases with carriers, there have to be increases
with Macy's and its employees," Sluzewski said.
Union representatives plan to sit down with Macy's
executives again on Wednesday and indicated today that
they hope to avert a strike.
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
What follows is a draft of a leaflet that will soon be going out to Bay Area Safeway workers; their contract expires on Sept.11th.
YOU HAVE TO PLAY HARDBALL TO WIN AGAINST MANAGEMENT TODAY!
An effective strike by Safeway employees will be a major step in reversing attacks by bosses and investors on all working people. A fight against management's attempts to rob you of access to health care will find a sympathetic response from tens of millions of wage earners all over the US. Health care is a major issue for all of us. We are all suffering from the same kinds of hardship at the hands of corporate America
A SAFEWAY STRIKE MUST BE RUN IN A WAY THAT WILL MEAN VICTORY FOR STRIKERS AND DEFEAT FOR MANAGEMENT. A strike that can be won means:
1. A strike run directly by the rank and file -- not by the UFCW apparatus. All major decisions concerning the strike must be made in mass meetings of strikers.
One way to make this happen in a strike several months from now is to start holding meetings with your co-workers now. Get together with co-workers in your store. Visit other stores and find out what's up with other Safeway employees -- the strike date is still several months away, and there is plenty of time to meet, discuss, and plan for action.
2. THE STRIKE MUST BE A NATIONWIDE STRIKE. Only a nationwide strike will be costly enough to company shareholders to make them back down on their attacks on Safeway workers.
3. ALL STORES MUST BE SHUT DOWN BY MASS PICKETING -- not by a few symbolic pickets.
Many Safeway shoppers are working people just like you. An aggressive, uncompromizing nationwide strike will find support from tens of millions of working people all over this country. It can be a step toward turning around twenty-five years worth of attacks on the wages and working conditions of all of us.
Only a strike that is very costly for Safeway investors can be won. If you hit them where it hurts, and hit them hard, again and again, they will have no choice but to back down and cave in to your demands.
HOW NOT TO RUN A STRIKE: THE DEFEAT OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUPERMARKET STRIKE AT THE HANDS OF THE UFCW.
The UFCW is a union with a long history of betraying its members to management during strikes. The most famous example, before the So Cal supermarket strike, was in the Austin, Minnesota P-9 meatpackers strike of the mid-1980's. (here there will be a link to a concise article about P-9 -- note from Kevin K.)
Recent antics of the UFCW leadership in Southern California were a textbook example of a union membership being defeated by a union leadership, a union acting in the interests of management and stock market investors against rank and file union members.
1. The UFCW always acts to isolate striking workers from one another. The strike was isolated to Southern California. Isolation means defeat.
And strikers were isolated from other strikers in the LA area who went on strike over the same issues!
In mid-October 2003, mechanics for the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority went out on strike in a dispute over who should pay for rising health insurance costs.
What was the UFCW's response? According to a UFCW striker on a picket line at a Pavillion store (an upscale branch of the Vons chain) on California Street near Lake Street in Pasadena, business agents from the UFCW instructed supermarket strikers to not go to the MTA picket line. The UFCW bureaucrat claimed "it would confuse the issue" in the minds of the public -- and this in a strike that had overwhelming widespread popular support. The MTA strike was about health care issues that were virtually identical to the ones that had triggered the So Cal supermarket strike.
2. The UFCW was successful in keeping a workforce with little or no experience of strikes or collective action against bosses under control. No mass meetings were held to discuss strategy or the direction of the strike. Union members generally felt excluded from having a voice in how the strike was run. THIS DOESN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN AGAIN.
3. The union made it easy for management to get goods into struck stores. Teamster drivers didn't cross picket lines, but would park their trucks on the street, then allow supermarket managers to drive Teamster trucks up to loading docks. The UFCW didn't even ask the Teamsters to honor UFCW picket lines.
As a "good faith" gesture, three weeks into the strike, on Oct. 31st, the UFCW disbanded picket lines in front of Ralph's supermarkets. Employers immediately announced that they would be sharing profits and losses for the duration of the strike. Working people living from paycheck to paycheck, and now in the middle of a long-term strike, were forced to match their limited economic resources against corporate supermarket chains -- thanks to the UFCW.
Out of a limitless servility to the bosses, and contempt for the needs of striking workers, at this point the UFCW began giving out leaflets urging shoppers to buy at Ralph's, where UFCW members had been locked out and were on strike. The UFCW ordered picketing to cease at distribution centers. This allowed Teamster drivers who had honored picket lines to go back to making deliveries for the struck supermarket chains.
4. By mid-January, the UFCW cut strike pay from a lousy $240 a week to $100 a week. And union officials who slashed pay and benefits for strikers were themselves bringing home six-figure salaries and fat expense accounts.
According to UFCW reports filed with the US Department of Labor, half of the top UFCW officials drew in upwards of $200,000 in wages, living allowances and expense account perks in 2002. Union President Richard Dority pocketed just under $400,000. Richard Icaza, head of UFCW's LA local 770, took home $278,783.
After a five month long strike, the antics of the rich businessmen who run the UFCW brought union members the same shitty contract offer they had overwhelmingly rejected and struck against in the first place.
Safeway workers here in the Bay Area must be prepared to take the direction of the strike into their own hands -- outside of and against the leaders of the UFCW. Independent cluster meetings and member to member communication are essential first steps to creating real rank and file organization and strength.
YOU HAVE TO PLAY HARDBALL TO WIN AGAINST MANAGEMENT TODAY!
An effective strike by Safeway employees will be a major step in reversing attacks by bosses and investors on all working people. A fight against management's attempts to rob you of access to health care will find a sympathetic response from tens of millions of wage earners all over the US. Health care is a major issue for all of us. We are all suffering from the same kinds of hardship at the hands of corporate America
A SAFEWAY STRIKE MUST BE RUN IN A WAY THAT WILL MEAN VICTORY FOR STRIKERS AND DEFEAT FOR MANAGEMENT. A strike that can be won means:
1. A strike run directly by the rank and file -- not by the UFCW apparatus. All major decisions concerning the strike must be made in mass meetings of strikers.
One way to make this happen in a strike several months from now is to start holding meetings with your co-workers now. Get together with co-workers in your store. Visit other stores and find out what's up with other Safeway employees -- the strike date is still several months away, and there is plenty of time to meet, discuss, and plan for action.
2. THE STRIKE MUST BE A NATIONWIDE STRIKE. Only a nationwide strike will be costly enough to company shareholders to make them back down on their attacks on Safeway workers.
3. ALL STORES MUST BE SHUT DOWN BY MASS PICKETING -- not by a few symbolic pickets.
Many Safeway shoppers are working people just like you. An aggressive, uncompromizing nationwide strike will find support from tens of millions of working people all over this country. It can be a step toward turning around twenty-five years worth of attacks on the wages and working conditions of all of us.
Only a strike that is very costly for Safeway investors can be won. If you hit them where it hurts, and hit them hard, again and again, they will have no choice but to back down and cave in to your demands.
HOW NOT TO RUN A STRIKE: THE DEFEAT OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SUPERMARKET STRIKE AT THE HANDS OF THE UFCW.
The UFCW is a union with a long history of betraying its members to management during strikes. The most famous example, before the So Cal supermarket strike, was in the Austin, Minnesota P-9 meatpackers strike of the mid-1980's. (here there will be a link to a concise article about P-9 -- note from Kevin K.)
Recent antics of the UFCW leadership in Southern California were a textbook example of a union membership being defeated by a union leadership, a union acting in the interests of management and stock market investors against rank and file union members.
1. The UFCW always acts to isolate striking workers from one another. The strike was isolated to Southern California. Isolation means defeat.
And strikers were isolated from other strikers in the LA area who went on strike over the same issues!
In mid-October 2003, mechanics for the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority went out on strike in a dispute over who should pay for rising health insurance costs.
What was the UFCW's response? According to a UFCW striker on a picket line at a Pavillion store (an upscale branch of the Vons chain) on California Street near Lake Street in Pasadena, business agents from the UFCW instructed supermarket strikers to not go to the MTA picket line. The UFCW bureaucrat claimed "it would confuse the issue" in the minds of the public -- and this in a strike that had overwhelming widespread popular support. The MTA strike was about health care issues that were virtually identical to the ones that had triggered the So Cal supermarket strike.
2. The UFCW was successful in keeping a workforce with little or no experience of strikes or collective action against bosses under control. No mass meetings were held to discuss strategy or the direction of the strike. Union members generally felt excluded from having a voice in how the strike was run. THIS DOESN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN AGAIN.
3. The union made it easy for management to get goods into struck stores. Teamster drivers didn't cross picket lines, but would park their trucks on the street, then allow supermarket managers to drive Teamster trucks up to loading docks. The UFCW didn't even ask the Teamsters to honor UFCW picket lines.
As a "good faith" gesture, three weeks into the strike, on Oct. 31st, the UFCW disbanded picket lines in front of Ralph's supermarkets. Employers immediately announced that they would be sharing profits and losses for the duration of the strike. Working people living from paycheck to paycheck, and now in the middle of a long-term strike, were forced to match their limited economic resources against corporate supermarket chains -- thanks to the UFCW.
Out of a limitless servility to the bosses, and contempt for the needs of striking workers, at this point the UFCW began giving out leaflets urging shoppers to buy at Ralph's, where UFCW members had been locked out and were on strike. The UFCW ordered picketing to cease at distribution centers. This allowed Teamster drivers who had honored picket lines to go back to making deliveries for the struck supermarket chains.
4. By mid-January, the UFCW cut strike pay from a lousy $240 a week to $100 a week. And union officials who slashed pay and benefits for strikers were themselves bringing home six-figure salaries and fat expense accounts.
According to UFCW reports filed with the US Department of Labor, half of the top UFCW officials drew in upwards of $200,000 in wages, living allowances and expense account perks in 2002. Union President Richard Dority pocketed just under $400,000. Richard Icaza, head of UFCW's LA local 770, took home $278,783.
After a five month long strike, the antics of the rich businessmen who run the UFCW brought union members the same shitty contract offer they had overwhelmingly rejected and struck against in the first place.
Safeway workers here in the Bay Area must be prepared to take the direction of the strike into their own hands -- outside of and against the leaders of the UFCW. Independent cluster meetings and member to member communication are essential first steps to creating real rank and file organization and strength.
does the above message say that the macys workers have the same contract as safeway workers? thats pretty hard to believe. please confirm. i know its also a ufcw union, but its a different industry. if true, that must mean that macys workers have pretty good healthcare.
don't make assumptions about the local leadership of the ufcw. like you, i agree that the strategy to win a good contract this year must come from the rank and file. the president of my local union feels the same way.
don't confuse the national leadership with the local leaders. local leaders in the bay area don't have the ability to call a national strike. in my local, we have been organizing rank and file committees for shop floor actions, customer outreach, and many other things. i'm tired of all this criticism of the ufcw that lumps the local leaders in with the international union. most of the local leaders are from the rank and file.
if you have a problem with them, come to a membership meeting and voice it, or run for office yourself.
don't confuse the national leadership with the local leaders. local leaders in the bay area don't have the ability to call a national strike. in my local, we have been organizing rank and file committees for shop floor actions, customer outreach, and many other things. i'm tired of all this criticism of the ufcw that lumps the local leaders in with the international union. most of the local leaders are from the rank and file.
if you have a problem with them, come to a membership meeting and voice it, or run for office yourself.
I know this isn't really the proper thread, but it's about the UFCW supermarket workers' contract for the Sacramento area. Apparently out there they aren't negotiating industry wide, but company-by-company. Unconfirmed information is that there might not be a strike there, nor in the Bay Area after the union's fiasco in Southern California. Here's what their local president, Jack Loveall of local 588, is saying to the rank and file:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2004 Retail Food & Meat Agreement
Negotiations Update
The supermarket employers and UFCW 588-Northern California have agreed to extend the current food agreement past the July 17th deadline. The extension allows our members to continue working while negotiators work at reaching new agreements with the many employers involved in the bargaining process.
In the past, Union negotiators have met with all employers at the same time; they called themselves the Food Employers Council. That is no longer the case. Now, we bargain with each company separately making the process more complicated than in previous contract negotiations.
Some companies are more flexible on certain issues than others. Our goal is to achieve the same contract with all employers even though they are not in the same room at the same time.
We have many bargaining sessions scheduled for this week.
We know that this is a difficult time for you. We are using every resource at our disposal to negotiate the best possible contract.
In the meantime, don’t believe rumors and don’t let anything get you down. Your visible and vocal expressions of solidarity are extremely important. Please wear your "Solidarity Works" buttons on the job, and if anyone asks you where you stand, say proudly that you stand with your Union.
Together, we will prove, as we always have, that Solidarity Works!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2004 Retail Food & Meat Agreement
Negotiations Update
The supermarket employers and UFCW 588-Northern California have agreed to extend the current food agreement past the July 17th deadline. The extension allows our members to continue working while negotiators work at reaching new agreements with the many employers involved in the bargaining process.
In the past, Union negotiators have met with all employers at the same time; they called themselves the Food Employers Council. That is no longer the case. Now, we bargain with each company separately making the process more complicated than in previous contract negotiations.
Some companies are more flexible on certain issues than others. Our goal is to achieve the same contract with all employers even though they are not in the same room at the same time.
We have many bargaining sessions scheduled for this week.
We know that this is a difficult time for you. We are using every resource at our disposal to negotiate the best possible contract.
In the meantime, don’t believe rumors and don’t let anything get you down. Your visible and vocal expressions of solidarity are extremely important. Please wear your "Solidarity Works" buttons on the job, and if anyone asks you where you stand, say proudly that you stand with your Union.
Together, we will prove, as we always have, that Solidarity Works!
Here's a pretty thorough analysis of the UFCW in the Bay Area:
http://www.reapinc.org/Briefing%20Papers/Bargain%20(BP7).htm
Vince
http://www.reapinc.org/Briefing%20Papers/Bargain%20(BP7).htm
Vince
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