LA Times Rite Aid facility symbolic of unions' legislation push

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-riteaid9-2009jul09,0,297728.story



Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
At the Rite Aid Southwest Customer Support Center in Lancaster are workers Virgilia Mondragon, left, Jeremy Edwards, Carlos Rubio and Aura Perez.The company reinstated dozens of workers let go after a unionizing drive.


Labor movement sees the Lancaster site as a symbol of why Congress should pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The firm agreed last month to rehire dozens of workers let go after a unionizing drive.

By Patrick J. McDonnell
July 9, 2009

A chilly, high desert dawn was breaking as the workers trickled onto the sprawling grounds of Rite Aid Corp.'s distribution warehouse, a behemoth box at the edge of the Mojave.

Awaiting them outside was a makeshift table set with hot coffee and doughnuts, courtesy of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. Employees donning yellow union T-shirts briefly savored a hard-won triumph as they continue a bitter, three-year-plus campaign.

"I'm glad to be back. I need the job," said Virgilia Mondragon, one of dozens returning to work after the union alleged they were fired illegally from the Lancaster facility.

Rite Aid's decision last month to reinstate as many as 46 employees dismissed after an acrimonious union organizing drive is the latest chapter in a divisive saga that has made the Lancaster warehouse a national symbol of organized labor's priority: passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, federal legislation that would ease the way for workers to join unions.

According to labor activists, Rite Aid's anti-union onslaught has included intimidation, misinformation and illegal terminations, along with bad-faith bargaining.

Key parts of the Employee Free Choice Act would greatly enhance penalties against employers engaged in unlawful practices, while mandating federal mediation in initial contract talks.

FULL story at link.