Fired Worker Sparks Organizing Campaign at Family-Owned Chicago Grocery

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5721/fired_worker_sparks_organizing_campaign_at_family-owned_chicago_grocery/

Monday March 22 12:15 pm

By Kari Lydersen

Getting fired from Pete's Fresh Market, a family-owned grocery chain concentrated in Chicago's south-side Latino neighborhoods, was not at all upsetting for Raul Real.

Real started working at the meat market of a Pete's Market in the Little Village neighborhood in February 2009, after having previously worked at a meat market at a Jewel grocery store. The Jewel store was unionized by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), but he had never thought much about or appreciated the union.


Raul Real is happy to be free of Pete's Fresh Market, but he continues to fight for the rights of workers at the family-owned chain. (Photo by Kari Lydersen)


At Pete's, he soon saw things were quite differently, with—as he describes it—subpar working conditions, almost no benefits and constant disrespect and mistreatment by management. So Real, who is 25, decided to float the idea of unionization, and he got in contact with the UFCW and the ARISE Chicago Worker Center (affiliated with the national group Interfaith Worker Justice).

Other workers were very interested, he said, and word was spreading. Organizers and workers began holding "secret meetings" with employees from Pete's eight different Chicago area locations. Stories of harassment, mistreatment and dissatisfaction were rampant, but workers were generally afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs.

Then in November 2009, Real was late for a 5 a.m. shift—for the first time, he says—and was fired. He sees it as blatant retaliation for his organizing efforts. In the weeks after he had started the unionizing campaign, Real said, management frequently flipped his schedule so that he would have to work consecutive 2 pm.. to 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. shifts, which were exhausting.

"I wasn't a rebel or anything, I don't have anything against stores operating and selling things to people, I just was standing my ground," said Real, who notes that he is not affiliated with any specific group or union and does not have any interest in the situation other than fair treatment for the workers.

FULL story at link.