A&P Workers Ask: Why, Big Y? What About Our Jobs?

[Omaha Steve]

Run time: 03:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxjEcl6UoyQ   Posted on YouTube: December 21, 2010 By YouTube Member: UFCWInternational Views on YouTube: 43   Posted on DU: December 22, 2010 By DU Member: Omaha Steve Views on DU: 1362

 

*Media Advisory*



For Immediate Release: Tuesday, December 21, 2010



Contact: Audra Makuch, UFCW

Cell: 347.721.0684



FORMER A&P WORKERS, THROWN OUT OF WORK DURING THE HOLIDAYS, TO RALLY WITH SUPPORTERS AT BIG Y IN WEST HARTFORD


Workers and supporters—including Connecticut Attorney General and U.S. Senator-elect Richard Blumenthal—will rally and speak out for A&P workers and on Big Y’s refusal to hire many of them, and will ask Big Y to make a commitment to community this holiday season.

__________________________________________________________________


West Hartford - Former A&P workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 371 staff, shoppers, and supporters from the community will gather at the West Hartford Big Y store on North Main Street on December 22 to ask Big Y to make a commitment to community this holiday season.


Most A&P employees were not hired back after their stores were bought by the Big Y chain and re-opened as Big Y stores—despite workers’ many years of experience, skill, and dedication to their jobs. Entire families who had worked at A&P for generations were not re-hired at Big Y, and now find themselves out of work at the worst time—during an economic downturn and over the holidays. Workers, families, and shoppers in these communities are wondering, Why, Big Y? (For more information on the A&P workers, watch this video the workers made to speak out.)


As Big Y opens stores in Connecticut, these A&P workers, their customers and their supporters are asking Big Y to make a real commitment to our communities this holiday season. During tough economic times, the single most important thing that will help our communities prosper is jobs with real stability. Those at the rally will ask Big Y to rehire the A&P workers that are now out of work, and to commit to providing good jobs in our communities—jobs with full-time hours if workers want them—jobs that pay a living wage and come with good benefits.



What: Rally to Ask Big Y for a Commitment to Community



When: Wednesday, December 22, 2010

12:00 pm NOON



Where: In front of the Big Y

772 North Main Street

West Hartford, CT



Who: Attorney General and Senator-elect Richard Blumenthal will stop by to offer a few words of encouragement to the A&P workers. Workers, shoppers, local union staff, and other members of the community will be available for media interviews after the rally.


The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions, health care and immigration reform, and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream. For more information about the UFCW’s effort to protect workers’ rights and strengthen America’s middle class, visit www.ufcw.org.

[right2bfree]

1. Sure is getting ugly out in the job market these days. nt

[arcane1]

2. Indeed

and companies like Big Y are the reason for it.

[juxtaposed]

3. bust the union, nothing more, just bust the union.

[chervilant]

6. Yes, but,

bust the union is the precursor to "pay employees a pittance, and slash benefits to nothing or almost nothing." Big Biz has to protect their bottom line, you know.

Until and unless We the People (aka the hoi polloi) band together en masse to stop the Corporate Megalomaniacs, we will see this and worse over the next few years--at least until the global economy totally tanks.

[right2bfree]

13. Yeap, you got that right! nt

[Lugnut]

9. I lost my well paying job at A&P in 1979.

It was absolutely a union busting move. Several long time employees were getting close to retirement age when they could collect their much deserved pensions and the rest of us were union members. All the local stores closed and we all were on the outside looking in. A&P eventually resurrected themselves as Price Choppers, a non-union shop.

[Jimalene]

4. Ahd there you have it. More Corporation of America taking jobs away

from Americans. They do not want to pay these people a decent wage. And souless do you have to be to do it right at the holidays. EVIL EVIL GREED.

[JDPriestly]

5. K&R If I shopped at Big Y, I would stop and think about continuing

to shop there.

Some years ago, here in Los Angeles, a number of supermarkets were trying to reduce or take away healthcare benefits for their employees. The employees went on strike, and the public supported the strikers to an unbelievable extent. It really helped the employees. So, it is important to support working people when you choose where to spend your money.

[right2bfree]

12. Right on!! nt

[Altoid_Cyclist]

7. This is a flashback to what happened in this area 30 years ago.

A&P was the big chain here and people would stay there for their whole working life.

When it came time for a new contract with the union, A&P threatened to close the whole region down unless the workers agreed to ask for less and not be so greedy. At least that was the reason that they gave when they did in fact close down all of the stores in this region.

Between A&P closing their doors and the railroad laying off massive numbers of people at the same time, this town went into a job funk that persists to this day. The town rebuilt its' economy around convenience stores, fast food places and retail centers. Lots of positions that pay minimum wage with no benefits and not many hours and so the unemployment numbers look much better than they really are.

The only thing keeping the downtown area from becoming dust is the fact that Penn State Altoona has expanded past their physical size limit and is buying up large parts of the downtown.

As this country continues its' assault on the unions and the middle class, too many people try to ignore the situation until they're the ones standing in line at the food pantry. We might as well just make it official and let the Mints start printing "Made in China" on our currency.

[chervilant]

8. No duh!

When we consider that many states and municipal districts in the US are at or near bankruptcy, our nation's economic outlook is bleak. If we look at the number of countries that are at or near bankruptcy, our species' global outlook is bleak.

The Corporate Megalomaniacs expect to weather the coming economic storm, because they have done so many times in the past. However, this is going to be catastrophic on levels the hedonistic denizens of Richistan cannot begin to imagine. Their hubris will be the rope with which they will be hanged.

[right2bfree]

11. I ceratinly hope you are correct. The greed on this planet seems to know no bounds. nt

[right2bfree]

10. "Made in China" dollar bills! What a concept!! nt