Workers at Raley's and Nob Hill supermarkets walked off the job Sunday morning in a strike over wages and medical benefits.
A message on the website of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 tells members they have been unable to reach an agreement with Raley's management and tells employees to set up picket lines at the stores.
It says it is "impossible to reach a settlement with a company that does not want one."
Mike Henneberry of the UFCW 5 says this is a fight they are going to win.
"This strike was provoked by mangement who came in negatively months ago with an agenda that never changed," he commented. "The agenda was to diminish the medical plan that has taken decaeds to build up and to reduce wages. These are things we depend on to keep our families healthy and happy and we need to stand up and fight. We are an important part of the community. These stores are in our neighborhoods. This is a bigger issue than just us. This is also an issue for the community and customers."
Picketing workers at the Nob Hill market in Walnut Creek were passing out fliers Sunday morning that asked shoppers to support their "neighborhood grocery workers."
The flier stated the workers have been "forced out on strike because their employer wants to destroy their family medical benefits that have taken years to build." It also stated their employer wants to reduce take home pay.
The flier listed two nearby Safeway stores and asked shoppers to go there during the strike.
Picketers at the Raley's store in Pleasanton were not able to comment other than to say they got the call at 3:00 a.m. to be out at the stores to picket at 6:00 a.m.
The union also filed unfair labor practices complaints on Thursday, including allegations that Raley's managers have been interrogating and intimidating union members, union officials said.
"We look forward to returning to the bargaining table when Raley's
management has adopted a more constructive attitude," a statement from UCFW presidents Jacques Loveall and Ron Lind said Sunday. "Our goal from the
beginning is to negotiate a fair agreement serving the needs of both Raley's
and its union employees."
Raley's officials rejected the allegations.
"We're very frustrated that it's come to this, this has been going on for 15 months," said spokesperson John Segale. "We submitted our last and final offer four weeks ago and we never heard from the union, they never let their employees vote on that."
"So we had no choice but to implement our wage package this morning," Segale said.
Segale said Raley's urgently needs to cut costs in a "fiercely competitive" market. He said the Sacramento-based chain, which includes Raley's, Nob Hill Foods and Bel Air stores, has closed five stores in the past year and seen the opening or expansion of 240 non-union stores in its markets since 2008.
The conditions imposed Sunday apply only to wages, Segale said. The store moved to freeze pay increases for two years and eliminate the premiums paid for employees working Sundays, night and holidays, but retained the one week of paid vacation and four paid holidays employees currently receive, he said.
Raley's owns 128 stores in Northern California and northern Nevada as well as 78 Raley's superstores, 22 Nob Hill markets, 20 Bel Air markets and eight Food Source warehouses.
In the East Bay, there are Raley's stores in Benicia, Fremont, Newark and Pleasanton. There are Nob Hill markets in Alameda, Livermore, Martinez, San Ramon and Walnut Creek, according to the company's website.
Bay City News Service contributed to this report
As for the Black Panther Party, anyone can go to a polling place and hang around as long as they are not in the way or causing a problem. It's still a free country Tom.
All the other sites pointed to San Deigo. And as for where I have been, I have not lived such a provincial, nor has my family. My paternal grandfather made a career out of the Army after serving as an enlisted man during the 1930s, going to college after getting discharged and then being drafted to fight WWII as a commissioned officer and serving all over the world where the Army ordered him to serve after the war. So my father and his siblings followed my grandfather in his various assignments from Germany, Japan and even Italy. And eventually, that grandfather was assigned to command the ROTC program at Denver Public Schools, and my father wound up meeting a homesteader's daughter from Loveland, Colorado in Boulder and that's where I was born. And if you are tied to the land, then perhaps that's all that you see given from what I have seen even in my mother's family...and not much else. Kit Carson County for me is a place I would love to retire to when I am done seeing the rest of my world, but I'm not going to be tied to it because previous generations of my mother's family were tied to it.
Most families that can tie themselves to the Bear Republic are pretty much corrupt these days if they are in government, both in their home districts, in Sacramento and even beyond that even if they serve in Federal capacities, where they are equally detrimental to the rest of us in the United States as they are here in California. And sometimes that California-bred corruption seeks out other corruption, such as the Boxers to the Rodhams in Chicago, and the Pelosis to the D'Alessandros of Baltimore, where too much "wheeling and dealing" led to the problems that the rest of the country now has.
So can we blame you and your family, sir?
As I was only looking at slavery through the economic component, you saw it through its emotional and social components as well. But when it comes to the Helots and the Serfs and all the other folks out there in some sort of servitude, we also have to be aware that there are many facets to that kind of labor. And it is short-sighted of me to address only the economic component and none of the other components of slavery and for that, I apologize, because I may never know sometimes how others take my leavings, no matter how seriously or even light-hearted or with the usual and requisite grain of salt--unless your blood pressure can't take that.
Of course slavery is vile but that was resolved by Mr. Lincoln and those who fought to purge it from our country. We struggled with rights since that time but I do not see the value of slavery in comparisons to the society we now live in.
"Union busting is a field populated by bullies and built on deceit. A campaign against a Union is an assault on individuals and a war on the truth. As such, it is a war without honor. The only way to bust a Union is to lie, distort, manipulate, threaten, and always, always attack." "The enemy was the collective spirit. I got hold of that spirit while it was still a seedling; I poisoned it, choked it, bludgeoned it if I had to, anything to be sure it would never blossom into a united workforce...." Confessions of a Union Buster: Martin Jay Levitt
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/06/oregon-elections-worker-fired-after-allegations-ballot-tampering/ I call for full prosecution. Not matter the party this can not be tolerated.
Nothing like being caught lying when the paper trail catches up to you: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/03/amid-sandys-devastation-long-island-union-sent-written-demand-to-florida-utilities-pay-dues-or-stay-home/
Quitting is rarely a viable option when workers earn a steadily-decreasing share of what they are worth compared to the value of what they create for their employers.
When this "working people's party" takes over (hypothetically of course) what happens to the Corporations? Who works and who directs the workers? Assuming all the bad people in this country are "Wall Street parties" how do you explain the people that vote for them, be they Democrat or Republican? Do you honestly feel the heads of Raleys or any company for that matter, are out to starve out the very people that make them successful?
I have a question, what is Premium pay is that Time and a half or how is it determined? And the Raise freeze for 2 years n this economy is fair to be honest. Because unlike the private sector where individuals get raises based on merit , the Union would have to give these raises across the board to all employees. That is expensive in this economy. You have contracts that guarantee certain things for the terms of that contract, that is the benefit as well as detriment to the whole contract issue. while in the private sector we have had wage freezes for years the unions have benefited from their contracts to keep receiving raises. Other unions have made concessions in pay terms in this economy. I don’t feel Raley’s should cut your Insurance, unfortunately I knew this would happen w/ the passage of Obamacare. That reason is why I haven’t crossed the picket line thus far, I hope I don’t hear any more of the shopping cart ramming for those that DO chose to … And when I need to use the Pharmacy I hope I won’t get any hassle as that is my life we are talking about.