Dear Working Families e-Activist:
Since mid-October, 70,000 grocery workers have courageously kept
up the picket lines in Southern California. These brave workers
are holding the line for health care and good jobs in the face
of stubborn employer greed. The stand they have taken is not
just for their own families, but for all families, at a time
when too many employers are shredding the standards for decent
benefits we worked long and hard to build. They're on strike or
have been locked out by their employers, including Kroger-owned
Ralphs, Safeway-owned Vons and Albertsons for nearly four months
now.
That is a very long time for these workers and their families to
go without their regular paycheck or health care coverage. They
need your help.
REQUESTED ACTION
Normally we'd ask you to click on a link to help. Today we need
something different. We're asking you to change your everyday
routine and not shop at Albertsons or Albertsons-owned stores
during the strike. The striking grocery workers are asking you
to do this because Albertsons is stubbornly refusing to
negotiate a reasonable contract. We all need to vote with our
shopping choices and tell these giant grocery corporations that
their actions are unacceptable and we will not support them with
our business.
Please don't shop at Albertsons and help get the word out by
forwarding this e-mail to your friends, family and co-workers.
These workers feel their struggle is essential to the well-being
and future of their families. Maria Lopez, a five-year employee
of one of the grocery stores, had this to say about the strike.
"I've been out there [on the picket line] for 40 hours a week
because I'm fighting for my health benefits. There are a lot of
moms on the line. We are afraid to lose our jobs with this
strike but more afraid to lose our health benefits if the
company gets its way. If one of my kids gets really sick and I
couldn't afford the insurance, I wouldn't know what to do."
By clicking on the link below you also can donate to a special
strike fund set up to help these workers. Some workers are in
dire straits-especially if somebody in the family is sick.
https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline
Why is this strike so important? The grocery chains are
demanding the workers accept what amounts to a 75 percent cut in
health coverage for new workers and a 50 percent cut for current
employees. Like too many employers across America, they are
trying to boost their profits at the expense of workers and
their families. If the grocery chains win, we'll all have a
harder time holding on to health care benefits. The workers must
win.
Learn more about the grocery strike on the AFL-CIO website by
clicking on the link below.
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/o1auBD91Jd5W/
Visit the website of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
http://www.ufcw.org/
Thanks for all you do. Let's show 'em what solidarity looks
like.
In Solidarity,
Working Families e-Activist Network
Jan. 26, 2004
Since mid-October, 70,000 grocery workers have courageously kept
up the picket lines in Southern California. These brave workers
are holding the line for health care and good jobs in the face
of stubborn employer greed. The stand they have taken is not
just for their own families, but for all families, at a time
when too many employers are shredding the standards for decent
benefits we worked long and hard to build. They're on strike or
have been locked out by their employers, including Kroger-owned
Ralphs, Safeway-owned Vons and Albertsons for nearly four months
now.
That is a very long time for these workers and their families to
go without their regular paycheck or health care coverage. They
need your help.
REQUESTED ACTION
Normally we'd ask you to click on a link to help. Today we need
something different. We're asking you to change your everyday
routine and not shop at Albertsons or Albertsons-owned stores
during the strike. The striking grocery workers are asking you
to do this because Albertsons is stubbornly refusing to
negotiate a reasonable contract. We all need to vote with our
shopping choices and tell these giant grocery corporations that
their actions are unacceptable and we will not support them with
our business.
Please don't shop at Albertsons and help get the word out by
forwarding this e-mail to your friends, family and co-workers.
These workers feel their struggle is essential to the well-being
and future of their families. Maria Lopez, a five-year employee
of one of the grocery stores, had this to say about the strike.
"I've been out there [on the picket line] for 40 hours a week
because I'm fighting for my health benefits. There are a lot of
moms on the line. We are afraid to lose our jobs with this
strike but more afraid to lose our health benefits if the
company gets its way. If one of my kids gets really sick and I
couldn't afford the insurance, I wouldn't know what to do."
By clicking on the link below you also can donate to a special
strike fund set up to help these workers. Some workers are in
dire straits-especially if somebody in the family is sick.
https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline
Why is this strike so important? The grocery chains are
demanding the workers accept what amounts to a 75 percent cut in
health coverage for new workers and a 50 percent cut for current
employees. Like too many employers across America, they are
trying to boost their profits at the expense of workers and
their families. If the grocery chains win, we'll all have a
harder time holding on to health care benefits. The workers must
win.
Learn more about the grocery strike on the AFL-CIO website by
clicking on the link below.
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/o1auBD91Jd5W/
Visit the website of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
http://www.ufcw.org/
Thanks for all you do. Let's show 'em what solidarity looks
like.
In Solidarity,
Working Families e-Activist Network
Jan. 26, 2004
