WSLC Reports Today
Updated DAILY... Almost Every Day™ by 9 a.m.

Links are functional at date of posting, but sometimes expire. Some links require free registration.  WSLC Reports Today links to stories of interest to organized labor; some positive, some negative.  The intention is to inform.

Contracting Out news:
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- Guard problems spur new effort to protect federal buildings --  Homeland Security officials tries to ensure that federal buildings are not left unprotected after two cases in which contract security guards stayed away from their jobs because they had not been paid.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Congressional panel to discuss concerns on contractors -- A House committee will examine flaws in the federal procurement system that let contractors (like Wackenhut Corp.) with poor performance records renew contracts or receive additional ones.

National news:
▪  Today from AP -- Sen. Murray applauds departure of VA chief -- She says Jim Nicholson's departure gives Bush a chance to appoint a true advocate for veterans, rather than what she called "an apologist for this administration's failures to plan."
▪  In today's NY Times -- Package of deals proposed to save trade talks -- WTO calls on the U.S. and Europe to lower farm barriers for greater export access to India, Brazil and other countries.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Skilled workers win reversal of agency decision on green cards 

Last throes update:
▪  Today from AP -- Senate Republicans scuttle Iraq withdrawal bill -- After an all-night debate, the GOP minority blocks a vote on a Democratic proposal ordering troop withdrawals from Iraq.
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- Spineless sages (Meyerson column) -- Anyone searching for the highest forms of invertebrate life need look no further than the floor of the U.S. Senate. There, Republican moderates who say they oppose Bush's Iraq war policies do nothing. The gutless wonders of today's GOP and their continued deference to Bush/Cheney keep our soldiers in Iraq to this day.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Six years after 9/11, the same terror threat (analysis) -- The hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives expended in the name of the war on terror pose a single, insistent question: Are we safer?  On Tuesday, in a dark and strikingly candid two pages, the nation’s intelligence agencies offered an implicit answer, and it was not encouraging. In many respects, the National Intelligence Estimate suggests, the threat of terrorist violence against the United States is growing worse, fueled by the Iraq war and spreading Islamic extremism.
▪  Of the 3,618 U.S. troops killed in Iraq; 3,479 of them have died since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations in May 2003; 3,157 have died since the capture of Saddam; and 2,759 have died since the government was handed over to the Iraqis.
▪  The WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2007
Grocery chains must "fix the bread gap, share the success!"

Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union held a sidewalk demonstration of the gap between CEO salaries and their wages -- in loaves of bread -- this morning outside the lower Queen Anne Safeway store in Seattle. 

Check out the Wednesday event's "Fix the Bread Gap" YouTube video at www.ShareTheSuccess.org.

More than 20,000 grocery workers represented by UFCW Locals 21, 44 and 81 in the Puget Sound region are negotiating with Albertsons, Safeway, QFC and Fred Meyer over wages, medical benefits, family-friendly scheduling and sick leave.

For more information, visit www.ShareTheSuccess.org.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2007
Grocery workers deserve a share of the success

The following op-ed was written by George Keller, a father, grandfather and a grocery worker in Everett for Safeway who has worked in the industry for more than 30 years. It was recently published in The (Everett) Herald:

If you shop at a Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC or Albertson's, you probably noticed the yard signs saying "Share the Success" posted on the lawn outside your grocery store recently. We're the workers of these national grocery chains and we're currently in contract negotiations. Employers need to share the success with us - and with our communities.

We're among the more than 20,000 United Food and Commercial Workers in Puget Sound who make a living in these stores - or, who are trying to. I have served Everett grocery shoppers for more than 30 years at Safeway. And I can tell you, it's getting tougher to make ends meet on the money we make. Over the years, we've watched these stores transform from locally owned businesses with a solid focus on great customer service, into large hugely profitable national corporations.

Last year, Safeway, Albertson's and Kroger's (Fred Meyer and QFC) made a combined $8.3 billion in profits nationally. In our region, they hold 80 percent of the market share. They're spending millions on store remodels and on new stores and acquisitions. They can afford to assure those of us who helped earn those profits a reasonable increase in pay. They can afford to help us manage escalating health care costs and they can afford to use scheduling practices that support raising a family.

We know the CEOs make millions, have stock options and use a company jet for personal use. We know shareholders take home bundles of money. We have no problem with profits that are hard earned. We do, however, have a problem with the fact that we shared the work and don't get a fair share of the success.

Sharing the success would mean that, as workers of these profitable chains, we could afford the groceries we sell. I've seen co-workers leave the store during lunch hour and go down to the local food bank because they couldn't afford to buy lunch at the store.

I've seen co-workers lose their jobs when a prolonged illness meant they lost their place on the schedule. Even healthy workers have a hard time getting enough hours to make a living. Because the stores want to save money by cutting hours, the average work week for grocery workers in Puget Sound is 26 hours.

Sharing the success means we can call in sick without losing a day's pay; it means we can make a parent-teacher conference without getting our hours cut and our incomes reduced because of callous scheduling practices.

There's a growing trend in the retail business that claims tremendous profits for those at the top without respecting the worker's contribution. We see it in the large box stores like Wal-Mart and we're now seeing it in our own stores. These practices are harmful to us, to our families and to our communities.

When our wages don't meet the cost of living and we're struggling every day to make ends meet, we know we're one health care crisis from bankruptcy. When you go month after month robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can't save for the kid's college, for retirement or even to make the rising rent.

We continually hear how the cost of living is going up. It's a scary feeling that you're being priced out of the middle class. Why are these profitable national chains allowed to turn our hard work into their profits at our expense? The only answer to that question is because we let them.

This time around, we have a powerful voice. Every bargaining day, I travel down I-5 and join the UFCW bargaining team at the table. You have no idea how enlightening it is to see representatives of these national chains face to face and hear what they have to say.

I'm among 20 UFCW grocery workers at the table and we've given our employers fair proposals for health care, wages and pension issues. We're fighting hard to get a fair deal during this contract negotiation. But we're finding it tough to get these profitable chains to share the success.

So, stay tuned. And next time you come to see us at the store, tell the worker behind the cash register that you're behind them.