Grocery Workers

Sep 18 2011

Send us your photos from the grocery store

OurWeekly is asking its readers to email photos of how the pending strike of grocery store workers is affecting you.
 
Did you go to the store today and stock up?  Are you going tomrorrow?  If so, take a photo and email it to editor@ourweekly.com and we'll feature it online and possibly in Thursday's paper.
 

Sep 17 2011

Featured video

Aug 25 2011

Negotiations scheduled to resume Aug. 29

Negotiations between the United Food and Commerical Workers Union and grocery stores are scheduled to resume Monday with the help of a federal mediator in the hopes of avoiding a strike.

Southland grocery workers and union officials staged a rally this week in another push for a new contract, stressing they do not want to go on strike, but they will if they don’t believe they are receiving fair labor offers from the owners of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons.

Last week, an overwhelming majority of the 62,000 grocery workers voted to authorized a strike.

Aug 11 2011

Healthcare the main sticking point

As hundreds of grocery workers and their supporters rallied to push for a new contract, the three major grocery chains released details of their latest healthcare proposal that they claim would hold the line on costs but require employees to pay $9 a week for single coverage.

The cost of family coverage under the proposal would be $23, according to officials for Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”