Vons

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 22 2011

Push for a new contract

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Southland grocery workers and union officials staged a rally today 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 18 2011

Minding the store

Civil Rights Activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Wednesday lent his support to Southern California grocery workers who staged a protest action at a Ralphs store on the Crenshaw strip.

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), who have been working without a new contract since March 6, may be asked to authorize a strike during meetings Friday, if their negotiators cannot reach an agreement with executives from the grocery chains.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Aug 18 2011

Employees oppose a more expensive plan

Workers from Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons grocery chains will gather to prepare and train picket captains this week as the workers’ union gears up for a strike authorization vote on Friday.

The sticking point between the grocery workers and the chains is healthcare.

“The healthcare proposal they have given us essentially increases the premium deductible and out-of-pocket costs, and it strips down a lot of the healthcare plan,” said Mike Shimpock, a spokesman for UFCW, Local 770, in Los Angeles.

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.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.