Faith Community Rallies Around Supermarket Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“Fill one of these cards out and get it back to me on your way out.” Rev. Graylan Hagler delivered this pitch dozens of times to lunch-hour shoppers at the Riggs Road Plaza Giant Thursday. Hagler (at right) and other members of Faith Strategies chatted with shoppers about the issues facing nearly 25,000 area supermarket workers whose contracts expire next week. “The reality is that this is a dangerous moment,” Hagler told Union City. “Corporations are making more money with fewer workers, expanding their profits, but they’re unwilling to share those profits.” The problem is the “greed factor,” Hagler and his fellow faith leaders said at a brief rally in front of the Riggs Road Giant. “When is enough enough?” Hagler wondered. “The greed model says enough is never enough, and this is destroying our neighborhoods, our communities and people’s hope.” UFCW 400’s Tony Perez thanked “the faith and labor communities, as well as those elected officials who are standing with us” like Prince George’s County Council Vice-Chair Eric Olson, who sent a strongly-worded letter of support. Community allies like Progressive Maryland, SEIU 722 and Laborers 657 pledged their support as well, promising to boycott Giant and Safeway “if a fair contract is not settled.”  Iman Johari Abdul-Malik led the crowd in chanting “Food for people, not for profit” as shoppers pushing carts paused to fill out “Love Thy Neighbor” cards pledging to “Support our neighbors, the workers at Safeway and Giant in their fight for a fair contract.” Click here to check out a video of the action, courtesy of IAM. - report/photos by Chris Garlock