VA Supermarket Workers Take Struggle for Union to Amsterdam

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Three Martin’s and Giant Food workers from Virginia are in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to share their stories at the Dutch company’s annual general meeting today. They will alert shareholders about how Ahold’s Martin’s operation in the United States is failing to live up to the professed high standards of its Dutch parent company in comparison to other company grocery stores operating in the Netherlands and the United States. "I simply want the same rights that other Ahold workers have, whether they live 40 miles away in Virginia or 4,000 miles away in the Netherlands,” said Tracey Barrentine, a Martin’s worker from Stephens City, VA who plans to address the shareholders. “I want to be able to choose freely and fairly whether I want a union, without any intimidation or threat of reprisals from my employer.” Approximately 70,000 Ahold workers in the United States—about 65% of the company’s U.S. workforce—have already joined the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. But for 30,000 workers under the company’s Martin’s/Giant Carlisle banner, the UFCW says the company is actively campaigning to prevent workers from exercising the same fundamental rights that many of their U.S. and Dutch counterparts enjoy. - photo (L to R) of Shaquana Battle (Martin's), Tracey Barrentine (Martin's), Michele Hepner (Giant-Landover) in front of Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten; photo by Karlyn Williams