Local 400 Wishes Ahold Happy Holidays

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)With a giant holiday garland made of 5,000 signed "solidarity postcards," Ahold workers – including UFCW Local 400 members from local Giant stores – came together last week to speak out at Ahold's US headquarters in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Workers from Ahold subsidiary stores like Giant traveled from across the US and the Netherlands to speak to Ahold’s USA leadership, but security refused to let the group in to talk to the USA Chief Operating Officer, Carl Schlicker, or his successor, James McCann, about their concerns. “I was very disappointed that they wouldn’t let us in to talk to anyone higher up” said Milton Dews, a Local 400 member and shop steward from Giant. “We were there to express our concerns and show support for those workers who are non-union because we are all one company, Ahold, and all workers should be treated fairly with the same rights across all the different branches of the company.” When Ahold security refused to take the festive “gifts,” the crowd opted to sing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" while draping the garland on a nearby tree and placing gift boxes full of more postcards underneath it. They topped off the holiday display with an oversized holiday card signed by all in attendance. - report adapted from UFCW Local 400; photos by Karlyn Williams