Government Shutdown Shuts Out Area Striking Grocery Workers

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Government Shutdown Shuts Out Area Striking Grocery Workers(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Area Bestway grocery store workers will rally for justice at 11a this morning in front of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) headquarters after the government shutdown enabled their employer to escape the consequences of illegally firing workers last week. “As the effects of the government shutdown spread, these grocery workers are among the first to confront the breakdown of the nation's labor laws,” said Metro Council President Jos Williams. “With the NLRB doors locked, workers are literally shut out in the street when employers like Bestway violate labor laws.” The workers at the Falls Church, VA Bestway formed a union in late September, joining UFCW Local 400. But Bestway has ignored the workers' requests to recognize their union and set bargaining dates. Instead, the union charges, “the company has engaged in systematic illegal retaliation against union supporters by cutting hours, changing schedules, holding one-on-one interrogation meetings, and threatening to call immigration on the workers.” When the workers staged a one-hour work-stoppage last week to draw attention to their plight, Bestway retaliated against its staff and fired thirty workers, violating national labor laws. "Bestway's blatant disregard for this country's labor laws is unacceptable," said Jose Andrades, who has worked at Bestway for the past 13 years. "Bestway thinks that the government shutdown means that it is open season on workers,” added the NAACP’s Don Cash. “It is time for us to reopen the National Labor Relations Board and restore justice for workers nationwide." photo courtesy UFCW 400

 

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