Government Shutdown Shuts Out Area Striking Grocery Workers
Wednesday, October 16, 2013(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