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