Local Giant Workers Take Fight For Jobs To Amsterdam

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Royal Ahold shareholders got an earful from angry DC-area unionists and their supporters in Amsterdam last week. Ahold owns Giant Foods and is planning to outsource grocery distribution work to a notoriously anti-union wholesaler, which would cost nearly 500 local union jobs. The Teamsters joined with Dutch labor union FNV Bondgenoten -- which represents workers at Royal Ahold’s Netherland companies -- the United Food and Commercial Workers --which represents Ahold’s retail store employees in the US -- and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers -- which is seeking a better deal for workers who pick tomatoes for Giant -- to engage investors at last week’s meeting (VA Ahold Workers Address Shareholder Meeting Today In Amsterdam 4/20 UC) in Amsterdam about Ahold’s workers’ rights violations. “The last time Royal Ahold allowed management of a U.S. subsidiary to violate the company’s standards of corporate responsibility, investors lost nearly two-thirds of their shares’ value; the CEO and CFO resigned in disgrace; and the reputation of this Royal company was severely tarnished,” Teamsters Capital Strategies Director Carin Zelenko told investors. – adapted from a report on the Teamsters website;  click here for more coverage on UFCW 400’s website. Photo: Workers from Giant and Martin's attended the Ahold shareholder meeting to share their stories along with representatives from CIW and the Teamsters; photo by Christina Hajagos-Clausen