quote:
The Toronto Star -- FIN
NEWS Thursday, November 10, 1988 A40
Food workers' vote rigged against him candidate charges
By Peter Edwards Toronto Star
SUBJECT: Canada labor
Vote-rigging is rampant in the race for the presidency of Canada's largest union local, a senior officer with the United Food and Commercial Workers charges.
"The whole thing has been rigged to defeat me," says Bill Reno, the union's education and research director and a candidate for presidency of Local 175.
And ballot scrutineer, Diane Gale of Hamilton, said a new election should be called because of repeated violations of the union's constitution, including the denial of secret ballots to some members of the 40,000-member, province-wide local.
Reno, who bills himself as a reform candidate, accused his opponent, Jim Crockett, a negotiator and the union's top Canadian officer, of repeated violations of the union's constitution in the balloting, which ends today.
Union time
Among Reno's charges:
* While he was refused an unpaid leave of absence to campaign, 34 of 35 salaried union staff members were campaigning against him on union time while drawing union pay cheques. This violates the union's constitution, Reno said.
* Balloting has been switched in mid-election out of workplaces where Reno's support is particularly strong to discourage voter turnout.
* More than $250,000 of members' dues has been spent, contrary to the union constitution, against him in the campaign. "They've spent enormous amounts of members' money on Crockett's campaign," Reno said. "What I've learned is they have no compunction about spending members' money in order to get elected."
Crockett dismissed Reno's charges as electioneering and said it wouldn't be proper to respond to them before all ballots have been cast.
"I've run a clean campaign all the way through and I'm not going to start doing something now I shouldn't do," Crockett said.
Cliff Evans, the food union's Canadian director, said Reno hasn't bothered to make any formal complaints or offer any evidence to the union's head office.
'Challenged ballots'
Gale said she was shocked this week when serving as a scrutineer during early balloting. For the first time in her 16 years in the union, Gale said, she saw large, brown envelopes at polling stations with, "Challenged Ballots" written on the side.
Gale said she asked an election official about the envelopes and was told: "They're going back to the union and if we need to use them, we'll use them and if we don't, we won't."
Gale also charged that members' social insurance numbers have been written on envelopes containing their votes. She said this can only be seen as a form of intimidation, letting union members know that their ballots aren't secret.
Gale said cynicism was pronounced among members during this campaign. She said she and many co-workers have no faith in either the reform or establishment slates, but want another election to restore faith in union democracy.
Reno was one of the union's staunchest defenders a year ago when it was accused of being undemocratic in an ugly jurisdictional battle with the Canadian Auto Workers over 23,000 east coast fishermen. The union accused the Auto Workers of stealing members while the CAW argued it was providing the fishermen with an avenue of escape from a union that was insensitive to their needs.
Bad Media Contest
Ok, ok, now Sports_Wiz seems to want to start a Bad Media Contest between the CAW and the UFCW. Let's start here, so the other threads don't get clogged, but remember, your post must be an actual article or excerpt from an article:
quote:
Deal gives union boss cash and car on retiring
Brian Caldwell
RECORD STAFF
September 19, 2000
Brian Williamson will get a $180,000 going-away gift when he retires as president of the union local representing about 6,500 workers at Zehrs Markets.
"It's really like a golden parachute -- or in this case, a platinum one," said Johnny Roberts, a former board member with Local 1977 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Williamson, longtime president of the Cambridge-based local, received a 65 per cent raise earlier this year, boosting his annual salary to $118,300 from about $72,000.
And, as part of a low-key deal approved by the union's executive board, he stands to get severance pay equal to 150 per cent of his salary, plus his leased vehicle, when he retires.
Scott Penner, the local's secretary-treasurer, and Al Mclean, the new executive vice-president, also got huge raises retroactive to Jan. 1 and will be entitled to generous benefits when they leave.
Penner said last night that he would justify his pay increase, that grew to $109,200 from about $66,000, only to his union's members.
"I will not discuss it with the public or the press, that is not their information," he said outside the union's head office in Cambridge last night. "I am not an elected official for the province of Ontario, I am an elected official for the members."
He said The Record is "out trying to get dirt that doesn't exist."
Penner added that the union worked hard for its members during recent negotiations and brought back a final offer that 70.5 per cent accepted.
In defence of his raise, Penner said "I know store managers that make more than I do," adding that "it is pretty sad when, in Kitchener-Waterloo, this becomes the news of the day."
Williamson didn't return telephone calls yesterday.
Gene Deszca, a business professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, said the retirement package outlined in a report that went to the union's executive board looks "fat and suspicious."
Prepared by Cliff Evans, a former national director of the union, the three-page report begins by noting Williamson is likely to retire from his elected, full-time position in the next four to eight years.
It then recommends the top three union executives receive 150 per cent of their annual salary, based on an average of their last three years, as severance pay when they retire with at least 20 years of service.
The report also suggests retiring presidents get a free leased vehicle and paid expenses while serving as unpaid consultants during a four-year transition. At the end of that period, the "president emeritus" would receive the vehicle itself.
"This strikes me as very generous and very creative,'' said Deszca. "It's a big kiss.''
Evans, who still does consulting work for the food workers union, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But Roberts, a clerk at a Zehrs store in St. Catharines and the only member of the executive board to vote against the deal, said it was clearly explained at a meeting that the changes were being made because of Williamson's anticipated retirement.
"It was all structured around bumping up his pay to give him a good send-off,'' he said.
Evans' report also recommended senior executives be authorized to include vehicle lease costs, insurance payments, Christmas bonuses and other items to calculate their income for the last four years before retirement.
Since amounts earned during that time are used to determine pensions and severance pay, that provision would boost both.
Deszca said such unorthodox changes at a time when Williamson is said to be considering retirement "create an odour" around the deal that should concern union members.
"My guess is they'll see it as fat and self-serving,'' he said. "I'd be surprised if you find anything like this anywhere else.''
Williamson and Penner have said information on executive salaries is freely available to union members at general meetings.
But many Zehrs workers, about 80 per cent of whom are part-time, say they rarely attend the meetings and wouldn't think to ask if their leaders had been given whopping raises or generous retirement perks.
Roberts said there was almost no discussion of the raises and new benefits when they were approved by the executive board. Williamson and Penner weren't at the meeting and didn't vote.
WHAT THEY MAKE
How does union leader Brian Williamson's salary of $118,300 compare to those in labour, government and other public institutions? Here are some examples:
Mike Harris, Ontario premier, $139,867
Carl Zehr, Kitchener mayor, $56,639
Buzz Hargrove, president Canadian Auto Workers, $110,000
Wayne Samuelson, president Ontario Federation of Labour, $89,500
Figures are current as of April 1
Ah yes, Bill-they-rigged-the-election-Reno. The famous spin doctor to the stars. Wonder what made him stop complaining and love the UFCW?
Can you guys quote the articles so we can easily determine when you're speaking or not?
quote:
Former food union leader accused of bribery Thursday, November 30, 2000 By MITCHEL MADDUXStaff Writer NEWARK -- The former president of a Clifton food workers union was arrested by federal agents Wednesday and charged with soliciting bribes from supermarket owners seeking to prevent labor disruptions during holiday seasons.
Authorities said that Joseph P. Rizzo Jr., 58, of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1262, solicited payments from unnamed employees for Foodtown and ShopRite supermarkets over nearly 20 years. In exchange, he vowed to ensure labor peace at the stores and offered one chain favorable treatment when the union was on strike, they alleged. Rizzo was arrested without incident by a half-dozen special agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, and U.S.
Department of Labor shortly after 8 a.m. at his job at the Bradlees department store in Parsippany-Troy Hills, said Sandra Carroll, an FBI spokeswoman. Rizzo was charged with four counts of conspiracy related to bribery, in a sealed federal grand jury indictment handed up Nov. 15. He faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, federal prosecutors said. Authorities allege Rizzo began demanding annual payments during the Christmas holiday period from the operators of Foodtown supermarkets in the early 1980s. The amounts of the alleged bribes were not specified in the indictment, although it says each payment exceeded $1,000. The indictment says a Foodtown official acted as a co-conspirator in arranging for Rizzo to receive the bribes.
It does not identify that person. In the early 1990s, Rizzo began demanding bribes to prevent disruptive union activities at non-holiday times, the indictment alleges. In exchange, the union overlooked differences over Foodtown's wages and working-hour policies, according to the indictment. In one instance, the indictment alleges, Rizzo met in Hoboken with the unnamed Foodtown employee, who gave him a $25,000 bribe. Last year, a former owner of 12 Foodtown stores told federal prosecutors the directors of the company and affiliate authorized $1 million in bribes to union officials. The former owner, Martin Vitale of Alpine, has been accused in a lawsuit of embezzling $14 million from the firm. In the recent criminal indictment, Rizzo also was charged with soliciting bribes from ShopRite, beginning with the Thanksgiving holiday in 1984. An unidentified ShopRite owner or operator acted as a co-conspirator in that scheme, the indictment says. Rizzo was arraigned in U.S. District Court on Wednesday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Ronald J. Hedges, who allowed the release of the former union official on $300,000 bail. The judge also ordered Rizzo not to have contact with members of the union, after Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy S. Winkelman told the court that authorities have "credible evidence" that he has made threats to the local's current officers. Rizzo, of Parsippany, did not speak during the brief court hearing. His attorney, Thomas G. Roth of West Orange, declined comment.
quote:
7-Eleven workers vote to snub union
David DaSilva, staff reporter
After only 10 months of working under the protection of a union contract, workers at a 7-Eleven food centre are ready to tear up their union cards.
Sixty-five workers at the food making and distribution facility on Viking Way in Richmond have voted to decertify from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of B.C. Local 1518.
The 7-Eleven workers had been under the union's contract since March 1999 after voting to certify in August 1998.
Barb Boon, 7-Eleven's human resources manager, said the company is pleased that the workers decided to dump the union and switch to the company's own wage and benefit plan.
"The employees amongst themselves had, I guess, different thoughts and approached the Labour Relations Board regarding decertification back in October," she said.
The wage and benefit package contained in the union-negotiated contract is the same as that given to non-union employees, Boon said.
The workers at the food centre make sandwiches and prepare and deliver other foods to local stores. Starting wages at 7-Eleven is $7.15, minimum wage.
Employee turnover appears not be a factor in the workers' decision to snub the union, Boon said. While she does not know how many new staff work at the facility, the turnover was not unusually high, she said.
"It was the employees wish to certify and it was the employees wish to de-certify," she said.
UFCW officials declined comment, pending the Labour Relations Board's final decision.
C'mon Sports_Wiz, yer fallin behind:
They ordered a union like a pizza
CAW is challenging collusion that traps workers in unionsHugh FinnamoreNational PostThe Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) threatens to enforce its "no-raid policy" because the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union has signed up members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Buzz Hargrove, CAW's president, says he's prepared to depart the CLC to defend Canadian workers' democratic rights to join any union they choose.I smell bad fish, but we won't get into that here. What is important, though, is that Buzz Hargrove has shone a light on longstanding union collusion that is responsible for keeping thousands of Canadians trapped in indifferent, abusive and sometimes corrupt labour unions.I speak from experience.
Before my conscience caught up with me, I was an international union official who relied on the no-raid pacts and CLC policies to keep thousands of unsuspecting dues-payers in unions, which are nearly impossible to leave.Canadian laws give workers the right to join a union. It is against those laws to use coercion or intimidation to prevent the exercising of that right. Those laws also specify a time during the term of a collective agreement when union members may vote to switch unions. This is commonly called the "raiding period." The CLC constitution and its coercive sanctions fly in the face of those laws and make them meaningless or inoperable. Workers who wish to change unions are turned away at the other union's door.In one assignment I worked on, a large Canadian grocery chain "custom ordered" a local union from one of North America's largest international unions. Yes, they ordered it just like you would order a pizza -- extra "flexibility," and hold the high wages. The deal was that in return for five to six thousand yet-to-be-hired employees, the union would create a "friendlier" local union to represent its employees.The company wanted a local that would be covered by a no-raid pact and would give the employer at least a 25% competitive advantage over its competitors. I helped set up that local union, and then helped structure a long-term collective agreement designed to restrict movement within the employer's operations. The idea was to create a system in which no union would challenge our right to collect dues and other employer-paid monies. A seniority system was created that discouraged movement within the employer's departments and work sites: If members can't communicate, they are powerless to challenge the union or employer.Was this deal a big secret within industry and labour circles? Not at all. Was this deal an exception? Not really. Weren't the union members outraged? Of course they were, but what were they going to do -- decertify? Not likely. In their minds, a bad union is better than no union at all. And in many jurisdictions such as B.C., the law says the entire bargaining unit must decertify. You cannot decertify one, two or a few stores.Rank-and-file union members don't have the money, opportunity or expertise to organize grass-roots revolt. In fact, one B.C. grocery chain fired an employee for talking union reform, and another's representatives searched an employee's personal effects for union reform literature, telling him his "activities must cease within the workplace" or it "could result in the termination of [his] employment."Unions do have the money, opportunity and expertise, but that's where the inter-union and CLC no-raid pacts and policies come into play. The CLC constitution prohibits one CLC union from recruiting or even talking to another union's members.Trade unionists will argue that enforcement of such a policy keeps unions focused on representing members and fighting employers rather than expending precious resources fending off competing unions. Heck, you'd think they've never heard of client satisfaction as a way to raid-proof their bargaining units.Few, if any, unions are trade- or craft-based today. It doesn't matter what industry or business workers are in; if they have a heartbeat, any union will sign them up. One international union goes as far as to exhort its organizers to increase "market share." That's a business term if I've ever heard one. Unions are no longer brotherhoods, fraternities or guilds; they are businesses whose purpose is to serve the interests of their shareholders.The big difference between the corporate business and the union business is that governments more tightly regulate corporations. Government enforcers would have an employer roped and hog-tied if it ever conspired to restrict trade or prevent customers from finding another supplier. However, for some reason, it's OK when unions do it.I commend Buzz Hargrove and the CAW for promising to uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Canadian workers. However, it remains to be seen whether CAW has the fortitude to carry out its threat, or if it will bend to the wrath of the CLC and federations. The provincial and federal governments must step in to enforce laws that should have stopped the CLC Charter violations and other union collusion that is detrimental to Canadian business and its employees.
quote:
Union representatives at Garden Province trying to replace union: United Food and Commercial Workers Union has become unresponsive to workers, say activists.
BY: Ron Ryder, Charlottetown-Guardian, November 8, 2001, Final Edition, p.A4.
Disgruntled union representatives at Garden Province Meats are trying to start their own breakaway union and sever their long-standing ties to the United Food and Commercial Workers.
But the UFCW's Island business agent says he thinks the upstart Atlantic Meatpacker's Union is just a takeover attempt in disguise. The AMU is a new entity, being promoted by Garden Province workers Mark Chiasson and Paul Whiteway.
The pair now hold rank with the UFCW, Chiasson is chief steward for the plant, Whiteway is unit chair. But they charge their union has become unresponsive to workers.
This past summer they tried to have UFCW decertified, leaving workers to deal with Garden Province directly. That plan was abandoned before a formal decertification process could begin. Now they want to see UFCW replaced.
Whiteway said Garden Province has always felt it was treated as an afterthought by their Halifax-based local.
He said that problem became more aggravating recently when they were unable to convince the union to switch health insurance companies to one that would pay up-front for prescriptions. Another
involves difficulties they have had obtaining detailed financial records from their local's head office.
"It's hundreds of little things," he said.
"Where we are at now is that the majority of members want out."
Whiteway and Chiasson held their own union drive Sept. 26 getting two-thirds of the roughly 90 workers at Garden Province to sign up for the AMU.
The results went to P.E.I.'s Labour Board Sept. 26 and the last of the paperwork for the union fight was filed by the end of October. Both sides are now waiting for a response from the labour board on whether AMU's request will be granted, denied or sent for a hearing. The upstart union shouldn't expect an easy victory, according to UFCW business agent Ray Gallant.
"I'm not going to start a war of words with these guys in the media," he said. "But there's some things going on behind the
scenes here that are going to come up when it gets to the labour
board."
Gallant said the action reminds him of the late 1980s when the Canadian Auto Workers attempted to replace UFCW as the union at Garden Province.
"In my view, this a situation where another union is trying to
raid us," he said.
"We'll be appearing before the labour board probably the first of the year and we'll see what this looks like when the dust settles."
He said he isn't impressed with the numbers Whiteway and Chiasson have signed up.
"Petitions don't amount to a hill of beans, it's how the names were gathered," he said.
UFCW represents workers at some of the province's major employers including Cavendish Farms and Amalgamated Dairies. Recently the union has been active in unionizing workers at a number of Polar
Foods' seafood processing plants.
Chiasson said despite UFCW's current growth, he thinks there is widespread disenchantment with the union among its established shops.
He said they have been coordinating their efforts with disgruntled workers at the Larsen's meat packing plant in Berwick, N.S., in hopes of setting up another AMU shop.
"Right now, I just want to get word out about what we're doing to try to replace this union. I think there are people out there who are unhappy with UFCW who might be glad to talk to us."
slek, do even have enough web space for this?
How about "company pay's for sleeping with a union that couldn't say no"?
It was a local article.
Scott, yer right, it's a monumental waste of space, but I don't think the trolls are staying away because they are magnetic environmentalists. As stupid as this contest is, they know they can't win. You will notice that everytime something bad happens to them, they blame the CAW. How odd, how paranoid.
Oh, and what a hoot on the originating thread (page 14) DeMoN says most of the closing stores were UFCW stores. 
I'm not making light of a sad state of affairs for workers, but rather how twisted the troll's "facts" are if and when they can produce any.
I thought I'd share a news brief that appeared in the latest issue of a pro-union
democracy newsletter "Labor Notes"
" The Johnson Controls plant in Stratford, Ontario, closed on December 14,not quite three years after members of the Canadian Auto Workers briefly occupied the plant to prevent outsourcing of work. Members of CAW local 1325 have accused their union ofreaching a sweetheart deal whereby Johnson Controls would not oppose Caw representation at a new plant in Whitby, Ontario, in exchange for a cheap verence agreement "
Hey B.W., your excerpt has a long way to go to beat this. Not an article but just as good.
Oh, and BTW B.W., few on this site approve of a lot of things Buzz/CAW have done. The CAW is not the best because the best is yet to come. However, CAW is nowhere near the secret dealer that the UFCW is. CAW didn't finance hotels and negotiate with itself for cheap contracts. The CAW didn't do a "partnering agreement" with Loblaws. The CAW didn't do a secret four-year agreement behind its members' backs. The CAW doesn't do the car and tons-of-cash routine for presidents who get unseated in elections.
Every organization will have its internal critics, and every organization should have them. That's called opposition and opposition is part of democracy. And thats why it's so undemocratic for the UFCW to sue its members who oppose it.
B.W., I ask you this, did the CAW sue the members who accused it of making sweetheart deals?
Well, this goes back a way, but here's a synopsis of Borders Books/UFCW organizing campaign back in 1996-98:
In NLRB elections, four stores voted the union in. Two stores approved contracts that had no real wage gains. After those contracts expired, poof, the union was gone.
A third store, at the World Trade Center, approved a similar bad contract (the in-store organizers were organizing a strike at the time of the vote and were deeply disappointed that the contract was approved). Shortly after the approval, the employees also voted to make the store an "open" shop, effectively killing the union.
At a fourth store, employees voted the union in, and then during an employee/union meeting, the president shouted down an employee critic and told them that this was "my union" or some such words. The employees shortly thereafter decertified.
The store I was working at had an organizing drive but we never had an election because we never got more than 50% to sign cards. During our drive, the president of our local and several of the executive staff plead guilty to using dues money for personal expenses and went to jail.
Hey weiser you panty waist whistle blower 
your no HJF pal. Why ya holden back? You call this a beating??? I know I know, it's too one sided a fight right? that's ok we all know who the CLC's #1 bad boys are don't we? Still, I though the kings of spin would at least put up a fight or something. What a let down. I feel like I just paid top dollar for front row seats to a late 80's Tyson fight. Come on pom pom crew, "keep bringing the noise" weiser hasn't even warmed up yet.
quote:
Food union acted unfairly, labor board rules
BY: Tony Van Alphen TORONTO STAR
The Toronto Star, June 9, 1994, Final Edition, p.A8.
The United Food and Commercial Workers invested heavily in a North York hotel and then improperly tried to squeeze out another union so it could represent employees, a labor board has ruled.
The Ontario Labor Relations Board rejected an application recently to decertify the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Union at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel after hearing evidence the food union - which had an investment relationship with management - urged workers to change their bargaining representation.
The hotel, formerly known as the Triumph, closed in July, 1991, because of financial difficulties. But in December, 1992, it reopened under the ownership of Kelloryn Hotels Inc.
Evidence at a board hearing revealed two investment companies had pumped $15 million in loans into Kelloryn for the hotel. The cash in the investment companies came from a food union fund, the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan, evidence showed.
Before the closing, the hotel and restaurant union's Local 75 represented workers. But in November, 1992, when Kelloryn hired workers before the reopening, employees received membership cards from the food union's Local 206. Furthermore, management advised them the union had some financial interest in the hotel.
The food union and Kelloryn soon negotiated a contract. But the hotel and restaurant union filed an application for successor rights at the hotel and won its bargaining rights back. Employees then petitioned the board to decertify the hotel and restaurant union.
quote:
Little taste for bacon jobs; Fletcher's holds no appeal for embittered workers
BY: Jim Farrell; Journal Staff Writer
The Edmonton Journal, December 3, 1998, Final Edition, p.B1.
Several former Maple Leaf workers greeted the announcement of a new Fletcher's bacon plant on the site where they used to work with a blend of indifference and bitter cynicism.
"Work for Fletcher's? Absolutely not," said Tim Lydom, one of the 850 workers who ended up on the unemployment line a year ago when Maple Leaf announced it would close the strike-bound plant. "Especially if our old union gets in there," he added. Lydom is now a truck driver.
Bonnie Lagasse works at a fastener and tool company. "I'm making less now than when I was on employment insurance but I'm happier now," Lagasse said.
"The last 14 years were very stressful. We didn't know from one day to the next if we still had jobs."
The 1997 strike which gave Maple Leaf an excuse to close the plant was the final straw, Lagasse said.
"Probably, if one of the foremen I worked for called me and offered me something good, I might consider it, as long as it wasn't the same union."
When the Maple Leaf plant was closed, many of its workers accused the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of selling them out. Even as local union executives were urging them to go on strike, leaders of a UFCW local in Winnipeg were negotiating for union rights at a planned Maple Leaf Plant in Brandon. But at the request of the company, they kept those discussions quiet.
Many Edmonton workers felt the silence allowed Maple Leaf to initially deny them severance pay when the company announced it would pull out of Edmonton. Since the union was on strike, no severance pay was owed, the company argued. Maple Leaf has since relented, but workers feel they're getting only part of what they're owed.
And not all former Maple Leaf workers got new jobs. Some older ones, like Ron Roblin, left the workforce.
Based on his experiences with the UFCW, 60-year-old Roblin has some advice for anyone considering getting a similar union job. "Watch your back," he said.
"In my opinion, we got sold down the river. They did a hell of a job selling our members on rejecting the offer we had. They told us they figured Maple Leaf would give in, but then everyone was toast." "We're very bitter," said Sonya Russell, who's also decided to
leave the workforce after 18 years at the Maple Leaf/Gainers plant.
"That was supposed to be a national strike," she said, "but they fed us to the dogs."
Anyone who's considering working for Fletcher's should consider the low wages the company pays at its other plants, says Ken Kelly. "I'm not going to leave the $13.38 an hour I earn now as a school custodian to go back to work for $8 or $9 an hour," Kelly said. Some former Maple Leaf workers would consider a Fletcher's job. For Lance Ford, it's been downhill since the day he went on strike. "I'm thinking about it," said Ford, who's been able to find only temporary jobs for the past year. After 19 years at the Maple Leaf plant, Ford earned $15 an hour. "As a temp, I earn about half that," he said.
UFCW Local 312A president Jack Westgeest says he's already asked his union's lawyer to contact Fletcher's and discuss the union's successor rights. Westgeest wants former Maple Leaf workers like Ford to be recalled. A Fletcher's spokesperson claims Local 312A has no successor rights.
"We have not purchased a plant or a label," said George Paleologou. "Maple Leaf used to be a slaughter facility. This is going to be a state-of-the-art bacon facility."
Westgeest intends to contest that company stance, just as he disagrees with the theory the majority of his members resent what their union has done. Malcontents get plenty of ink but the majority of members consistently voted to support the union's executive and they still support them, he said. "I'm a union executive but we always seek out their opinion," Westgeest said. "In the end, they are the union. The majority rules."
I love the ending, the so-called leaders had nothing to do with it. The members did themselves in. I also like the strange belief that only squeaky wheels get print. I'm sure there are loads of ex-UFCW members just tickled pink that the Manitoba local was doing a deal to move the Edmonton jobs to Brandon while the Edmonton workers were on strike.
Sorry, can't help myself, so much to work with:
quote:
It's not over yet; Grocery strikers slam union tactics
BY: JOHN MENTEK
The Spectator (Hamilton), January 24, 1994, Final Edition, p.A1
THERE ARE are no plans to return to the bargaining table after part-time Miracle Food Mart and Ultra Mart workers rejected the company's latest offer Saturday, union officials said yesterday.
"No talks have been planned and I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future," said David Watts, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Meanwhile, rumors of ballot box-stuffing and other irregularities at an earlier contract vote last Wednesday have some strikers calling for the Ontario Labor Relations Board to step in.
Part-timers roared their approval Saturday after a turbulent vote in Hamilton overwhelmingly rejected the company's latest offer. The final tally was 39 for, 319 against.
"Family has split"
The strikers poured out of the Renaissance Catering and Special Events Centre and headed for a nearby Hamilton A&P store at Barton Street East and Centennial Parkway, where several hundred began to picket and chant.
The crowd cheered as one man burned his union jacket in front of the store.
Frustrated full-time Miracle Mart worker Sue Cairns was disgusted with the vote result.
"Somewhere along the line, the family has split," said Mrs. Cairns, a Burlington resident who manages the delicatessen in the Georgetown Miracle Mart.
"I have a lot more to lose than part-timers — this is my career."
Mrs. Cairns fears that the continuing strike could result in more store closures.
"If we stay out much longer, the four stores closed could become eight or 12.
"There is no purpose to being out now — we got all the security (in the new contract) we're going to get."
Miracle Food Mart and Miracle Ultra Mart stores are owned by New Jersey-based A&P, which also owns A&P supermarkets. Miracle Food Mart and Miracle Ultra Mart employees have been on strike since Nov. 19.
Part-timers make up one of three bargaining units at the strikebound supermarket chain, the others being full-time meat cutters and full-time cashiers.
Province wide, part-time employees outnumber full-timers 4,700 to 1,800.
Last Wednesday, part-timers rejected a contract offer calling for a $1.75-an-hour pay cut, the closure of four stores and 700 layoffs.
That same offer was narrowly accepted by both full-time bargaining units.
Part-timers rejected Saturday's revised offer by a province-wide margin of 65 per cent, with about 2,300 part-timers voting.
"It means overall, the strike continues," said union spokesman Mike Freeman. "But right now, officers of the local are meeting and taking legal advice, trying to find where everything stands, because the full-time employees accepted a contract."
A&P spokesman Bill Sheine said the company would not comment until sometime today.
The situation is confusing because after two months of sharing picket lines, many full-time strikers fear they will now be asked to cross the lines of still striking part-time workers.
Some strikers blame the union for their woes, and talk openly of decertifying. Others want to keep the union, but sweep away the old UFCW executive.
Saturday's vote was held "under protest," said part-time cashier Rose Misale, who said she has proof of voting irregularities and illegal voting procedures at last Wednesday's contract vote, including stuffing of ballot boxes and votes cast by non-members.
"It's intimidation from start to finish," said Ms Misale. "Our union has intimidated us and worked to the advantage of A&P."
A petition is circulating among strikers asking the labor relations board to investigate both last Wednesday's vote and UFCW actions during the strike.
Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers of America `has given us more support in one week than UFCW has given in nine weeks,' said full-timer Malcolm Fullwood, a 25-year Miracle Food Mart veteran.
Local 1005 president John Martin visited the strikers Saturday and repeated his union's pledges of support, including a lump sum of $10,005 and $1,005 per month for the strike's duration.
UFCW staff representative Jim Hastings, who conducted Saturday's vote, said any proof of voting irregularity should be brought to the union's attention.
"It's a tremendously complex situation, and very emotional," added UFCW staff representative Ralph Ortlieb.
"We'll be doing everything we can to get back to the bargaining table," he said.
Not all part-timers were happy with Saturday's outcome.
"We just want to go back to work," said part-time clerk Wendy Krulicki, 22, from Burlington, saying she and two friends were "bullied" during Saturday's ratification vote.
"It's a mess," said a dejected Ken O'Donnell, a 15-year full-time veteran of Miracle Food Mart, who earlier torched his union jacket in front of the A&P store. "As far as I'm concerned, we've lost this strike, and I'm losing my job," Mr. O'Donnell said.
quote:
UFCW criticized for secretly Bargaining Low Wages
SCOTT EDMONDS
Canadian Press
Sunday, January 13, 2002
WINNIPEG (CP) - After aggressively driving down wages, Canada's meat packers
have found themselves scraping the bottom of the bologna barrel for workers
willing to take an unpleasant job for a small pay packet.
"It's a problem across all of Canadian meat packing," says Kevin Grier of
the George Morris Centre at the University of Guelph, which specializes in
agribusiness issues.
"Packers in Alberta are looking all across the Prairies and Canada for
labour."
The beef industry in Alberta has already started to recognize the problem,
says Wayne Covey of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Red Deer.
He says starting wages at the Cargill Foods plant in High River went to
$12.30 an hour last year, with workers receiving $14 after six months.
"They knew they had a problem recruiting, and they knew they had to pay a
decent rate to recruit people."
Angela Dawd, a spokeswoman for Cargill Ltd. in Winnipeg, doesn't dispute
that.
"We recognize the importance of offering a wage that will attract highly
skilled employees," she says.
The pork industry seems to be a different story.
With too few Canadians to fill all the slots on the production line at its
new giant hog plant in Brandon, Man., Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is now bringing
in workers from Mexico.
Canadian recruiting as far afield as the Atlantic provinces largely bombed,
with only one out of 10 new hires remaining for a second year. By that
second year, a line worker who started at $8 an hour plus change would have
hit the wage ceiling of just over $11 an hour.
Maple Leaf officials deny wages are a problem.
"Our wages, fully loaded in, are actually very competitive as far as our
local market here," insists Steve LeBlanc, human resources manager at the
Brandon operation.
Despite a turnover rate of about 60 per cent a year, he says the relatively
small numbers of imported Mexican workers are just needed to supplement
local hiring. The first group of 21 arrived earlier this month.
"We're definitely in a growth mode here. Our challenge is finding enough
skilled workers."
Packers decided to slash wages in the '90s by as much as 40 per cent to
compete with giant American companies such as IBP and Smithfield Foods,
which had moved in the same direction more than a decade earlier.
It was a painful process, particularly for workers. Almost 900 Maple Leaf
employees in Edmonton, for example, went on strike five years ago to fight
the rollbacks and ended up losing their jobs altogether when the company
closed the plant.
In the end, companies like Maple Leaf did a lot better than just match U.S.
wage rates. They undercut them significantly, paying in Canadian dollars the
same or less than U.S. workers received in U.S. dollars.
Now, however, even industry leaders in the United States seem to be taking a
second look at low-wage policies.
Smithfield's Joseph Luter III, chairman and CEO of the largest pork
processor in the world, shocked the industry last fall when he suggested his
workers should get about $2 more an hour.
"Workmanship in the plant suffers when we have high turnover, and that's a
result of paying low wages," he told a conference.
So far, Luter hasn't turned words into action, but Grier says the logic is
simple: "If you can't get the supply, increase your price."
Ironically, it was a report from his centre on the competitiveness of the
industry that was used by the packers as they took on their unions. Only in
Quebec did workers have much success bucking the trend.
Questions about the wisdom of Maple Leaf's pay scale, given the absenteeism
and high turnover at its Brandon plant, have even surfaced in the investment
community.
"Perhaps the strategy of paying relatively low wages is not so good or not
so smart given today's low unemployment levels," wrote Shawn Allen of
investment-picks.com.
Manitoba recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the country in December of
just 4.7 per cent; in the Brandon area the rate was only four per cent.
"Of course we'd like to see wages increase," says Don Keith of the UFCW in
Winnipeg, which represents the Brandon workers.
"They are having trouble attracting workers. We would hope that when we get
into negotiations, that should put us in a position to make improvements for
them."
Keith says wages are increasing slowly - the latest 20-cent hourly raise
took starting pay to $8.45 - but the contract doesn't expire until 2005.
The UFCW was criticized by many of its own members for secretly bargaining
low wages for the Brandon plant - then still on the drawing board - while
members were on strike in Edmonton and being pressured for concessions in
Winnipeg.
Another problem with a high turnover rate is a higher rate of injuries,
since new workers are more likely to make mistakes, particularly at new
plants like Brandon, where the speed of the production line is very high.
In 1999, the first year the plant opened, a brand new workforce resulted in
1,272 instances of lost-time injuries or cases requiring medical aid,
according to provincial figures. In 2000, even with a larger workforce, that
number dropped to 1,119.
Gee, is there no end to the stuff one can find about the business union guys?
quote:
Union went out on strike against striking union
BY: Tony Van Alphen Toronto Star
The Toronto Star, January 18, 1994, Final Edition, p.D11.
A small group of clerical and secretarial staff has added an
unusual twist to labor relations by striking a union already on
strike.
About 20 employees returned to work last week after a one-day walkout at the offices of Local 175 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is stuck in an eight-week strike at Miracle Food Mart stores across the province.
"It's done now and the less said, the better," said Wayne Hanley, Local 175's secretary-treasurer.
Some veteran labor watchers said they had never heard of a case where a union struck a union local on strike.
"It certainly is unique," said Donald Carter, a labor specialist and dean of law at Queen's University in Kingston. "The office workers may have felt their employer was in a vulnerable position."
The clerical workers walked off the job at the food union's Mississauga offices last Tuesday, rejecting proposals that would have reduced sick pay, life insurance and other benefits. The workers had been working without a contract since September and have been in a legal strike position since Jan. 3.
The food union, fighting wage concessions and job cuts at Miracle, quickly returned to the bargaining table, reduced demands and reached a tentative two-year agreement. The office workers ratified the deal within a few hours and returned to work Wednesday.
Hanley said he was surprised and disappointed the workers walked off the job because the two sides had scheduled a mediation meeting later in the week.
Janice Best, a staff representative for the Office and Professional Employees International Union, said her members lost patience.
"They were basically fed up," she said. "But we feel very good now that we've settled our differences."
Under the deal, the office workers will receive annual wage increases of 1 and 3 per cent, to eventually raise weekly salaries to $570 for receptionists and $718 for secretaries.
Hanley disputed the office workers' view that his union's earlier proposals were concessions and said they were an attempt to restructure benefits.
He added the situation was much different from what his union is experiencing at Miracle. About 6,500 food union members have been on strike at 63 stores since Nov. 19. They are to vote on a company offer tomorrow night.
"At Miracle, it's a case of corporate greed over corporate need," Hanley said.
Isn't it odd that employees of a great employer like the UFCW would need a union to protect them?
quote:
PUTTING A UNION'S HOUSE IN ORDER UNDER PRESSURE, UFCW PRESIDENT TO REPURCHASE FAIRFAX HOME FOR $1 MILLION
Frank Swoboda Washington Post Staff Writer November 6, 1993; Page c1
William H. Wynn, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, has agreed under pressure to buy back a house that the union bought from him three years ago at nearly double the price of similar houses in his neighborhood Union officials said Wynn will pay $1.006 million to repurchase the eight-room home at 7301 Admiral Dr. near Mount Vernon in Fairfax County. Three years ago, Wynn sold the house to the UFCW for $620,000, plus $129,000 for the furnishings.
Wynn currently rents the house from the union for $2,500 a month. A comparable house on the next block sold for $372,500 in 1991, according to tax records. Nearby houses are assessed at from $215,425 to just under $400,000.
In a statement issued by the UFCW yesterday, Wynn said he was buying the house back to avoid the appearance of any wrongdoing that might hurt the union and its organizing efforts.
"I do not want derogatory stories about me to be an impediment to UFCW organizing successes, nor as a person will I allow material considerations to deter me from doing whatever I can for the union," Wynn said.
The UFCW is the nation's fourth-largest union, with nearly 1 million members in the retail and meatpacking industries. UFCW Local 400 has a major presence in the Washington area, representing workers at Safeway Inc. and Giant Food Inc. The local is engaged in a major organizing campaign.
Wynn's decision to repurchase the house appears to be the direct result of a legal inquiry last September by the Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of two union members questioning the amount of money the union paid for the home.
After receiving the inquiry, the UFCW's international executive board hired an independent attorney to investigate the home purchase. On Thursday, at a board meeting in Chicago, Wynn agreed to repurchase the house over the next 90 days for more than $1 million plus interest.
UFCW Vice President Jay Foreman said yesterday that the repurchase price includes "every single outlay the union has made on the property."
Foreman said the union had purchased the house and its furnishings from Wynn under its "last move policy." The policy, adopted in 1976, a year before Wynn became president, allowed international officers of the UFCW to sell their homes to the union when they retired. The idea was to allow top employees who had been forced to move at the union's behest over the course of their careers to return to their original homes without experiencing any monetary loss. The union also pays the moving expenses of eligible officers.
But Wynn's sale, Foreman said, was "offbeat" because he hasn't retired. Foreman said Wynn asked the board to buy his home so that he could build a retirement home in Florida. The purchase price was based on an assessment the union obtained.
Wynn, 62, was reelected to a new five-year term last summer. His salary is $290,000 a year.
Paul Levy, the attorney for Public Citizen, said he did not know of any other unions that had such a home purchase arrangement. Levy called the circumstances surrounding the purchase of Wynn's home "an example of a union bureaucracy taking advantage of their access to the [union] treasury and living high on the hog." At the same time, Levy applauded the union leadership for "behaving in a responsible way" once it was clear they would have to face up to the issue.
Levy indicated his group probably would drop its legal inquiry once "we make sure everything is paid back."
It's funny that with all the bad things that UFCW supporters claim the CAW is up to, you just can't find the same volume of crappy stuff that you can about the UFCW. Why is that?
The CAW has 10-times a higher profile than the UFCw and everybody knows Buzz Hargrove and nobody has a clue who the heck Mike Fraser is, why then does the UFCW generate all the rotten media?
Could the answer be that the CAW doesn't do the types of things that the UFCW does?
100% in agreement with you on this one 
The UFCW just loves to help poor employers:
quote:
In response to Rhonda Allan's May 31 [1996]letter ("Union's 'greed' at fault"), a finer work of fiction I have not seen in a long time.
Allan is either absolutely ignorant of the facts or deliberately attempting to mislead your readers.
Brooke Sundin, the president of UFCW Local 1518, did not have anything to do with the negotiation of the collective agreement with Real Canadian Superstore and does not represent the workers at those stores.
Your readers may find it interesting to note that the Overwaitea Food Group enjoyed a collective agreement with a no-strike clause that allowed them to maintain lower wage and benefit rates than Safeway for the first six years the company was in business. The union agreed to such an agreement which, in effect, protected Overwaitea from the industry standard in order to provide the company time to establish itself in the market so that it could create good-paying, long-term, full-time jobs for our members.
Now that Overwaitea has what it wants, no one else coming into the market should receive the same consideration? I don't think so.
Allan would do well to check her facts.
Tom Fawkes
Director of Communications
United Food and Commercial Workers of B.C.
BURNABY
That's just too much! Maybe the guys at Loman's would like to add their thanks to the UFCW for helping out Overwaitea.
That is too much. That is way too much.
quote:
Your readers may find it interesting to note that the Overwaitea Food Group enjoyed a collective agreement with a no-strike clause that allowed them to maintain lower wage and benefit rates than Safeway for the first six years the company was in business. The union agreed to such an agreement which, in effect, protected Overwaitea from the industry standard in order to provide the company time to establish itself in the market so that it could create good-paying, long-term, full-time jobs for our members.
Full time jobs!!! What full time jobs? 
The employers created low wage part time jobs. 
Anybody who knows anything knows that the first long term agreement netted the UFCW all the non-union Overwaitea stores. Overwaitea was one of the big players in BC. They weren't establishing themselves. What a crock!
I might tend to believe some of the crap if the long term contract had of had a clause stating that at the end of the "the agreement to establish themselves" that Overwaitea would pay insustry rates.
However, it's probably a good thing because the UFCW did a dirt deal with Superstore that made sure there were no industry rates.
What on earth ever made these guys think that the low rates were something that would dissappear? What on earth ever made them think that Safeway wouldn't demand the same low rates and "flexible" working conditions?
What's totally amazing is that Tom Fawkes probably wrote that stuff with a straight face. Do these guys really think that helping employers to get established in a heavily unionized market place is a good deal for their existing members?
This is very consistent with the hare-brained strategy that Bill Wynn pursued in the 1980's: Help the employers. When business picks up, they'll just have to do right by the members. I don't think the employers ever bought in to the second part.
Wynn seemed oblivious to the race for the bottom that his helping the employers created. The disaster in the meat packing industry is a shining example of what happens when you start bargaining concessions - no matter what your intentions.
What is really scary is that by the end of the 1980's most unions recognized just what concession bargaining would get them. But here is Fawkes in 1996, still following the grand plan and with predictable results. Workers are poorer than ever and the businesses are laughing all the way to the bank.
Here is something about the prevalence of two tier wage scales in UFCW contracts:
It's from a book called Two-Tier Compensation Structures, Their Impact on Employers, Unions and Employees, James E. Martin, Upjohn Institute, 1990 (pages 77-78).
"As the number of contracts with tiers negotiated with the UFCW increased, the number of employees on the low tier also increased. Ploscowe (1986) notes that the increased numbers of low-tier employees began to cause many political problems for the union; after such employees became a majority, there was increased political pressure to stop the extension of tiers or to eliminate them. At its executive board meeting in February 1985, the executive board of the UFCW adopted a collective bargaining goal to eliminate multi-tier wage and benefit structures, because the union viewed tiers as inherently discriminatory to newer UFCW members (RSLR , March 3, 1985). UFCW President William H. Wynn operationalized this goal by saying "we're going to equalize wages rates." Wynn was willing, however, to accept temporary tiers with lower starting rates that would be raised to the top rate within a given period of time (Bernstein and Schiller 1985). The executive did not establish a time period within which equalization must be reached, but instead permitted each local union to bargain with management. The stated UFCW goal appeared to strengthen the union's resolve not to expand previously implemented tiered compensation structures and to not initiate new ones."
A reference note from the same book:
The Bureau of National Affairs surveys of contracts have consistently found that the UFCW has negotiated more than twice as many settlements mentioning two-tier wages as any other union. BNA reported 124 such settlements for the UFCW for the years 1983 – 1987 (BNA, March 1,1988)