ralphs at Brave New Films

Supermarket Workers Victorious

2008-01-12T20:10:02Z

You may have seen a number of posts we have done here on the supermarket barons, and their attempts to make sure not a cent is taken away from their ability to purchase their gold-plated toilet seats and $6,000 shower curtains while workers in Southern California lose their health care and see their wages stagnate.

Well score one for the good guys. It looks like the folks at Abertsons, Ralphs and Vons and Pavillions have caved to common sense and economic reality.

Supermarket Swindle: Grocery Workers' Labor Fight Is the Subject of New Documentary

2008-01-12T20:04:34Z

This is a very-well written article by Joshua Holland on our upcoming documentary.

You should go eat the whole pie, but here is a slice:

At the end of June, more than 95 percent of the United Food and Commercial Workers' (UFCW) members in Southern California voted to authorize a strike if it becomes necessary. Negotiations continue, and both sides say they hope to avert a walkout if possible.
But the Golden State's grocery workers have little reason to believe management is bargaining in good faith. During the lock-out four years ago, the supermarkets' ownership group mounted a concerted attempt to break the union. Before the old contract even expired, they had hired thousands of replacement workers -- "scabs" -- flying some in from neighboring states. The owners locked out the grocery workers for 142 days in an attempt to make the union suffer for refusing a contract that called for dramatic reductions in employer contributions to workers' healthcare funds. The owners also tried to drive a wedge between older union workers and new hires by instituting a two-tiered pay scale that slashed earnings for less experienced workers and provided a powerful incentive for management to get rid of more experienced workers earning higher pay rates.
Even more dangerous in terms of the precedent it might have set was the grocery giants' push to deny affordable healthcare to California's grocery workers. The supermarkets argued that the healthcare concessions they sought were small, but an independent analysis by Richard Brown and Richard Kronick, two scholars at the University of California, concluded that the plan would have effectively spelled an end to affordable health coverage for California's grocers. "There is more to the employers' proposal than they have publicly acknowledged," they wrote, "and the proposal bodes ill for supermarket workers and, if adopted more widely, workers in other sectors."

This story, and the upcoming film, are important for many reasons. Among them is what's happened to the lives of supermarket workers in Southern California, which is unconscionable.

But it is also about this country, and the criminals who currently reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who have tried to turn this country back 100 years into a low-wage, no-benefit developing country where crony-capitalists make off like bandits.

It is time to just say no to the kind of venal people who would deny a supermarket worker healthcare and a living wage.

Do you shop at Ralphs, Vons, or Albertsons?

2008-10-20T09:30:24Z

When we finished Wal Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, we knew the fight was far from over but didn't know what the next step would be. Then we discovered a recent UC Berkeley Labor Center study showing that in the last three years, up to 20,000 fewer children of grocery workers have access to the company's health care. While the cost of living is soaring in SoCal, our grocery workers are getting pay cut after pay cut. These folks have not seen one penny in raises in over five years!

It's time to hold the employers at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons accountable for their greed. These companies made record profits of over $8.3 BILLION last year.

Albertsons - Crazy about Profit (Spanish subtitles)

2008-10-20T09:30:35Z

From the director of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price comes a shocking new exposé of how America's supermarket titans, with corporate market caps in the billions and yearly salaries in the megamillions, have swindled their employees out of fair wages and benefits, resulting in thousands of children going without healthcare and their parents unable to afford even basic, human needs.

Supermarket Swindle

Watch the video

Albertsons - Crazy about Profit

2008-03-22T21:54:29Z

Supermarket Swindle