The 40,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 stand united in Solidarity as we join together to raise our economic standing, improve our working conditions, protect our rights, and serve our customers to the best of our ability.
We are ready to stand united in Solidarity with our employers to keep them profitable and expand their market share–if and when they hear our voices, treat us with respect, and share the wealth our hard work and unmatched productivitiy generate.
This is what we hope to achieve in next year’s bargaining with Giant and Safeway.
Local 400 members recognize the challenges facing our employers. We are prepared to keep doing our part for their success and growth in a competitive market. But we cannot fathom why one employer–Ahold–chooses to compete against itself, undermining Giant-Landover by operating its Martin’s stores on a non-union basis and denying its employees their fundamental rights. Local 400 members stand united with Martin’s workers in demanding an end to this duplicitous, self-destructive strategy.
It’s time for all of our union employers to recognize–in deeds as well as words–that Local 400 members are their greatest asset! It’s Local 400 members who provide quality service and build customer loyalty. It’s Local 400 members who work with the efficiency, professionalism and skill that keep their companies profitable!
If, however, our union employers choose to emulate the greed and middle class-eroding methods of their non-union competitors, they should know that our union members are prepared to fully mobilize. We will not be divided! Our unity will not be broken! However, rather than going to battle, we seek to partner together to find win-win solutions that expand our union employers’ market dominance and sustain the middle-class, career-length jobs collective bargaining has built.
This is our ultimate vision and goal–and we hope our union employers’ vision and goals are the same!