California United Food and Commercial Worker members beware! The drug addicts in your store, the people driving on your roads while high, that friend of yours that never stops talking about how much better it would be if “weed were legal, man…”- all of these are supported by your union! In fact, the UFCW is actively reaching out and joining coalitions of other pro-marijuana groups, and they’re spending your dues money on it.

Following up on our previous post about the United Food and Commercial Worker’s support of legalized marijuana, the UFCW is back again to lobby for federal recognition of California’s marijuana legalization. And this time, they brought some friends: (more…)

Chris Mosquera of Rockville, MD has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis. His complaint: the Obama administration official has overturned a transparency rule that requires unions such as his to disclose critical financial information about their activities.

In his own words from a Washington Examiner article:

Under the proposed guidelines, union officials would have to disclose how much individual compensation they receive in the form of benefits, account for any travel and entertainment expenses, and identify union income streams.

The fact is most workers want more information about how their money is being spent by union officials. Last year, a poll revealed that nearly 90 percent of union members support strong union transparency requirements.

Disclosure is a simple but effective tool for fighting corruption and encouraging accountability. If union officials know their spending habits are part of the public record, they’ll be less interested in expensive getaways and more interested in effectively managing their members’ hard-earned dues.

That’s why I filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to stop Solis from rolling back these vital union transparency requirements. Union officials shouldn’t be allowed to operate behind closed doors when billions of dollars of employees’ hard-earned money is at stake.

The rule Mosquera speaks of introduces some very common-sense accountability requirements for union leaders. They would show more of what the union leaders are actually doing with their member’s dues money beyond merely recording expenses and revenue: (more…)

“A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
That’s what the UFCW thinks of Walmart, according to Thomas P. McNutt, president of Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

But of course the UFCW Local 400 has something to lose when it comes to having new jobs in the area—it represents “employees of area Giant, Safeway and Shoppers Food Warehouse stores.” Rather than asking the Walmart employees to join the UFCW family the union attacks and belittles them.

McNutt himself spells it out in a blog post on the UFCW 400 blog:

“For we are family,” he said. “One big family. Just like family, we’ve got to have each other’s backs. We’ve got to treat an attack on one like it’s an attack on all. And we’ve got to always put our family first.”

This “Family First” policy consists of pitting certain employees against other   employees. Walmart is expanding its’ company stores across new areas in Washington, D.C. and other major cities, and the UFCW is opposed to these new jobs at a time where unemployment is all the way up to 9.5% in D.C. Local UFCW chapters have launched campaigns aimed at stopping the consumer giant from establishing stores, with corresponding job opportunities, in new areas.

So what exactly is UFCW claiming Walmart will do?
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The Texas branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW 1000) has filed a complaint with the Department of Labor to strip the Texoma Area Paratransit System’s (TAPS) federal funding, saying that TAPS had failed to abide by the terms and conditions of federal funding eligibility.

This has resulted in denial of $1.15 million in federal funds for the TAPS Bus System, causing them to shut down urban services effective last Friday. (more…)

On March 24, 2010, a California ballot initiative to legalize the use of marijuana was deemed qualified for the general election.¹ Four months later, The UFCW Western States Council endorsed the ballot initiative citing the creation of taxable revenue and jobs as well as depriving narcotics traffickers of a source of revenue.²

The director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy stated that the American people should be skeptical of anyone selling marijuana legalization as a cure-all. The director also claimed that the taxes collected from the legalization and sale of marijuana pale in comparison to the social and health care costs of widespread use.³
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In 2005, Ernest Duran, President of UFCW Local 7 in Colorado negotiated concessions for 8,000 Kroger workers. The four year contract froze wages and made workers pay health-care co-payments for the first time.¹ UFCW Local 7 also negotiated a four year contract for 8,500 Safeway workers that was nearly identical to the Kroger deal, which included pay freezes and health-care co-payments.²

From 2005, the time when 16,500 UFCW members’ wages were frozen, through 2009, Duran’s union compensation increased more than $80,000. Over the course of this time, Local 7 raised membership dues by nearly $200 a year.³
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The UFCW claims they support middle class Americans by fighting for Healthcare Reform.¹ However they have no problem holding up needed hospital expansions when it helps their union allies.

In 2007, Providence Everett Medical Center had Washington States’ second busiest emergency department.² The hospital was said to be so overcrowded that ambulances were told they would be better off taking patients to different facilities.³ To resolve the problem, the medical center got approval from the state for 106 extra beds and additional facilities. ⁴
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