Happy Birthday UFCW! We’re Kicking You Out.

By admin On Aug 9, 2012 All News | Dirty tactics | Latest updates | Union Mismanagement Comments Off Tags: , , , , ,
On August 8th, 1979, the United Food and Commercial Workers was formed. A merger between the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers of North America and the Retail Clerks International Union formed the basis of their support. The newly-formed union expanded to where it now covers over a million workers of all different professions.

Which is why it’s so interesting that workers are now rejecting them in increasing numbers, and their causes are alienating more people by the day.

Take the 2-day special election, overseen by the NLRB, where Factor Sales employees rejected the UFCW’s attempt to unionize them:

Even as a UFCW organizer vowed to challenge the election, anti-union employees of Factor Sales and the company’s president, Victor Salcido, saw the vote as putting to rest a nearly yearlong campaign that had divided the chain’s workers.“All I can tell is that the vote was respected, and that’s it,” said Salcido after the vote tally was completed. “Thanks to God, justice was done.”
In a gathering attended by Salcido, anti-UFCW workers celebrated the vote, chanting, “Si se pudo” (“Yes we did”).
The irony of seeing employees using the Obama campaign’s slogan against the union (who, by the way, spent over 13.1 million electing Obama and other state/federal candidates, and reported over $900,000 spent with the AFL-CIO on political advertising) shouldn’t be lost on the UFCW.

But it seems they are, however, allergic to learning a lesson- their spokesman said the UFCW is contesting the election with the NLRB and will attempt to attack the employer through unfair labor practices. Perhaps that’s why they’re picketing a small city mom-and-pop businesses that isn’t even profitable yet? Yes, you read that right-

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 says its picketers – many of whom are paid – are educating the public. But they rarely hand out fliers anymore or interact with people entering the nonunion Tacoma City Grocer. So it appears the real reason for the picketing is to discourage shoppers by forcing them to cross a picket line.

The downtown grocery in Tacoma, Washington isn’t a Wal-Mart, or a Target, or any of the large chains the UFCW loves to attack. It’s a small, family owned business that took the position of grocer when all of the other national chains wouldn’t step in to serve the local community. And the grocery pays their workers fairly, and has very low turnover.
The UFCW has lost its touch. It has become an organization more focused on injecting themselves into places where they’re not wanted than making themselves a union people want. Perhaps if they were to put these energies to increasing their value to members instead of wasting it on political expenses that don’t necessarily reflect the views of all of their members.

But one thing is for sure- with the way the UFCW is headed now, there won’t be millions of members represented in the next 33 years. And they’ll only have themselves to blame.

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