UFCW, the Food City Bugaboo ...

'Pears that UFCW, the union that Food City/Bashas claim is out to get them worked out a deal with the Arizona Desert Museum where museum employees who are members of the union will effectively get less takehome pay in order to help with financial problems at the museum and to help keep their jobs.

Desert Museum workers to take unpaid time off

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 99, which represents staffers at the museum, unanimously voted to approve the furloughs Thursday.

"Our main goal with this is to keep our people employed," Vimmerstedt said.

Now that sure looks like the big bad union that Food City is describing, doesn't it. Imagine, employees actually participating in the success of the business through organization.

Why in the US do many think employees should not have the power to organize for their own benefit if they so desire?

Can't be that one group of Americans prefers another group to be isolated and dependent? No, that couldn't be ...

More Food City and Bashas and the UFCW ...

Here's an article that look's amazingly like a plant in on a site that uses 'freepress' in it's name:

Union Campaign To Destroy Grocery Chain by Warner Todd Huston, Sunday, May 3, 2009

The article ends with the following paragraph:

Proving that what workers want is of no interest to unions, rejection by employees is not good enough for the UFCW, however. The food workers union has used every weapon at its disposal to tear down the food chain and force its own will on workers and business alike.

Considering that the laws are written, at behest of big business, to make the organizing of workers as difficult as possible (for the workers, that is) this article could only be written by those opposed to any union. The power is all on the side of the businesses and any workers and the union they wish to join has a long arduous uphill battle. Thuggery, amazingly, in spite of portrayals in the press, is usually instituted by the bosses, not the workers. That is the bosses hire the thugs. And thuggery comes in many forms. Lying flyers, lawyers and law suits, firings, threats and eventually physical violence.

Food City (&Bashas Family?) smear what they refer to as the 'UFCW smear campaign' ...

Received a $5.00 Food City coupon in the mail today. The coupon is attached to a mailer suggesting that the UFCW is trying to destroy Food City. Really, as if the employees did not need and want jobs!

Food City has Community Pride; is Clean and Safe; is a Brand You Can Trust; and has Strong Values ... they say so themselves and have nice pictures of two cute little boys (black), a group of employees (mostly brown), a smiling Eddie Basha (immigrant, 3 generations ago), and a man in a uniform (apparently white with light tan) giving a little boy (apparently brown, or tanned) a shot.

A mailer about such an important subject that presents its case as if it were advertising a product doesn't back up their statement that they have Strong Values. If anything if says the opposite.

From the UFCW web site:

ARIZONANS ARE STILL HUNGRY FOR RESPECT

Statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

(Phoenix, AZ) – The baseless lawsuit filed by the Bashas’ supermarket company against the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) underscores the company’s disrespect for workers, consumers and the community.

Bashas' appears to be acting out in desperation, naming religious leaders, workers, journalists and their spouses in a lawsuit. It really is a sad day when a company unleashes its high priced lawyers in an effort to suppress the concerns of its customers and the communities where they operate.

Our coalition, Hungry for Respect, was formed by grocery employees, their union and community allies out of concern for the company’s practices.
...

Unlike Food City/Bashas the UFCW provides some specificity:

In the spring of this year, Hungry for Respect shoppers found and purchased 683 containers of expired infant formula from certain Bashas’ Supermarkets, AJs and Food City stores in Maricopa, Yuma and Pima Counties. We then did what was socially responsible and alerted the public to what shoppers found. The lawsuit does not refute the fact that Bashas’ was selling outdated infant formula to unsuspecting mothers.

In November, Hungry for Respect submitted to the Maricopa Board of Supervisors an analysis of county health inspections that found Food City stores had 47% more major violations per routine inspection than Bashas Supermarket stores from January 2005 through September 2007. We called upon Bashas' Inc. and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to take steps to close the health inspection track record gap between Food City and Bashas' stores.

A federal administrative judge recently found that Bashas’ Inc. broke the law and ordered the corporation to "cease and desist…interfering with, restraining or coercing employees in the exercise of" their right to address workplace concerns through their union.
...

Food City/Bashas does not address the issues but does claim to be better than Ranch Market, Fry's and Safeway. Oh, and they have "deep respect for the Hispanic community and are proud that their employees come from diverse back grounds."

And don't forget that the Bashas family were immigrants ... three generations ago? All of which must somehow prove that Food City are the good guys and the union and the employees who want a union are the bad guys and deserve no respect or understanding even though Food City absolutely respects and understand its employees and the community it serves so Generously, Trustfully, Pridefully, Cleanly, Safely and with Strong Values.