For the past two days, UFCW Locals met to negotiate the contract with Rite Aid and, once again, the company came ill-prepared after over four months at the bargaining table.
But they were prepared to offer us insulting wage proposals that grossly underestimate your value to the company. YOU are the ones who continued to serve customers and saved their business during their bankruptcy, and now we are being told they can’t afford to give you more than dimes.
Moreover, Rite Aid said multiple times they wouldn’t touch your healthcare. But now they are trying to propose language that threatens the hard-fought health benefits you’ve earned.
Meanwhile, they continue to bully and intimidate with multiple unfair labor practices.
We have given them our bottom line and demanded an answer by November 15th. Now it’s up to them to respond.
As a reminder, Rite Aid members across Southern California overwhelmingly voted to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike to protest Rite Aid’s illegal and disrespectful treatment, including: offering incentives to employees not to sign the worker demand petition, bargaining directly with employees and bypassing the Union in an attempt to convince employees to waive their lunch penalty in violation of the contract, and unilaterally implementing a bonus in an attempt to increase the number of vaccines administered. These actions are not only illegal but designed to intimidate you into accepting an insulting offer that is far less than you deserve.
We are continuing to prepare for a ULP strike with strike-ready actions.
- Yesterday, UFCW Local 135 had two SPURs leafleting customers at Rite Aid 5644 and 5652, calling on them to support us in our contract fight. Today, they’re back at it, this time at 5654 in the morning and 5647 in the afternoon and more customer actions are being planned for next week.
A ULP Strike Authorization DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE ON STRIKE. You should continue to go to work according to your work schedule until an official representative of the union notifies you that a strike impacting your store has started. It’s very important to stay in touch with your Union Rep who will be communicating information to members in the stores about actions and next steps in real time. IF YOU WALK OFF THE JOB BEFORE THE UNION DECLARES A STRIKE, YOU CAN BE DISCIPLINED AND/OR FIRED.
As always, if you have any questions about bargaining or if there is anything we can help you with, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Union Rep.
