Food Workers Union Rallies In The Dalles

LABOR  BUSINESS 

By April Baer

Portland, OR  June 17, 2008 3:39 p.m.

The United Food and Commercial Workers rallied  Tuesday afternoon at the Fred Meyer store in the Dalles.  As April Baer reports, the protest is on behalf of a newly-organized group of workers.

Several months ago, seventy-five non-grocery workers at the store voted to join UFCW local 555.

The union's Ric Bell says it makes sense, since UFCW already represents several hundred other workers at the same location.

Ric Bell: "If you have a store, that some people are non-union, and some people are union, and there is a labor dispute, then some people stay inside the store, and others would be out on the picket line."

Now it's time to negotiate the new group's contract.  The talks are stuck on health benefits. The outcome could affect thousands of other grocery workers bound together by contractual terms.

Changes in Fred Meyer's favor would be binding on their benefits.

A Fred Meyer spokeswoman says the company can't be expected to craft health coverage just for the sake of continuity.

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