|
|
Rite Aid........
Reprinted from Labor Notes
Jenny Brown | December 16, 2010
The drug store chain Rite Aid is in financial straits and has escalated its assaults on unionized employees.
The drugstore chain Rite Aid is in financial straits and has escalated its assaults on unionized employees. In response, workers from California to New York raised the volume of their protest, with at least 40 actions in front of stores December 15. The unions that represent Rite Aid workers are working together more closely than they ever have, organizers say.
Rite Aid warehouse workers in Lancaster, California, fought a fierce two-year battle to gain union representation in 2008. After another year and a half, they’re still bargaining a first contract, and Rite Aid wants to increase their health insurance costs nearly $45 a month, despite only a 1.5 percent increase in health costs to the company.
Four hundred union members will be laid off January 1 when Rite Aid moves their work from the Rome, New York, distribution center to a non-union facility near Syracuse. “I am sick of Rite Aid saying it is our fault this place is closing,” said Tim Hogan, president of Teamsters Local 182.
In Ohio, Rite Aid imposed a concessionary contract on retail workers, drastically increasing health care costs and causing talk of a strike.
The company is hardly alone in demanding big increases in health insurance costs to employees. The Economic Policy Institute reports that family health insurance premiums nationwide more than doubled between 1999 and 2009, racing way ahead of both inflation and growth in workers’ earnings. Premiums rose by 131 percent over the past 10 years, while hourly earnings for non-supervisory workers increased by 38 percent.
Jenny Brown | December 16, 2010
The drug store chain Rite Aid is in financial straits and has escalated its assaults on unionized employees.
The drugstore chain Rite Aid is in financial straits and has escalated its assaults on unionized employees. In response, workers from California to New York raised the volume of their protest, with at least 40 actions in front of stores December 15. The unions that represent Rite Aid workers are working together more closely than they ever have, organizers say.
Rite Aid warehouse workers in Lancaster, California, fought a fierce two-year battle to gain union representation in 2008. After another year and a half, they’re still bargaining a first contract, and Rite Aid wants to increase their health insurance costs nearly $45 a month, despite only a 1.5 percent increase in health costs to the company.
Four hundred union members will be laid off January 1 when Rite Aid moves their work from the Rome, New York, distribution center to a non-union facility near Syracuse. “I am sick of Rite Aid saying it is our fault this place is closing,” said Tim Hogan, president of Teamsters Local 182.
In Ohio, Rite Aid imposed a concessionary contract on retail workers, drastically increasing health care costs and causing talk of a strike.
The company is hardly alone in demanding big increases in health insurance costs to employees. The Economic Policy Institute reports that family health insurance premiums nationwide more than doubled between 1999 and 2009, racing way ahead of both inflation and growth in workers’ earnings. Premiums rose by 131 percent over the past 10 years, while hourly earnings for non-supervisory workers increased by 38 percent.
In response, workers from California to
Cleveland (shown here) protested at 40
stores on December 15. Photo: Debbie
Kline/Cleveland JWJ.
HEY Rite Aid.....
Do the right thing— Stop making your employees pay for management’s mistakes! Drop your proposal to radically increase health care cost to your employees!
Do the right thing— Stop making your employees pay for management’s mistakes! Drop your proposal to radically increase health care cost to your employees!
Boycott Rite Aid and a Call to Action!!
We're urging Rite Aid to do more when it comes to providing good jobs and benefits that working families need. Instead of helping employees, Rite Aid executives like CEO John Standley have been doubling their own compensation. This just isn't right! We're especially concerned about Rite Aid's plan to greatly increase the cost of health insurance for employees. This could mean many workers will not be able to afford health insurance. Rite Aid workers in Ohio have said that they may be forced to strike as a result of Rite Aid's cost-shifting strategy.
We are asking you to show your solidarity to the Striking Grandmas of Rite Aid by moving your prescription from Rite Aid to:
We're urging Rite Aid to do more when it comes to providing good jobs and benefits that working families need. Instead of helping employees, Rite Aid executives like CEO John Standley have been doubling their own compensation. This just isn't right! We're especially concerned about Rite Aid's plan to greatly increase the cost of health insurance for employees. This could mean many workers will not be able to afford health insurance. Rite Aid workers in Ohio have said that they may be forced to strike as a result of Rite Aid's cost-shifting strategy.
We are asking you to show your solidarity to the Striking Grandmas of Rite Aid by moving your prescription from Rite Aid to:
Ohio State Senator Michael Skindell - 23rd
District; Ohio State Representative Mike
Foley - 14th District and Cleveland City
Councilwoman Dona Brady - 17th Ward
deliver the letter to management at the
Rite Aid on W. 117th Street in Cleveland.
They also spent time with the informational
picketers outside the store.
Home ~About Us ~Connect with us ~ Donate NOW! ~ Sign-up to Take Action
Take Action ~ Meet our Leaders ~ Calendar ~ 2011 Actions ~ 2010 Actions ~ 2009 Actions
~ Rite Aid ~ SB5 ~ Trade ~ Verizon ~ Workers' Rights ~ BOYCOTT!! ~ Buy Union
Cleveland Jobs with Justice, 20525 Center Ridge Road, Suite 700
Cleveland, Ohio 44116 ~ 440-333-7007 Fax: 440-333-1491
debbie@clevelandjwj.org ~ copyright (c) 2008 - 2011
All photos copyrighted by Debbie Kline 2007-2011 (c)
Take Action ~ Meet our Leaders ~ Calendar ~ 2011 Actions ~ 2010 Actions ~ 2009 Actions
~ Rite Aid ~ SB5 ~ Trade ~ Verizon ~ Workers' Rights ~ BOYCOTT!! ~ Buy Union
Cleveland Jobs with Justice, 20525 Center Ridge Road, Suite 700
Cleveland, Ohio 44116 ~ 440-333-7007 Fax: 440-333-1491
debbie@clevelandjwj.org ~ copyright (c) 2008 - 2011
All photos copyrighted by Debbie Kline 2007-2011 (c)
Video by Jeff Kirky - Voices of Cleveland
a proud member of......
UNDER WATER
Everyone agrees Rite Aid is in financial trouble, due to what the AFL-CIO’s Rand Wilson called “a string of disastrous management decisions that left the company under water.” The Pennsylvania-based company went deep into debt when it bought competing Eckerds and Brooks chains in 2006. It now owns about 4,800 stores.
It’s trying to get out of its financial hole by extracting more from workers, about 30 percent of whom are unionized. The two biggest U.S. drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, are non-union.
Workers point out that management seems to be sucking all it can from the company. CEO John Standely just got a raise, to $4.5 million.
The West Coast Longshore Workers (ILWU), Food and Commercial Workers, AFL-CIO, Jobs with Justice, and United Students Against Sweatshops turned out for the December 15 protests, which hit stores in 11 states.
Wilson had some advice for the chain: “Management should get on the ball and stop wasting time and resources, spending money on lawyers to spend two years bargaining contracts, and pissing off their employees.”
Everyone agrees Rite Aid is in financial trouble, due to what the AFL-CIO’s Rand Wilson called “a string of disastrous management decisions that left the company under water.” The Pennsylvania-based company went deep into debt when it bought competing Eckerds and Brooks chains in 2006. It now owns about 4,800 stores.
It’s trying to get out of its financial hole by extracting more from workers, about 30 percent of whom are unionized. The two biggest U.S. drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, are non-union.
Workers point out that management seems to be sucking all it can from the company. CEO John Standely just got a raise, to $4.5 million.
The West Coast Longshore Workers (ILWU), Food and Commercial Workers, AFL-CIO, Jobs with Justice, and United Students Against Sweatshops turned out for the December 15 protests, which hit stores in 11 states.
Wilson had some advice for the chain: “Management should get on the ball and stop wasting time and resources, spending money on lawyers to spend two years bargaining contracts, and pissing off their employees.”
Check out the Rite Aid
Workers website!
• Giant Eagle
• CVS or
• Dave's
• CVS or
• Dave's
It is so easy to do!! Just take all of your current Rite Aid prescription
bottles to one of the three other union pharmacies at Giant Eagle, CVS
or Dave's. Tell the pharmacist or pharmacy technician you want to
transfer your prescriptions to their store and they will do the rest!
Cleveland Jobs with Justice
Search our Website!
Be a part of the action! Join the
Cleveland Jobs with Justice
activist list!
Show your solidarity by
becoming an individual member
of Cleveland Jobs with Justice!
a proud member of......
Make a one time donation now!