October 2012
1 post
Get on the Bus for OBAMA!
There are just 19 days until Election Day and we need your help to make sure voters get to the polls and GET OUT THE VOTE for President Obama.
The RWDSU is organizing trips from New York to the Keystone State to knock on doors with the AFL-CIO and UFCW. We’ll be headed down on October 27th and November 3rd, leaving from NYC in the morning and returning that evening. Transportation and lunch...
July 2012
4 posts
1 tag
Workers Rally on Upcoming Day of Action July 24th
Low-wage workers, struggling to make ends meet in New York City, will rally together with community leaders and union organizers on July 24 for a “Day of Action.”
Labor heavyweights, including 32BJ Service Employees International Union and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), have embarked on aggressive efforts to organize workers at car washes, supermarkets and area...
Support the Con Ed workers in New York!
Today the New York State AFL-CIO is spreading the word that Kevin Burke, CEO of Con Edison, is locking out workers, cutting off healthcare for workers families and putting the public at risk during a heatwave with unskilled replacement workers. Sign the petition to support these workers: http://nysaflcio.org/conedlockout/
Workers Beset By Wage Theft, Advocates Say →
With companies trying to boost profits in a slow economy, and budget-cuts at state and local government agencies that are supposed to enforce labor laws, wage theft has become a big problem for many low-wage workers. Wage theft can take many forms, including stolen tips, illegally low pay, or failure to pay overtime. An article in Quad Cities Online examines the cost of wage theft, and...
Workplace Policies Can Help Working Mothers ‘Have... →
Our guest blogger is Kimberly Ortiz, an organizer for the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union and a member of the Retail Action Project.
Two years ago, I sat in the ER with my two-year-old Aiden, who had a double ear infection. Though I’d been working as a manager at the Statue of Liberty gift shop for five years, we didn’t have health insurance, I only made $9.25 an hour, and I didn’t...
June 2012
37 posts
New York Daily News: City Council votes to... →
The Council voted 46-5 for the measure, which would boost pay to $11.50 an hour, or $10 with benefits, for workers at companies that receive $1 million or more in city subsidies.
The City Council voted to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of the city living wage bill Thursday - setting up a legal battle.
The Council voted 46-5 for the measure, which would boost pay to $11.50 an hour, or $10 with...
New York Post: Mike Wage Veto Nixed →
The City Council last night overrode Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of a “living-wage bill” that mandates private companies taking taxpayer subsidies to increase workers’ salaries.
The legislation requires companies collecting at least $1 million in discretionary city subsidies to pay their workers $10 an hour plus benefits, or $11.50 without.
Bloomberg intends to sue.
“This is an important moment...
Associated Press: City Council overrides... →
NEW YORK — The New York City Council voted Thursday to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of a living wage bill.
The Council approved the override on Thursday by a 46-5 vote.
The controversial legislation requires direct recipients of at least $1 million in city subsidies to pay their workers at least $10 an hour plus benefits, or $11.50 without benefits.
Bloomberg has said...
Labor Notes: In Alabama Poultry Workers Victory, A... →
A racially mixed workforce in an Alabama poultry plant defeated management’s attempts to exploit their diversity, turning aside the divide-and-conquer tactics and voting in the union.
Scoring the largest union victory in the right-to-work state of Alabama in a decade, 1,200 Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant workers voted union overwhelmingly June 12 in the small town of Russellville.
The workers,...
5 tags
Statement from RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum on...
Below is the statement, as prepared for delivery, that Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW, will make at the living wage veto override press conference at City Hall at 11 a.m.
***
Good morning. I’m Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW.
It’s great to be here, with so many...
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Living Wage Bill is still living, thanks to City... →
On Thursday, while the City Council votes to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act (better known as the Living Wage Bill), dozens of New Yorkers will gather in front of City Hall to show their support for the Council’s action.
“We do have the votes to override the mayor’s veto, but it is pretty sad that we even have to do this,” said Kimberly Ortiz, a former...
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Reclaiming Our Working Class Family Values →
Many in this country have forgotten their working class roots. Read this important piece from Daily Kos on ways we as working people can help to reverse this trend and come together under one banner:
As we move further into the twenty-first century, I have come to the realization that many of us have forgotten where we came from. I would wager many who are doctors, lawyers, elected officials...
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Big Wins for LGBT Workers in New Bloomingdale's... →
A new union contract offers cutting-edge benefits including paternity leave and strong anti-discrimination language. But the vast majority of LGBT retail workers still lack basic protections.
More often than not, it’s a dirty look or some unspoken signal that a customer would rather deal with another salesperson. Every now and then, things turn outright hostile, as happened recently for Desmond...
Des Moines Register: Winners of $241 million... →
The winners of a $241 million Powerball jackpot, the largest ever won by an Iowa Lottery player, gleefully arrived in Des Moines today to claim their prize.
A bus carrying about 50 people from Cedar Rapids pulled up to Iowa Lottery headquarters on Grand Avenue shortly before noon. The group included 20 workers from the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids who jointly purchased the winning ticket...
KGAN CBS 2 :: Top Stories - Union of Lotto Winners... →
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KGAN) — 20 unionized workers at the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids won the $241 Million Powerball jackpot, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW, announced today.
The group is known as the shipping 20, because they all have spent years working together in the shipping department of the plant. The group’s members are withholding their names...
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Associated Press: Iowa Quaker Oats workers claim... →
DES MOINES, Iowa — A group of 20 workers at a Quaker Oats plant in Iowa stepped forward Wednesday to claim a $241 million Powerball jackpot.
Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the agency verified the winning ticket, which was sold June 13.
One of the workers bought the winning ticket for the group and the winnings will be split 20 ways, said Dan Morris, a spokesman for the Retail Wholesale...
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20 Members of RWDSU Local 110 Win $241 Million...
Dream Comes True for Unionized Workers at Quaker Oats Plant
Des Moines, Iowa—Twenty unionized workers at the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids won the $241 Million Powerball jackpot, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), UFCW, announced today. Known as the shipping 20, because they all have spent years working together in the shipping department of the plant, they are proud...
Workers Win at Americold in Illinois
RWDSU Local 578 has 123 new members after the workers at Americold chose to join the union overwhelmingly, and the company agreed to a card check recognition. The workers are employed at two Americold cold storage facilities in Rochelle, Illinois. Workers have complained of a taxing and confusing scheduling system with five different shifts, poor wages, and lack of health insurance benefits and...
Congressman Thompson Tours RWDSU Tyson Plant in...
Last Thursday, Bennie Thompson (above center), U.S. Rep. for Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional district, toured the Tyson poultry plant in Carthage, Mississippi, meeting with RWDSU members at the plant.
Congressman discussed plant issues such as energy sharing with workers and company officials, and visited production areas in the plant.
The workers at the plant are represented by the...
4 tags
Sunday: Join us at the Silent March Against Racial... →
End Racial Profiling! Join us with 60+ LGBT organizations at the Silent March Against Racial Profiling this Sunday. Click here to watch the video calls to action to find out why YOU should join us.
RWDSU achieves biggest Alabama labor victory in a... →
It’s being seen as a huge victory for organizing in Alabama. Nearly 1200 workers at a Russellville, Alabama Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant will soon be represented by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. 706 of the workers voted in favor of union representation making it the largest union victory in that state in more than a decade. The company has said it will begin recognizing the...
Times Daily (Alabama): Pilgrim’s Pride hourly... →
Twelve hundred hourly workers at Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Russellville will soon have union representation after a vote earlier this month.
Workers voted 706 to 292 in favor of joining Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. The vote took place June 7 and 8 in a secret ballot election.
Randy Hadley, mid-South council organizer for the union’s region who is based in Athens, said...
GLAAD: LGBT, Civil Rights and Labor Movement... →
LGBT, Civil Rights and Labor Movement Leaders Speak Up Against “Stop and Frisk”
GLAAD released videos of LGBT leaders, civil rights leaders, and labor leaders discussing the negative impact of the stop and frisk policy in order to mobilize these movements for a Father’s Day march that will advance a shared agenda of equality and justice. Watch all the speakers from the Press...
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Video: LGBT Groups Condemn Stop and Frisk at...
On June 5, 2012, at the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, where a backlash against police harassment in June 1969 launched the modern LGBT rights movement, local, state and national LGBT organizations, convened by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, joined civil rights, labor, and elected leaders to announce support for the campaign against the NYPD’s stop and...
WTVM: Alabama poultry plant workers vote for union →
RUSSELLVILLE, Ala. (AP) - A leader of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union says it has succeeded with a large organizing campaign in Alabama.
President Stuart Appelbaum said workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Russellville voted 706 to 292 to join the union. Pilgrim’s Pride is the largest chicken producer in the United States.
Union leaders said the...
People's World: Workers win biggest union election... →
RUSSELVILLE, Ala. - In the biggest union election in Alabama in ten years more than 1,200 workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant here voted last week by a better than two-to-one margin to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Poultry production is one of the state’s largest industries.
“We had no respect from management and absolutely no voice in...
UFCW Blog: Alabama Pilgirm's Pride Workers Vote to... →
In a big step for working families, workers at the Russellville, Alabama Pilgrim’s Pride plant have voted to unionize. The vote, which took place early this month, was 706 in favor and 292 against joining RWDSU. The landslide win says it all- workers need a voice in the workplace.
JBS, which owns Pilgrim’s Pride, is the largest producer of chicken, which is one of the state’s...
Viewing Wisconsin’s Battle From A Labor... →
Barely a month goes by when Stuart Appelbaum isn’t quoted in one of New York’s daily or weekly newspapers. But it’s a small wonder when one considers how many hats the 59-year-old Appelbaum wears.
Known by most as a labor leader, Appelbaum is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and a vice president of both the New York State AFL-CIO and the New York City Central...
AFL-CIO Blog: Alabama Poultry Workers Buck... →
In one of the largest union elections in Alabama in the past decade, workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Russellville voted last week by a better than two-to-one margin to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
The main reason the 1,200 workers sought a union voice was to be able to exercise more control over their work lives, said workers and union leaders....
Workers Win RWDSU Representation for 1,200 at...
At the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Russellville, Alabama, 1,200 workers have won RWDSU Mid-South Council representation. The vote was 706 to 292 in favor of joining the RWDSU. JBS, Pilgrim’s Pride’s owner, is the country’s largest chicken producer in the United States.
The election, held June 7 and 8, marks one of the largest successful union organizing campaigns in Alabama in...
Huffington Post: LGBT And Civil Rights Groups Band... →
On Tuesday, more than a dozen progressive groups, ranging from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to Empire State Pride Agenda, gathered at a bar where the modern gay-rights movement began more than four decades ago. In what appeared to be the strongest showing yet of solidarity between black and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders, the groups arrived at...
Why We Need Unions →
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker made his name with a coldblooded campaign to destroy public sector unions. Pro-union Wisconsinites tried to recall Walker; they failed. This has led to some gloating and speculation from the usual suspects (Rich Lowry, nice blazer, hair boy) that the death knell has formally sounded for unions in America.
Let’s hope not.
Unions are much more than a...
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The Stonewall Stop and Frisk Summit - Or, Al... →
An historic coalition of traditional race-oriented civil rights organizations, labor unions, and LGBT groups met yesterday at the Stonewall Inn to endorse the upcoming SIlent March to End Stop and Frisk on Father’s Day, June 17. The “press conference” featured an impressive roster of speakers — including the Rev. Al Sharpton, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and NAACP...
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At Historic Stonewall Inn, LGBT Groups Condemn...
For Immediate Release: June 6, 2012
At Historic Stonewall Inn, LGBT Groups Condemn Stop and Frisk, Unveil National Coalition to Fight Racial Profiling, Police Harassment More than 50 LGBT Organizations Will March on Father’s Day in Silence to Oppose the Stop and Frisk Policy in New York City
New York, NY—Last night, at the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, where a backlash against...
Gay City News: LGBT Leaders Lend Their Voices on... →
“Today, we are going from dating on occasion to a marriage.”
Displaying his trademark skill at artful turns of phrase, the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke to the dramatic significance of a June 5 press conference at the Stonewall Inn that brought together leaders of dozens of local and national LGBT groups and the organizers of a June 17 Manhattan march to protest the NYPD’s stop and frisk policies...
CBS New York: Gay Rights Groups To Join NYC Stop... →
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Gay rights groups are speaking out in support of a silent march being held later this month in protest of the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy.
Representatives from groups including the Empire State Pride Agenda and Human Rights Campaign joined Rev. Al Sharpton, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Benjamin Todd Jealous and union...
NY1: LGBT Activists Join Chorus Against NYPD...
Members of several leading gay rights organizations called for an end to the New York City Police Department’s stop and frisk policy on Tuesday.
Gay rights activists joined civil rights leaders and union representatives at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village to speak out against the controversial policy.
Many of the speakers drew parallels between the gay rights movement and what they...
The Associated Press: Gay rights groups to join... →
NEW YORK (AP) — Gay rights groups are speaking out in support of a silent march being held later this month to protest the New York Police Department’s street stop policy.
Representatives from groups including Empire State Pride Agenda and Human Rights Campaign joined the Rev. Al Sharpton and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Benjamin Todd Jealous at an...
Gay Inc Takes On Stop and Frisk, the NAACP Goes to... →
Today will see one of the most significant signs of a new alliance between traditional race-based civil rights groups and the current wave of LGBT oriented civil rights groups yet. At 4:00 PM, a cadre of gay organizations (including Lambda Legal, HRC, GLAAD, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, ESPA and GMHC) will be present at the Stonewall Inn, joined by Al Sharpton and the NAACP (marking...
Top LGBT Organizations Join Campaign Against Stop...
***Media Advisory***
LGBT Organizations Join Campaign Against Stop and Frisk National Coalition Fights Racial Profiling, Police Harassment LGBT Leaders Join Civil Rights Leaders, Labor Leaders at Historic Stonewall Inn
Tuesday, June 5, Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher Street, 4 p.m., NYC
WHAT: At the Stonewall Inn, where a backlash against police harassment in June 1969 launched the LGBT rights...
Gay Rights Groups to Join Others in Condemning... →
National gay rights advocates plan to join other civil rights leaders on Tuesday in calling on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to end the Police Department’s current stop-and-frisk policy, which they argue constitutes harassment of young black and Latino men. … Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who played a role in persuading gay rights groups...
New York Daily News: As Promised, Bloomberg Vetos... →
BY Celeste Katz
As vowed, Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the controversial “living wage” bill, slamming it as a measure that will cripple local businesses.
Our Reuven Blau reports:
“Passage of this bill will threaten some of the city’s most innovative and important economic development projects-the types that have stabilized and revitalized neighborhoods in all five boroughs,” said...
May 2012
31 posts
Bloomberg Subverts Peoples’ Will, Vetoes Landmark... →
Supporters Condemn Billionaire Mayor, Urge Council to Override Veto and Implement Law
New York, NY—Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act today brings into sharp focus his legacy as the billionaire Mayor who enriched his class of friends at the expense of the hardworking taxpayers of New York City.
The Living Wage NYC Coalition urges the City Council to override...
RWDSU Slams Living Wage Veto
Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU,UFCW), made the following statement in response to Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act:
“This veto is a slap in the face to the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who support the living wage legislation. Across the city, New Yorkers have built a movement for fairness and...
Walmart Free NYC: Today: Pressure on Walmart Board... →
walmartfreenyc:
Walmart associates, including employee-shareholders, and community activists have been confronting members of the Walmart board of directors in protests in the past several weeks, with escalating protests happening this week in the days leading up to the Walmart shareholders meeting Friday….
Tell CEO Ron Johnson to stop elimination of... →
Take a moment to sign the Retail Action Project’s petition against the elimination of commissions at JCP. Spread the word!
New York Amsterdam News: Walmart’s ‘bad neighbor’... →
Walmart continues to try to claw its way into the New York City marketplace, but in 2012, its efforts to penetrate other markets have been creating the headlines.
The New York Times has reported that Walmart paid bribes worth a staggering $24 million to win the permits it needed to expand quickly in Mexico, then shut down an internal investigation in an attempt to cover it up.
And an ongoing...
Politicker: Car Wash Politics →
washnewyork:
Organizers have been ramping up their efforts to change the way car washes treat their workers in New York City, and judging from recent events, it seems that they’ve generated a bit of momentum. For example, earlier today, the New York Daily News reported a new federal lawsuit placed against a car wash business, and advocates involved in the effort told The Politicker they feel...
NY Daily News: Bronx car wash workers file... →
washnewyork:
The New York Daily News reported last week on workers at the Xcellent Car Wash in the Bronx who are suing their employer for unpaid wages and overtime, and on the ongoing efforts of the WASH New York to reform the car wash industry in New York City. Read the full story.
Local 184-L Steward Training in Kansas City... →
Local 184-L of Kansas City, Kansas held a Union Enhancement and Stewards Training, meant hone stewards’ skills so they can better serve members in the workplace. The class was taught by long time Labor Educator Judy Ancil of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. RWDSU Local 184-L members work at Kellogg’s in Kansas City.
