Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

united food and commercial workers

By staff

Denver, CO – On January 3, King Soopers workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 (UFCW) in Denver and Colorado Springs approved an Unfair Labor Practices strike by a 97% margin. On January 7, the union announced that workers would walk off the job and onto the picket line starting next Wednesday, January 12.

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By staff

Denver, CO – On January 3, King Soopers workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Worker’s Local 7 (UFCW) in Denver and Colorado Springs approved an Unfair Labor Practices strike. Workers across 87 King Soopers locations approved the motion by a 97% margin.

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By Cassia Laham

Black Friday protest at Walmart.

North Miami Beach, FL – Around 45 people stood outside of the Walmart here with signs and banners on Black Friday to protest the company's unfair treatment of its workers. OUR Walmart and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) organized this event as part of a nation-wide call to action against the egregious working conditions faced by Walmart employees.

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By staff

Inglewood, CA – Twenty thousand people demonstrated here, Jan. 31 in a powerful display of solidarity with the striking, locked-out United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) grocery workers. Trade unionists – including strikers and their families, longshoremen, public workers and Teamsters – along with community supporters marched on Safeway-owned Vons market.

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By George Iechika McKinney

More than 75,000 grocery workers on strike in southern California are on the front lines of a battle to defend health care and job security. The United Food and Commercial Workers have been on strike or locked out by their employers since Oct. 12, 2003.

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By Angela Denio

Tar Heel, N.C. – After over a decade of struggle the workers of the Smithfield Packing Plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina voted Dec. 11 to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). In a vote of 2041 to 1879 the workers put an end to the 14 years they have waited for union representation in the workplace. Ronnie Ann Simmons, a veteran of 13 years at the plant said of the vote, “We are thrilled. This moment has been a long time coming. We stuck together, and now we have a say on the job.”

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By Kati Ketz

Williamsburg, VA – 150 Smithfield workers were joined by 1000 supporters here, Aug. 29 – in what was the largest demonstration in this city’s history – to demand justice for factory workers at Smithfield’s Tar Heel, North Carolina plant. Demonstrators met at a church to rally and hear both clergy and workers testify against Smithfield executives, then took to the streets with signs saying, “Worker’s rights are human rights,” and chanting, “Down with Smithfield, up with justice!”

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By Kosta Harlan

Workers on meatpacking line.

Asheville, NC – “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” Over 40 students with the Justice at Smithfield campaign began their countrywide tour here with a spirited picket of a local Ingles supermarket. Ingles stocks Smithfield products from the notorious Smithfield hog processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina. The Justice at Smithfield campaign will visit several major cities in the United States in a tour to raise awareness and build solidarity between trade unions, community organizers, student activists, and the Smithfield Tar Heel plant workers.

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