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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2002
Don't shop at Fred's!
Memphis, Tenn.--We workers and supporters were out there on
Nov. 16 to get Fred's Warehouse to the negotiating table, six months after we
voted to unionize with UNITE. The Ecumenical Task Force is calling for an
"economic withdrawal": Don't shop at Fred's until Fred's negotiates a
contract! We will continue to boycott these stores until they give us a
contract. They're continuing to fire people for no reason at all.
Some of the 17 people fired came today. One young woman kept asking why they
changed her job, so they sent her to door 20, the exit door when they want to
get rid of you. They constantly watch us, which is unfair treatment. We're just
trying to get respect and better treatment. Fred's put in the paper that boss Mike Hayes is willing to
negotiate, but he's not. He wants everyone to think he's protecting our rights,
giving us respect. He's not doing it. In the last couple of months, no one can take vacation
days. One worker had asked for a vacation day for a death in the family but had
to take that day with no pay. Another worker who was off for a death in the
family was told they could take one day, but would still be marked absent.
What's the use of having a day if you still get hassled? The warehouse is like a petting zoo. We have bats flying
around. There are cats, mice, birds. Until OSHA got a complaint, food was stored
on the floor. They break OSHA and labor laws. We're trying to make it a safer
and healthier workplace. This week a girl's ankle was crushed in an accident.
There weren't any brakes on the forklift. Lifts have been fixed for brakes and a
couple days later the brakes are gone again. They only fix what breaks, they
don't give the lifts a complete check. It endangers our lives. They want to blame you when there's an accident. Then they
want to send you for a drug test, try to get you fired for something they should
have been on top of. The whole floor needs repairing. It has holes that make a
forklift jump when it hits them. I want more money, don't get me wrong--but it's a whole lot
of things being done in the wrong way that we're trying to stop. If it takes
being here every day, if we have to do shifts or whatever, we will, but we're
not going to give up. --Black women warehouse workers |
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