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Workers at Eastland Food Products Inc voted overwhelmingly to unionize with UFCW Local 328. The vote Thursday was 74-37 in favor of the union. Last week there was a rally held outside the company, located in Cranston, to support the workers and protect them from anti-union intimidation.
There are employees at Eastland who have worked there for twenty years, and they’re still making minimum wage. Workers claim to have never been paid time and a half to work on Sundays. There are allegations of sexual harassment, wage theft, and 60 to 80 hour work weeks. No one working there has ever had a vacation or paid sick days.
With the power of a union, these workers will now be able to bargain for better pay, better working a conditions, and the right to be treated as people, not commodities.
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I had never heard of Eastland Food Products Inc before hearing about the efforts of workers there to unionize. The company cleans, cuts and packages fruits and vegetables for supermarkets up and down the coast. Think of the half a butternut squash you might see at your supermarket, wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam tray. That’s likely come from Eastland Foods, 69 Fletcher Ave, in Cranston.
There are employees at Eastland who have worked there for twenty years, and they’re still making minimum wage. Workers claim to have never been paid time and a half to work on Sundays. There are allegations of sexual harassment, wage theft, and 60 to 80 hour work weeks. No one working there has ever had a vacation or paid sick days.
It’s the kind of situation we don’t imagine happening in Rhode Island. It’s the kind of company we picture operating in a right-to work state down south, where workers are not treated fairly or humanely.
But it’s happening right here in Rhode Island.
An overwhelming majority of workers have already signed authorization cards expressing their desire to form their union and now have an upcoming union election with UFCW Local 328. In response, the owners of Eastland began mandating that employees attend anti-union workshops ahead of a unionization vote this coming Thursday. The owners seem to like the status quo, and don’t want a union to mess with their ability to treat their workers as disposable commodities.
As a consequence, workers today picketed outside Eastland, supported by UFCW 328 and representatives from Prov CLC, IBEW 2323, IBEW 99, Prov Newspaper Guild, Teamsters 251, IATSE 481, RI ALC-CIO, RI Painters Union DC 11, and the American Friends Service Committee.
The owner of Eastland drove by in his white Cadillac Escalade as the picketers organized across the street. He and his office workers and family used their cellphones to take video and pictures of the brave employees who dared to call on their boss for fair treatment. When the protesters crossed the street and walked to the door of the offices to deliver a letter outlining their grievances, the owner locked the door and called the police.
The worker committee of Eastland Foods read the undelivered letter on behalf of the workers stating, “After many years of working very hard for this company, we have been neglected and we have been treated with very little respect. We know that for the work that we do, we deserve better. We feel that it is unfair that we only earn minimum wage and we have no vacations, paid sick days, or paid holidays.” They continued, “In less than a week, we will cast our votes in favor of forming our union and we look forward to finally addressing the major problems that we have struggled with here for so many years.” They ended the letter by respectfully demanding that management “put an end to the intimidation and scare tactics” and to accept their decision to form their union.
The owner kept the door locked even when State Representative David Bennett knocked and asked to speak with him.
The police arrived and after consulting with the owner, asked the protesters to move to the sidewalk. In all the protest lasted about half an hour.
When I called Eastland to ask about the workers and the protest they hung up on me. According to this website, Eastland was established in 1986 as a “fruit and vegetable broker.” It has estimated revenues of between $100 and $500 million dollars and employs about 75 people.
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As negotiations between Stop and Shop workers and the company owners drag on, members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 328 rallied in the parking lot of the Branch Avenue location to send a strong message to management that they are demanding a fair deal. Standing in solidarity with the Stop and Shop workers were members and leaders from over a dozen Rhode Island unions and other supporters, over 200 people in all.
Stop and Shop earns billions. Speakers accused the company of not negotiating in good faith and there were warnings about the purchasing power of all the union members, supporters and their extended families. Workers have been without a contract since February.
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Employees of Price Rite, a regional grocery store chain, took to the streets in front of the Providence store on Friday to, in their words, “Change Price Rite for the Better.”
That was the name given to the protest held outside the Valley Street grocery store on Friday that brought national AFL-CIO Secretary Elizabeth Shuler to the Ocean State.
The effort was “part of regional and national efforts to highlight the need for retail companies, like Price Rite, to pay the hard-working men and women better wages, provide better benefits, offer consistent scheduling, and respect on the job,” according to a press release from the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) Local 328 and Rhode Island Jobs for Justice.
There are six Price Rite stores in Rhode Island, according to the company website – in Providence, Pawtucket, Cranston, Warwick, Johnston and Woonsocket, and 60 between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Each Price Rite “employs anywhere from 75 to 150 associates,” according to its website.
“Price Rite not only hurts employees, families and their communities, but its low wage model hurts everybody in the retail industry,” said UFCW Local 328 President Tim Melia. He was one 75 employees and labor activists marching, holding signs and calling for better benefits and wages on Friday afternoon.
Said Mike Araujo, new executive director of Rhode Island Jobs With Justice: “The unity of RI’s labor movement is a real force, the lines of gender, race, and class are no match for a committed and militant labor movement, the workers at Price Rite have a natural right to dignity, respect, and justice, this show of solidarity says to the bosses: We will fight, and we will win.“
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