by James Parks, May 4, 2011
The 500 workers at Rite Aid’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., overcame a relentless five-year anti-worker campaign to eventually gain a tentative contract and union recognition.
The new three-year deal, reached May 1, guarantees fair health insurance rates, job security, a worker voice in production standards and wage increases in each of the next three years.
“We’re excited about winning this victory, even if it took longer than it should have,” said Carlos “Chico” Rubio, a 10-year warehouse worker.
The Rite-Aid employees decided to seek a voice through Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 26 more than five years ago. Rite Aid responded by hiring an expensive team of union-busting “consultants and threatening or even firing workers who supported the union, workers said.
But the Rite Aid workers stayed united and, in the end, won a contract and union recognition. “Rite Aid made this process much more difficult on workers and families than it needed to,” said ILWU Vice President Ray Familathe, who helped workers in the negotiations.
