New report on Rite Aid union busting will be released Aug. 10

[Omaha Steve]

http://unionreview.com/new-report-rite-aid-union-busting-will-be-released-aug.-10

Boston – Supporters of warehouse workers at Rite Aid's massive distribution center in Lancaster, California, will release a new report about how management has aggressively interfered in the workers' freedom to form a union.

The 12-page report: "Rite Aid, Oliver J. Bell & Associates, and the Case for the Employee Free Choice Act" documents how management employed union busters and violated labor laws so often that the National Labor Relations Board was prepared to charge Rite Aid with 49 unfair labor practice charges.

The group -- led by a coalition of Rite Aid workers' unions and Jobs with Justice -- chose Boston to release the report because Rite Aid managers are participating in a major pharmaceutical industry conference held there. The report will be released at 11:30 AM on August 10 at the Boston Convention Center (415 Summer Street, Boston).

Despite the company's attacks, a majority the of the workers voted to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 26 in March 2008. But more than a year later, the workers have not been able to negotiate a first contract.

Rite Aid's intense and longstanding interference in the workers efforts to form a union -- in which professional union busters have played a major role -- and its failure to bargain in good faith with employees are seen as prime examples of why efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act are so important.

"If Employee Free Choice were the law of the land, the workers at the Rite Aid distribution center would have settled their contract by now. Access to mediation and arbitration on first contracts would prevent companies like Rite Aid from dragging their feet in negotiations to frustrate workers and defeat efforts to improve working conditions," said Mark Govoni, Vice President of UFCW Local 1445 in Boston.

Activists who support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will leaflet five Rite Aid stores in the Boston metropolitan area to inform customers about the company's aggressive interference in workers' rights and the need for labor law reform.

Embargoed pre-release copies of the report may be obtained by calling Rand Wilson at 617 803-0799.

In more than 40 cities in 25 states, Jobs with Justice coalitions unite labor, religious, student and community organizations in campaigns to win justice in workplaces and in communities where working families live.