To: Carlos Smith, President & CEO, El Super and José Antonio, Chedraui Eguía, Grupo Comercial Chedraui CEO
A Fair Contract With El Super Would Enable Us To Share the Holiday Season Joy With Our Families
One year after El Super workers reaffirmed their desire to have a fair union contract; it is shameful that management has refused to negotiate in good faith. I'm pledging my support for El Super employees who have been fighting for RESPECT and a FAIR CONTRACT for more than two years.
I pledge to continue to boycott all El Super markets until their workers receive a family-supporting wage, affordable health care, more guaranteed hours for full-time workers and the other protections provided by a union contract.
Why is this important?
When El Super tried to break our union one year ago today, we wouldn’t let them.
In 2014, El Super managers encouraged us to decertify our union. But we were united, and on December 12, 2014, we voted by an overwhelming majority to keep our union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and fight for respect, family-sustaining wages and a dignified workplace.
“A union contract is much more than a legal document to me, my family and my coworkers,” says Flora Castaneda, an El Super cashier who has worked for the company for 12 years. “It means that this holiday season I’m able to make dinner for my family and buy some little presents for my kids.”
Castaneda adds that a fair contract would also mean “we are able to go to the doctor when we are sick, save for our children to go to college, have enough money at the end of the month to afford food and rent, and have more protection from the company’s retaliation against union supporters.”
On the one-year anniversary of our recertification of the UFCW as our voice at work, we are still without a contract from El Super. We are asking you to join our demand for this company to end its shameful attacks on workers’ rights and to negotiate in good faith.
The U.S. government has issued complaints, finding merit to numerous charges against the company for violating our federally protected rights. It even sought and obtained from the Federal Court a rare injunction, ordering El Super to rehire an unfairly fired union activist. In the face of these actions the Company committed to the NLRB and the Court that it would return to negotiations-after refusing to do so for more than a year.
Last December, we launched a boycott that has turned away over 160,000 customers to send a message that the community stands with us. We will continue to keep that pressure on and we thank you for your support.
Despite the unity shown by the workers and the community, the company continues to refuse to bargain in good faith and to fulfill its obligations to its employees. All we want is what is right – an agreement with fair working conditions. That’s why we need your support now.
El Super’s low-road behavior hurts us all. It drives down standards in our industry and in our communities. Please tell El Super to stop stonewalling and negotiate a fair contract.
Together, we can win!